The Chinese market
Although China produces more than 30% of the total world honey production, Chinese customers are looking for highly qualified foreign honey products, due to their worries about food safety. One particular Chinese company was interested in becoming an importer of New Zealand honey, and sought advice from one of our Applied Management students, Yuan Shui.
In this research project Yuan considered:
- The profile of the customer segmentation, such as age, gender, income, motivation and behaviour etc.
- The mostly expected price range.
- The most appropriate retail outlets.
Data obtained from an online questionnaire and from interviews was analysed. The supermarket emerged as the most important location for honey purchasing. The top information channel for health products is recommendation from friends or specialists followed by television advertisement. Only a small portion of honey users had consumed New Zealand honey before, but most of the New Zealand honey users feel it is superior to Chinese domestic honey.
Yuan recommended that the company provide opportunities for new consumers to taste New Zealand honey, that the honey should be sold in tamper-proof packaging, and that social media would be the best tool for promotion.