Selling Australian Truffles - Australian Truffle Growers Association

Selling Australian Truffles
Marketing Issue prepared for
Australian Truffle Grower’s Association
August 2011 AGM
zBy: Simon McCall
“ Truffes or consequences”
- lessons from other industries
- don’t shoot the messenger
- don’t kid yourselves!
Important questions to address
z - why are you here?
z - what are your truffle growing expectations?
z - are they being met?
z - where will you (and the truffle industry) be in
5/7 years time?
Growing or selling?
z Why are you growing truffles?
z
- retirement/hobby
- to use land I own
z
- cool/trendy thing to do
z
- I like them!
z
- enjoy doing it
z
-OR……to make (serious) money
What are you selling?
z
- Australian truffles
z
…or Tasmanian, Western Australian, Victorian, NSW
or…truffles
z
- specific species (black,black perigord, French,black
diamond,etc.)
z
- locally branded
Product Attributes
z
- Australian
z
- Environmentally pure/pristine
z
- Great taste/flavour
z
- unique taste/flavour
z
- fresh/ not imported
z
- counter seasonal
z
- contemporary/ novel food ( gift)
Routes to market
z
- Farm gate
z
- Farmers market
z
- local delis/specialist food retailer
z
- restaurants
z
- local/state co-operative
z
- national co-operative
z
- wholesalers/ brokers (food service/ international buyers)
The Evolving Roles Of Food
1960s
2000s
Tailored
Good Fun
Fast Fuel
Food-a-ceutical
Fashion Accessory
Social Occasion
Family Feed
Is The Spatula Mightier Than The Trowel?
Favourite TV Shows
%
Home
Improvement
Cooking
A Perennial Need
Interested in finding New ...
%
60
Foods to Eat
At Home
50
40
30
20
FF Restaurants
10
0
1992
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
Leisure More Home & Food Based
Leisure, Perceived More time/Less time than a year ago
More
% Nett
Meals At Home
Cooking
Watch TV
Less
Out To Eat
Popular Opinions Dominate
Sources of information for Food & Nutrition
% Main Meal preparers (2011)
Rely on Most
43
41
Recipe Books
Friends
14
Magazines
Internet
13
13
Parents
Newspapers
22
9
17
16
16
6
Doctor
3
5
Prof. Organisations
Dietician
Naturopaths etc
29
27
6
Partner
Advertising
32
32
32
9
8
TV/ Radio
14
6
3
11
Ever
60
Making The Time For Food Fun
Main Meal Preparers
% Clearly Agree
55
50
I Really Enjoy
Cooking
45
40
35
30
Not Enough
Time to Cook
25
20
15
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
Men Are Slowly Getting More Involved
Main Meal Preparers
%
Male
Female
Shopping Channels For Fresh Food
Where usually buy fresh food
% Total Population (2011)
Supermarket
Specialist store /
Market
Somewhere else
71
21
5
Bread
53
56
34
38
6
4
9
Meat
Fruit &
Vegetables
Fish
25
42
Quantum Market Research (Aust) Pty Ltd
Level 10 Como Tower, 644 Chapel Street, South Yarra Vic 3141 Australia
t 61 3 9289 9599 / f 61 3 9289 9595 / e [email protected] / w www.qmr.com.au
Key marketing challenges
z
- building customer awareness
z
- customer education
z
- maximising propensity to trial
z
- buying/tasting opportunities
Promotion: what to say/ how to say
it
z
- need to determine selling proposition:
z
Australian
z
pure/ clean environment
z
product quality (taste/texture etc.)
z
- channels of communication
z
- message tone
Promoting customer awareness
z
- specialist magazines (cooking, in-flight, etc.)
z
- celebrity chefs
z
- (TV) cooking shows
z
- internet forum
z
- local community press
z
- in-store promotions/ fine food fairs
z
- restaurant menus (truffle focus)
Customer eduation
z
- what is a truffle? (not a chocolate!)
z
- how can I use truffles? (recipes)
z
- are they easy to use?
z
- what truffle products are there?
z
- quality of Australian truffles?
z
- where can I buy truffles?
z
- how do I know it’s the genuine article?
Importance of packaging
z
z
Role of packaging is:
- to protect the product
z
- to catch and hold attention
z
- to inform about the product
z
- to generate the desired product/brand image
z
- examples: Maggie Beer pate,King Island cheese,wine labels
The issue of “truffle oil”
z
-awareness of real vs. artificial
z
- response to the information
z
-how to handle this
z
- who represents authority?
Madame Truffles-case study
z
- Pop-up shop in South Melbourne
z
- Local press coverage
z
- Enthusiastic operators
z
- On-line blog,recipes,product information
z
- Customer relationships
z
- “telling a great truffle story”
Madame Truffles shop front
Success of Madame Truffles
- Approx. 15kgs. product sold
- truffles from W.A.,Tas,Vic.,W.a.
- about 5,000 web hits
- 50% first time triallists
- men and women ,young and old
- great enthusiasm and curiosity
from customers
- telling a truffle “story”
- good media coverage