Everybody’s Access to INternational Groceries (EATING) – Improving compliance of ethnic food shops through the use of marketing strategy.

Summary

The EATING (Everybody’s Access To INternational Groceries) project was run as a pilot with a shop in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. A marketing strategy was written and implemented which was designed to increase the shop’s appeal to the local indigenous population. One of the aims of this approach was to improve compliance with labelling legislation. Surveys were carried out before and after implementation to assess the impact of the strategy. A generic marketing toolkit for use with other shops was also produced.


1. Introduction

Trading Standards has a responsibility to ensure businesses comply with labelling legislation. This includes labelling all products in English. This presents an interesting issue – most migrant worker run shops are catering to a niche market comprised of other migrant workers from the same country. So in enforcing the law, the business will see a large cost for little or no benefit. Therefore it is likely that a traditional enforcement approach would put such businesses and the jobs of those working for them at risk. The EATING (Everybody’s Access To INternational Groceries) project has been designed to assist migrant worker run businesses to comply with the legislation while helping them to increase business from the local indigenous population. This is achieved by writing a marketing strategy to target local English speakers. This strategy includes the compliant labelling of products.


2. Aims

The primary aims of the pilot project were:

i. To test the overall concept.
ii. To achieve a greater level of compliance with EU food labelling legislation in the pilot premises.
iii. To ensure all pricing information was available in English in the pilot premises.

The secondary aims (though arguably these are of more significance to the broader agenda) were:

i. Better regulation through a partnership approach.
ii. Improved social cohesion. Encouraging local people from the Portuguese and indigenous communities to mix in a shop environment was thought likely to provide a positive outcome in this respect.
iii. Contribution to the English as a Second Language (EASL) agenda. This was to be achieved by exposing the Portuguese customers to English language on labels and signage as well as English speaking customers.
iv. Business improvement.


3. Methodology

3.1. A pilot shop was selected in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire – O Cantinho. The north of the county has a large migrant population primarily from Portugal, Poland, Russia and ex-Soviet states. This Portuguese shop sold groceries and included a deli counter and fridges and freezers and in addition had a small café selling drinks, sandwiches and pastries. O Cantinho was owned and run by 2 Portuguese people and primarily frequented by Portuguese migrants. The concept was explained to the shop owners, in part through the use of a translator and agreement was reached to use the shop for the pilot. It was decided that the local Environmental Health department would be contacted to ensure there were no health issues of concern. The shop owners were also advised to review DDA regulations.

3.2. Marketing specialists were employed to input advice, design surveys and materials and to write the marketing plan.

3.3. An initial survey was carried out to gauge local consumer knowledge of O Cantinho. In addition, those surveyed were asked questions designed to indicate resistance to using the shop and the products within.

3.4. A marketing plan was written for the shop and café. This plan was specifically designed to target the local indigenous population and thereby increase the market for the premises while ensuring better compliance with labelling legislation. Increasing the number of English speaking customers would require better labelling in English. A brand was developed for the shop including a house style for all labelling and other signage.

3.5. The marketing plan was implemented. This included English pricing information on products, additional information on allergens and additives in English, English/Portuguese menus, coffee samples handed out on local streets, fliers advertising the premises, recipe cards for traditional Portuguese meals and media coverage of the project.

3.6. A second survey was carried out to determine the effect of the marketing strategy. This resurvey asked the same questions of participants as the initial survey.


4. Results

4.1. Trading Standards officers found the shop staff to be very receptive to this approach, which was evident in the general improvement in the shop environment during the period of the project. Shop staff made themselves available and even contributed to the writing of the marketing plan. The marketing plan was implemented jointly by the marketing, Trading Standards and shop staff. Fliers were produced as part of the project and people from the shop distributed them. It was speculated that there may be differences in how officials from government agencies are viewed within different countries and that this might have had an affect if a different shop had been chosen as a pilot.

4.2. Although full compliance with all legislation was not achieved, there was a big improvement from the original position. Pricing information, much of which had been absent or could not be understood by English speakers, could be easily seen. Fresh produce had allergen and additive information. Menus were available for the café attached to the shop. Frozen produce had basic English information. During the pilot project it became clear that contacting suppliers, particularly of pre-packed food would be more productive than labelling products at individual shops. Trading Standards staff will be contacting Home Authorities to discuss approaching the suppliers.

4.3. There was anecdotal evidence of achievement of secondary aims ii and iii. Portuguese customers spent some time examining the new menus, reading English words out to one another. Some of the Portuguese customers present on the promotion day wanted to chat about the project, the new information in the shop, Portugal etc. with English project staff.

4.4. Surveys were carried out before and after the implementation of the marketing strategy. The headline results from the survey were:
i. Before the promotion 48.75% of those questioned had heard of O Cantinho, after the promotion 51.7% of those questioned had heard of it.
ii. Before the promotion 17.5% of those questioned ate/drank in the Cafe and after the promotion 19% of those questioned did.
iii. Before the promotion 2.5% of those questioned bought produce/groceries from O Cantinho, after the promotion 15.5% of those questioned did.
The rise in the number of people who had heard of O Cantinho is likely to be statistically insignificant as is the rise in numbers using the café. The rise in numbers reporting that they bought produce from the shops is a significant one. It can be speculated that the marketing campaign would have been responsible, at least in part, for this rise. However, more robust surveying and analysis would be required to better understand the full effect of this marketing approach.

4.5. The success of the pilot has led to the production of a generic toolkit based on the original market plan. This toolkit will be trialled in further shops in Cambridgeshire before being rolled out in the wider East of England.


5. Conclusions and recommendations

The surveys and anecdotal evidence points to significant success of this pilot. Due to the nature of some of the aims, quantifying this success is difficult. Measuring impact on social cohesion and improved language and marketing skills would require a significant investment which was not available during the lifetime of the pilot.

This type of partnership approach with businesses has been shown to bring benefits to the business and greater achievements in levels of compliance with legislation in this pilot. There is no reason to believe that this approach would not work in other ethnic food premises. Others should be encouraged to use the generic marketing toolkit in shops elsewhere.