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 You are a sheep farmer supplying lamb to the major multiples – is the world against you? Or are you in control of your business destiny?
'Fresh Lamb - A Local Opportunity', a new free report published by IGD today, provides indispensible consumer information for lamb producers.
Download 'Fresh Lamb - A Local Opportunity'
Consumer knowledge can give farmers a competitive edge
Falling prices, red tape and a position at the beginning of the supply chain can leave many sheep farmers thinking they have little influence over the direction of their business.
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Farmers can 'take charge' and increase sales |
What can individual farmers do to improve things? There are many options, of course, but a tried and tested way is to learn more about the people who actually buy and eat your product. If you get closer to your consumers than the competition, and turn that learning into action, you can make yourself and your business more valuable to your retail customers.
This might sound daunting and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. There are free consumer data for farmers from organisations like IGD and Kent Business School who also provide marketing training through a bespoke one-day course that has been developed with the NFU specifically for farmers.
Shoppers are buying more lamb
The most important person in the supply chain is the consumer – and understanding consumers is the starting point for farmers and producers wishing to improve returns. For a start, consumers are buying more lamb which is good news.
What questions about the consumer should farmers ask? Most sheep farmers will sell their lambs to an abattoir or maybe through an auction mart. It’s easy to think no further about your product. This ‘disconnect’ from the final market puts farmers at a disadvantage.
To be on the front-foot good questions to think about are:
- Which retailer sells your products and which of their stores are your product sold in?
- How many consumers buy your product and which of the retailers’ stores sell the most and the least?
- How frequently do consumers purchase your products?
There will be differences in the amount of product that each store sells. Different types of people (families and pensioners for example) will buy different products with different frequency.
The business opportunity for farmers
Getting your head around all this is a further complication but it is an essential ingredient for success. Knowledge gained by understanding the consumer can be turned into a business opportunity.
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Shoppers are buying more lamb products | |
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Do not assume that others will track and interpret consumer trends for you. Retailer buyers and abattoir managers are responsible for hundreds of products and rarely have the time to delve into detailed consumer understanding.
Obtaining consumer insight can enable farmers to ‘take charge’ and come up with ideas based on analysis of the market that show the way to obtain increased sales. In this way farmers can become the driving force in the supply chain – identifying opportunities to increase sales of, for example, specific cuts, or coming up with ideas for promotions or marketing campaigns aimed at particular geographical areas or particular sections of the consumer market.
FREE consumer information for farmers
For farmers and small food producers detailed consumer information is provided free of charge by Kent Business School.
Find out more about Kent Business School here
Consumer insight can help identify market opportunities in many different ways. A few examples are given below:
Are your products in the right stores?
Several of the multiples have different store formats – from large hypermarkets through to small convenience outlets and on-line sales. Lamb products will perform differently depending on both the store format and its geographical location. Where sales are low it may be necessary to make changes to the price and packaging to attract consumers who currently do not purchase lamb. Alternatively, to address differences in the frequency of purchase, it may be necessary to provide reasons to encourage consumers to buy more often, for example by providing recipe ideas.
How many consumers buy your product?
Consumers are different and the purchasing behaviour of different types of people will vary significantly. For example, legs of lamb appeal more to older families than they do to young adults. So it is likely to be easier to get older families to buy more frequently than it is to attract young adults to buy the product in the first instance. Attracting new consumers will also require a different marketing approach.
Do consumers buy lamb just on price?
Price has taken on increased importance because of the recession. But for most consumers their choice of product is not just dependent on its price – it includes a range of other factors like taste and convenience. IGD research has shown the increasing importance of provenance and welfare behind consumer decisions which continue to grow even during the recession. Products that can demonstrate both provenance and welfare provide a key route to increased sales.
Arm yourself with consumer insight and you can take the lead in determining where the opportunities exist and through this the overall success of your business.
More information:
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Download 'Fresh Lamb - A Local Opportunity'
This new research includes data on the latest consumer trends, market segmentation of different cuts of lamb and why and where shopper purchase lamb products. Request your free copy today |
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