So, what happens when the lockdowns are lifted, and we move
to a semblance of normality? Significant economic disruption will lead to
permanent shifts in food shopping behaviours. For food firms, this represents
arguably the biggest challenge most have ever faced. How they understand
changing food consumption is going to be critical to determining many firms’
survival. One evident and major change is that consumers will eat less out and
more at home as Covid-19 changes attitudes and behaviours of food consumers. A
further key point is that many people will be out of work, with less disposable
income to spend on more premium food purchases. A potential global recession or
even depression will exacerbate this.
For the Irish food industry this presents a specific
challenge. It is dominated by small food firms, with less than 50 and often
less than 10 employees. With limited resources and expertise compared to larger
firms, how can they source consumer behaviour trends and make sense of them?
Technology in the form of advanced Big Data consumer insight provides a means
to achieve this. For example, Dunnhumby the firm behind Tesco Clubcard Big Data
sourcing and analysis is a global leader in Customer Data Science. I
spent the past 10 years as an academic at Ulster University and Queen’s
University Belfast, working with Professor Andrew Fearne from the University of
East Anglia to make Tesco Clubcard consumer insight available free of charge to
small food firms in N. Ireland. Supported by Government agencies and food
industry bodies, we made available to many small firms’ consumer insight
representative of over 40% of buying behaviour of the UK food market. Multiple
case examples show how this leads to new product innovations, new listings with
multiple retailers and other successes.
Advanced technologies such as Clubcard Big Data and its
analysis, are crucial to helping Irish small food firms respond to Covid-19
change in food consumption. It is also crucial for ensuring that Irish
consumers’ changing food preferences due to Covid-19 are catered for. Big Data
consumer insights provide small Irish food firms with changing consumption
behaviours for specific food products. Such as changing socio-demographics of
their consumers along with shifts of existing consumers to cheaper products,
larger baskets but lower average spend per basket and so forth. This allows
small Irish food firms to respond to changing consumer behaviours by deploying
innovative and consumer-oriented Category Management, Price; Promotions,
Customer Knowledge and Customer Engagement strategies.
Irish Government and food industry bodies need to come
together to fund access to Big Data consumer insights and the expertise to help
small food firms make sense of it. The richness and precision of these insights
is typically beyond the reach of small Irish food firms. However, at this
critical juncture it could be the key ingredient for ensuring their survival
and future success in the face of Covid-19 and its economic fall-out.
Professor Geoff Simmons
4th April 2020
