Marketing Strategy
The Market Segmentation
Presentation of the segments
The segmentation of our market is based on the survey we conducted. You can find the methodology of the survey and the findings .
After we had a better understanding of the buying behavior of the consumers of durable fruits and vegetables by asking them questions and analyzing the collected data, we chose to divide our market into several groups according to three particular criteria.
First of all, we look at a geographic segmentation. An ideal way to segment the Brussels-Capital Region is to divide it in its municipalities. All the demographic data collected by the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis is separate in municipalities. This fact increases the measurability of our segments.
While talking with the people of our market and analyzing the data, we noticed that the buying reason persisted through the different durable fruit and vegetable categories. Due to that fact, we segmented our market into the main three reasons why a person buys durable food:
-
Some people buy it because it is healthier. The survey showed that for people who said that their main buying reason of organic, local and seasonal food is because it’s healthier, the reasons of the two next segments were also important. But the two following psychographic segments mentioned rarely their health when they talked about durable food. In this segment you can also find the most people who got their highest degree from secondary school and the people who are the least price sensitive.
-
Others choose this kind of fruit and vegetables because they prefer the strong and fresh taste.
-
A last, a category is concerned by environmental issues and buys it to reduce their individual carbon footprint or to encourage local producers.
Another finding of the survey was that people who have not only the same ages but also same kinds of households have similar buying behaviors. By virtue of this outcome, we divided the different psychographic segments according to socio-demographic characteristics of the consumers. Out of the data, four different groups who have similar needs and wants have been highlighted.
-
People younger than forty years old who are living on their own or in small households of two persons
-
People older than forty years old who are living on their own or in small households of two persons
-
Families
-
Retired people
In conclusion, we have divided our market in twelve different segments in which the consumers have similar wants and needs.
The value of each segment has been calculated with the survey results and with the official numbers of the organic food report 2013. The numbers correspond to the proportion of the total market value of sustainable fruits and vegetables generated by each segment. They do not represent the proportion of people in each group.
The Geographic Segmentation
The Psychographic Segmentation
The Socio-demographic Segmentation
Twelve different segments in which the consumers have similar wants and needs.
Proportion of the total market value of sustainable fruits and vegetables generated by each segment
What caracteristic do the people in these segments have?
Our 12 segments in a nutshell
Segments according to taste
People without kids under 40 years old:
The consumers in this segment are people that try to have a healthy lifestyle by regularly doing a sportive activity or eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day for instance. The people living alone or with a partner buy durable food once a week at least and they prefer seasonal food. If organic food doesn’t have a label it doesn’t matter to them. EcoShelves is mostly appealing to them because the products don’t need to be transported and because it is possible to grow fresh seasonal food during the whole year. Besides that, they have a low price sensitivity regarding seasonal food. They think that the future of durable food is going back to the nature and its perks.
People without kids above 40 years old:
Despite the fact that women are the majority of buyers of durable food, we have found, through our survey, that this segments is composed of a majority of men. They do a lot of sports but don’t necessarily pay attention to a healthy nutrition. They prefer local and organic vegetables and fruits and buy them a few times in a month. However, when they choose organic fruits and vegetables, the products they buy don’t necessarily need to have a label. In the future, the consumers of this segment would like to see technology appear increasingly in the durable food market. They are ready to pay a little bit more for our product.
Families:
The people in this segment think that the future of fruits and vegetables is with a mix of both nature and technology. They claim to try to have a healthy nutrition. The most important characteristic of fruits and vegetables for them is that they are seasonal and they buy durable food every month but not on a regular basis. The organic label is not essential to them. The characteristic they like the most about EcoShelves is the fact that the food doesn’t need to be transported to Brussels.
Pensioners:
Some pensioners find that durable products taste better than the traditional ones. But none of them claim that the taste is the determinant reason to buy durable fruit or vegetables.
