The Audience Detective: Recent Episodes

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In this episode, we will talk about the brand, John West Tuna. If you’ve ever had tuna pasta, baked tuna, or you’ve just eaten tuna straight out of the can, then this episode is for you.

History of John West

[0:45]

John West was born in Linlithgow, Scotland. In 1809 he moved to Canada to seek His fame and fortune and set up a salmon psaltery packing wild salmon into wooden barrels and exporting around Canada and North America. The John West brand becomes synonymous with quality. In 1868, he invented the canned filling machine to automate this whole process. By 1952, tuna took over from salmon as the most popular canned fish. That’s when the demand for canned or tinned tuna takes off.

Unforgettable Flavour

[6:27]

John West Jr. is trying to replicate the flavour and style of a tuna dish in Italy. The dish had olive oil, soft crusty bread, cherry tomatoes, and a bit of mayonnaise. That experience is where he got the love for tuna and is now trying to replicate not only the flavour but also the experience.

How long have you been a John West tuna fan?

[10:00]

I would say around 2020 odd years, maybe a little bit more. I was probably introduced to canned tuna when I was at University. It’s not something we had at home growing up as a university student.

Was there a reason why you started eating canned tuna?

[10:28]

I remember University was the first time I had an avocado. I opened up my palate to all kinds of things. I think when you’re growing up, you eat what your family prepares, or what you have at school, or what you’re exposed to.

Was John West the only brand available at the time?

[11:18]

I think there are certain foods to make. This is the same as other food products where it almost seems like there’s just one brand. I know now that you can get tuna from supermarkets. But I’d be hard-pressed to think of another canned fish brand.

Do you only eat tuna?

[12:36]

I have tried canned salmon, but it was just gross to me. Salmon needs to be fresh to me. There’s something about canned tuna that I like. One of my go-to weekday lunches is my canned tuna homemade salad with a bit of a boiled egg, hummus, olive oil, and other fatty things. Then the other thing is I make tuna and melt some mayonnaise in it.

How many tuna do you buy in a week?

[16:38]

I buy it every two weeks and eat it with mayonnaise. Sometimes, I mix it into a salad or a sandwich. It adds a bit of substance to a salad if you don’t want it to have any sort of meat a bit of tuna adds a bit of substance to it.

Who would you recommend buying tuna?

[17:54]

Women buy everything. When we were at this fair, men bought nothing. When a rich man comes up to the store, they never buy. So I would definitely recommend women, particularly mothers, to buy tuna.

Get your story straight

[20:08]

Even if you’re an established brand around as long as John West, you can get challenged by changing ethical consumer concerns. So you have to get your story straight. You’ve got to get your product, origin, and sourcing, completely transparent or else you’re going to get left out.

[20:38]

Many of the products are commoditized. You might get dragged into bulk buying price territory. You may have the ability to spend a lot of money on a brand, but sometimes, you’ve got to be conscious of price and distribution.

Resources

https://answerthepublic.com/

Learn more about the Audience Detective Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/1hDAhkyQPRoT3oATMmAb0e

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-audience-detective-george-beverley-qMvwAF_l53x/

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Episode 2: Warburtons Bread

In this episode, we do a deep dive into Warburtons’ bread. In order to grasp the staggering size of the family-owned brand in terms of its market share, let’s first consider a few facts around the Warburtons business.

In 1870, Thomas Warburton and his wife Ellen first opened their grocery shop in Bolton, Lancashire. Today, Warburtons is the largest family-owned bakery business in the country. In 2020, Warburtons’ sales were £656.2 million. That’s up 3.4% on the previous year.

More than a quarter of all bakery products consumed in the UK is produced by Warburtons. They are the number one brand in the non-bread category, which includes anything from rolls, crumpets, thins, tea cakes to lower-priced artisan breads such as sourdough loaves.

While stats are great, what I’m really interested in are the human stories behind the numbers. So, we found some Warburtons customers and called them up.

Listen in and find out what I heard and what lessons I gleaned around what motivates customers and what dissuades them from certain brands and attracts them towards others.

Key Highlights

• [02:36] Fast facts about the Warburtons business
• [04:12] Snippets from our conversations with customers on Warburtons’ bread
• [07:48] What Warburtons customers say online
• [09:42] Takeaways from our findings: grouping customers via their preferences
• [11:01] What research helps you to do

Powerful Quotes by George

• I totally understand that it’s not always easy or practical to track down customers or prospects and ask them questions, be it face-to-face or on the phone. So, the next best thing is even easier, and it’s free: Just get yourself onto Google and start searching the brand name, and try to find forums, feedback, Trustpilot reviews. That will also give you a sense of how customers are reacting to the brand; how they think and feel about it.
• Research can help you see how customers assign value—it’s not always about price.

Revue section

• Ogilvy Behavioural Economics Course With Rory Sutherland – Learn why people do what they do and how to influence them. Course link https://www.42courses.com/courses/behavioural-economics

We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line on office@audiencedetective.com

You can also find out more at www.audiencedetective.com

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British biscuit consumption in the UK is the highest in the world. That’s right: We are world-leading at eating biscuits. Citizens of Norwich eat 650 biscuits a year more than citizens of any other UK city.

Biscuits are bought by 99.1% of all UK households. The majority of ginger nuts are bought by the over-55s. For youngsters, the most popular brand is Oreos.

Gingernut biscuits first went on sale in the UK in the 1840s. Gingernuts were the bestselling biscuits of Huntley and Palmers from 1933 to World War II.

With those stats out of the way, what I now want to do is to work out the who. So, what I did was pick up the phone and call some people who I happened to think might eat gingernut biscuits.

Listen in and find out what I heard and what lessons we can take away as when it comes to homing in on our ideal buyer.

Key Highlights

• [00:29] Fast facts about the UK biscuit sector
• [01:44] Snippets from our conversations with gingernut biscuit fans
• [02:31] Tips for acquiring data on why people buy
• [03:12] Insights on gingernut biscuit eaters gleaned from forums
• [04:55] Takeaways from our findings
• [06:38] Recommended resources
• [45:23] The “all show, no go” syndrome

Powerful Quotes by George

• Just by having a conversation with people, you can learn so much about why they buy.
• This is a dead-simple tip: If you don’t want to talk to people—you’re not quite confident about speaking to complete strangers—then head straight for the internet. There is a wealth of insight available to you.
• A common mistake is, when you ask somebody who your customers are, they say, “Everyone. Everyone buys from us.” I’m not sure if that’s entirely true. But even if it is, you run into the danger of having a really, really bland message that appeals to everyone and not someone. The more defined you can be about your customers, the easier your life becomes when you’re trying to talk to them because you’re talking to them as a person.

Resources Mentioned:

This is Marketing by Seth Godin

We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line on office@audiencedetective.com