Market Study Visits – A Great Way to Know Your Customer

Philip Kotler says that when companies fail abroad, the most common factors are:

• Failure to take enough time to observe, absorb, and learn the new market.
• Failure to get reliable statistical information about the new market.
• Failure to define the target user.
• Failure to adapt the product and/or marketing mix.
• Failure to offer adequate service.
• Failure to find good “strategic partners.”

Companies must adapt their products and marketing mix when they go abroad. Royal Ahold, the giant Dutch food retailer, has the brand philosophy, “Everything the customer sees we localize. Everything they don’t see, we globalize.”

One of the key learning’s to be taken from the Bord Bia Marketplace event in 2012 is that companies who knew the customers and the markets of the buyers they were meeting were the most successful. Knowing your customer and speaking to them in a frame of reference that they can easily understand always makes for a more successful pitch.

One of the keys to successfully trading with retailers is identifying viable product opportunities. Once these have been identified, you must then develop a strong USP that fits with your target retailer’s strategy, objectives or values, this is the key to engaging successfully with retailers.

Visiting the stores of potential customers can be a very effective tool in gaining knowledge of your customer and your consumer. It can often lead to Innovation. This innovation can come in many forms, so look out for packaging ideas and materials, pack sizes and weights, the use of interesting or unusual ingredients as well as alternative brands and designs.

Bord Bia have some visits planned for Paris, London, Stockholm and Amsterdam

• Paris, June 6th - World renowned centre of food excellence, if you are working in food Paris is an essential market, to find out more click here
• London, 28th May - (Foodservice) - key for trends in our nearest market. To find out more click here
• Amsterdam, 27th May 2013 – To find out more click here
• Stockholm, 25th/ 26th June - To find out more click here

Source: BordBia - Market Study Visits – A Great Way to Know Your Customer