Consumer behavior and segmentation

So, here are my book reflections. I was supposed to take just one book, but at first I couldn´t find any of the subject in our school library and finally I was going home with seven books, of course. My job was to find out and read about consumer behavior and segmentation. I also tried to link it in to local food and find out about costumer behavior in restaurants, hotels and supermarkets. Here are the reflections of what I have read about and thought that would have help in this project.

Pulkkinen, Sirpa. 2003. Mielipaikka markkinoilla. WSOY

I learnt about segmentation and consumer behavior. Segmentation is a marketing strategy where markets are divided in smaller sections to satisfy consumer´s needs. The segments are formed by consumer´s behavior, values, needs and wishes. Segmentation main criteria´s are geographical, demographical, psycho- graphical and behavioral factors. Today those factors are sometimes not that accurate anymore to define because there are no stable or precise roles – you may change the role depending on the situation and desire even several times in a day.

In segmentation it is hard to function “all for everyone” –concept, though markets are so little here in Finland and people´s needs are different. The best way is to discover “a new thing” like local food, before anyone else does and you will make a hit. Consumers can be also segment to create a rewarding system – regular customers and give those discounts, benefits and offers.

The conditions for segmentation are:

• stand out from each other, supply and demand for everyone!
• need to be consistent
• must have potential to reach out to consumers
• must be achievable
• must have value in the future

I believe that the consumers are on the way to become more demanding, aware of their needs and willing to experience tailored services and pay for quality. Consumers want better service and they want to know where the food is from. People are also more and more aware of climate change and they want to make a difference in their consumption. Companies should take advantage of this and respond to consumers demands. 

Ehrstedt, J. & Leppäkorpi, M. 2012. Laura Suvannon haastattelu. Syteen tai saveen? Luomuviljelijän arki EU-ajan Suomessa. Teoksessa Reilumman kaupan jäljillä, kirjoituksia reilusta kaupasta ja solidaarisesta vaihdosta. Helsinki. Into, 123-149.

I was interested in this book, because the interviewee was a local woman from Rymättylä producing local and organic food. In this interview the difference of organic and local food was pointed out and Suvanto was wondering about if “local hype” is just going to make a Finnish agriculture more effective and presentable, because the differences between organic food and produced local food are very often on display.

I´ve learned from this interview that the main point for organic food is to produce it without destroying the earth, and reduce greenhouse gas and it is good to be aware of the huge costs when the products are transferred here Finland from the other side of the world, same goes for the good side of the producing local food.

In addition of describing local food, important is not to forget about the support of local businesses. Long-term customer relationships and trust are the key words for the continuum of local food. New thing for me was that the big crucial factors control 80 % the retail sale in groceries and daily consumer goods in 2010. As an alternative for the destruction of our planet is to support eco-friendly livelihood as creating local food culture

-Assi

Parasta kausiruokaa by Skiöldebrand

So here is the first bookreflection. The first short part is a little repetition about what we're doing, mostly because this is the same version that my coach at school will be reading ;-)

Skiöldebrand, E. (2011). Puhdasta kausiruokaa. Karkkila: Forma Books AB

During spring 2013 I am taking part in a project called INNO58. It’s a project for students from Novia UAS, Turun ammattikorkeakoulu and Åbo Akademi. We have been divided into several groups and given clients, who we will do the project for. We will not get our precise project before a project week at Kunstenniemi but we got to know the keyword for our work; local food. I decided to read this book about pure and local food because the term “local food” wasn’t that familiar to me before.

In today’s world food is mass fractured for a low price. This is of course a good thing considering our wallets but frightening considering the fact that we actually know very little about effects of additives in our food.  In my opinion the interest towards food knowledge is growing all the time and therefore I think locally produced food has a great potential to make a growth in consumption. What we need is to get the consumers more known about the positive effects of local food trough well planned marketing.

Food and feelings go hand in hand and by choosing the right kind of food you can prevent getting tired too easily, diseases and weight issues.  A thoughtful consumer chooses local food because producing that kind of food needs both body and soul. That’s exactly what local food is – natural, without additives and pure. 

”Jos tankki on täynnä sokerivettä, sillä ei paljon kumia polteta”

The book included a lot of information about local food that could be used when marketing it. Local food has several positively affecting parts in it, considering one’s health.  By reading this book I got a good knowledge of locally produced food and therefore ideas about how it should be i.e. marketed. I thought these were very good ideas to think about when choosing what to eat:

1. Don’t buy vegetables or fruits flown in from countries far away abroad

2.  Change your eating habits with the seasons

3. Buy local food or why not even produce your own

4. Use the TMJ-system – Terve MaalaisJärki

Something new and useful I read in this book was about the BRIX-value, as I understood it’s used internationally when studying food. When the stalk of a plant is cut, it stops producing inorganic material that all organisms including mineral do. That’s when the BRIX-value declines. The BRIX-value tells us how much the vegetable includes fructose, amino acids, vitamins, proteins and fiber. When the BRIX-value is higher, the vegetable/fruit includes more nutrients, vitamins and they are more naturally produced.

”Jos syöt punaista lihaa korkeintaan kerran viikossa tai harvemmin, autat vähentämään hiilidioksidipäästöjä.”

I think the eco-trend is very IN at the moment. It’s trendy to buy organic food. Although I think the trend for organic food is quieting down – maybe here is the shot for the local food to get in?

Organic food and local food get very often mixed together. I also, thought they were pretty much the same thing but after reading a bit and talking to my fellow students, I got to know that they are not at all the same. Even though, also the author of this book uses these two terms often in almost the same meaning – as they would be quite the same. During our project we will try to get this difference understood. 

/Ann-Sofie

Working day 15.3.

Hello world!

On Friday the 15th of March we all met and spent together a workday at Turku University of Applied Sciences. We had a lot to go trough and I feel like we got a little bit further with our work. Even if we still don't know what our project actually is, we figured out what to do while waiting for further information. 

Our challenge for now is to get an wide understanding of our client so that when we actually do know what we're supposed to work on we have a lot of information to use. So that we will gain as much as possible information we need good resources and active background work. We agreed to use following sources: literature, local food providers and consumers. As for the literature, we decided to concentrate our reading to following topics; local food, business development, consumer behavior  customer relations, sales and marketing. We will also be researching our client as much as we possibly can; their market, customers, marketing etc. 

Our time is very limited and therefore we made an action plan for our work! All of our team mates will be writing posts about their reading and learning so you will hear from us soon again! ;-)

/Ann-Sofie

Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.

Tomorrow we're having our first working day, woop woop! We're excited to start figuring out what we will do for our client. What we know for now is that the keyword for our project is: local food.

We've also been searching for books to read and use as background for the work. We've got books about product design, business development, pure food etc. Tomorrow we will discuss the books and pick out the best ones. 

Horray!

/Ann-Sofie

'EY UP!

"Innovate or die" they said.
Well we don't feel like dying so let's get started!

On monday the 11th of March 12 devoted project managers met with the coaches. The task of the day was pretty much to recieve our clients and keywords for the projects. I still might keep our client as a secret but I'll let you know one thing - this is gonna be legendary!

Cheers!
Ann-Sofie, Lofo-Inno