In line with the aims of Alimentaria 2010, the eighth edition of the International Food Forum will spotlight brands, their values and attributes. The forum, which will be opened by Minister of Environment, Rural and Seaside Areas Elena Espinosa, will include the public presentation of the study ‘What does the consumer expect from a brand these days? The role of the manufacturer as brand manager, prepared by the consulting firm Synovate.
What do consumers want? What do they ask of brands? What do brands give them? How do manufacturers respond to consumer demands? These are some of the key questions which the next edition of the International Food Forum will tackle when the conclusions of the study ‘What does the consumer expect from a brand these days? The role of the manufacturer as brand manager are revealed on 23 March.
The aim of the study is to effectively disseminate and communicate the values and attributes of food and drink brands, an asset of the company and society as a whole built up over long years of work, effort and good corporate management.
The study will therefore identify what brands’ strengths are and consequently what strategies and messages they must communicate in order to make those value arguments more visible to the consumer. Highlights include safety, quality, trust, guarantees, progress, innovation, development, job and wealth creation, etc. ‘We work to identify successful strategies for brands,’ explains Gerardo Fuksman, business development manager at Synovate. ‘Once the study has been concluded, we will understand what it is that the Spanish consumer expects and wants from food and beverage brands in order to define as precisely as possible what role manufacturers play as managers of these brands,’ he states.
The bastions of brands
The International Food Forum will lay out how consumers operate, cognitively and socially, and what kind of trends lie behind their thoughts and shopping habits. Fuksman acknowledges that in an environment like the present, price is important, but there is a whole series of ‘cultural determining factors’ which make us opt for one brand or another when shopping. According to the expert, brands are ‘inherent’ to humans and satisfy ‘anthropological’ needs to belong to the group or community and for power, happiness, status and prestige, among others. ‘Brands are a sign, a communicational synthesis of values, attributes and benefits, as well as identifying a product.’
Specialisation, an innovative nature – provided that this innovation offers value which resolves a need of the consumer, tradition – brands have the ability to appeal to the family and memory because they have accompanied the consumer for years, pleasure and differentiation are some of their main strengths.
In short, initiatives such as the International Food Forum and the Innoval show will make the next edition of Alimentaria a real festival of brands and the infinite benefits these provide for the consumer, including ‘making the world more comprehensible for us, Fuksman concludes.
Strategies and praxis with Instituto Internacional San Telmo
Instituto Internacional San Telmo, a business school dedicated to training top executives with locations in Malaga and Seville, will play a leading role in the more practical side of the International Food Forum.
Directly linked to the previous study, Jos Antonio Boccherini, manager of the Agri-food Companies Department at Instituto Internacional San Telmo, will explore how today’s leading companies are reacting in his presentation ‘Manufacturers’ strategies in the current environment’. He will do so from a predominantly experiential point of view, at the same time proposing ideas for action based on praxis.
The International Food Forum enjoys the sponsorship of Aral magazine and Vichy Cataln.
Innoval 2010
Closely related to the International Food Forum, the seventh edition of Innoval will reinforce the show’s commitment to focusing on R&D&i, occupying the place where brands and innovation come together. Conceived as a cluster of new ideas, Innoval will present hundreds of innovative products to exhibitors, buyers, opinion leaders and the media. Some of these will be at the pre-launch stage, for Alimentaria’s Innovation Show is a true barometer for the international agri-food industry.
More than 62,000 buyers visited the last edition of Innoval, which at Alimentaria 2010 will be located in the lobby area of Pavilion 3. The show will recreate every aspect of the shopping experience through specific areas. All of these areas will present practical and novel solutions through real demonstrations and feature the presence of suppliers such as Wincor Nixdorf, Bizerba, Trumedia, Miltek, Luxury Graphics, Esteban Espua, Samsung, Barcelona Centre de Disseny, Ciudad Agroalimentaria de Tudela, Azti-Tecnalia and the Triptolemos Foundation.
Additionally, in order to highlight the role of brands as true engines for building awareness, Innoval will also present an interesting first-hand report with the comments of innovation managers at firms which are leaders in this field.
Alimentaria 2010
The show will be held 22-26 March at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Va venue. According to the latest forecasts, Alimentaria will bring together close to 4,000 companies, 1,200 of them international, occupying 94,500 m2 of exhibition space. 150,000 professionals are expected to visit, 33,000 of whom will come from abroad. With these numbers, the event establishes itself as one of the world’s leading food and beverage trade shows.
Source: Alimentaria 2010