People without kids under 40 years old:
Most people which are under 40 years old and who don’t have children choose durable vegetables and fruits because they are healthy. The people of this segment take care of their health by doing sport at least once a week and by eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. They prefer buying organic food even if the fruit and vegetables are not labeled as organic. The consumers would be ready to change their habits of food shopping for EcoShelves products because they like the fact that its products are not transported and that they need 80% less water to grow than products out of traditional agriculture.
People without kids above 40 years old:
People without children who are older than 40 years old but not retired have a healthy nutrition. They eat five fruit and vegetables per day for instance. Their favorite kinds of durable foods are organic foods even if the fruit and vegetables don’t have the organic label. The fact that EcoShelves’ products are not transported after their harvest is the principal reason that could make them go to this shop to buy their healthy fruit and vegetables. The beliefs about durable food in the future are unclear: on the one hand some consumers would prefer seeing the food production going back to traditional methods and on the other hand, some people think that technology will improve the sustainable food production in the coming years.
Families:
This segment accounts the largest amount of people and of value within this socio-graphic and within this psychographic group Parents who buy healthy food for themselves and the ones they love choose local and organic fruits and vegetables. They prefer seeing the organic label on the food they buy. Some of the consumers think that durable agriculture should remain traditional. But others think that in future, fruit and vegetables production will be enhanced by technology. The consumers would be ready to change their habits of food shopping for EcoShelves products because they like the fact that its products are not transported and that they needed 80% less water to grow than products of traditional agriculture.
Pensioners:
Most of pensioners who buy durable fruit and vegetables are concerned by their health and have larger incomes than the average pensioner who buy durable food for the taste or for the ecology. They pay attention to the fact that the food is organically grown and that it has an organic label. Therefor these consumers like to buy their food in specialized shop. Often they didn’t study after they graduated from secondary school. The best characteristic of EcoShelves’ concept is that the food isn’t transported to the shop. They believe that the world would be better off if we went back to nature.
People without kids under 40 years old:
The consumers of this segment practice sport every week at least but don’t eat five fruit and vegetables every day, even if they try to. They buy their durable fruits and vegetables either every week or only a few times per month. If the food isn’t labeled, that doesn’t matter to them. These consumers are highly educated with a university degree for most of them. When they hear about the vertical farm concept, the fact they like the most is that to grow fruit and vegetables you need 80% less water than with the traditional agriculture. These consumers would only be ready to buy our products if they can come to the shop on foot and they are ready to pay a bit more for our products than for the average fruits and vegetables. In their vision of the future, durable food production will be enhanced by technology but nature will still remain an important factor of fruit and vegetables production.
People without kids above 40 years old:
This segment accounts for the largest amount of people within this socio-graphic and also within this psychographic group. They rarely do sports and try to eat five fruit and vegetables per day but don’t succeed at doing so. These people have a university degree. The fruit and vegetables they buy don’t have to be labeled at all cost. They like companies that pay attention to urban issues and try to solve them. This fact would encourage the consumers of this segment to buy their fruits and vegetables at EcoShelves if they could go there on foot. The people of this segment are quite sensitive to price. In future, they think that technological progress and traditional farming methods will come together to produce the fruits and vegetables of tomorrow.
Families:
The main reason people in this segment buy durable food each week is because they are concerned by environmental issues and because they like to support local producers. A healthy life style is not essential to them. Most of them only practice sports once a month or less and they don’t eat five fruit and vegetables every day, even when they try to do so. Most of the adults in this category have a university degree. The durable food they buy doesn’t have to have an organic label. The major sustainable factor they like in EcoShelves’ concept is the fact that the food doesn’t need to be transported. They would buy these products only if the shop is located less than 15 minutes away by car. When they think about durable food in future, they think about nature and earth.
Pensioners:
Pensioners who are concerned by ecological issues are active and try to have a healthy life style. Often they didn’t study after they graduated from secondary school. EcoShelves is appealing to them by virtue of the fact that the food isn’t transported after the harvest. They strongly believe that the world would be better if we went back to nature and if food would have less influence of technology.