- Università: Bocconi
- Docenti:
Fabrizio Zerbini
- Studenti:
Sofia Malesani, Diane Barroin, Maria Laura Daidone, Federico Cresceri, Fjori Ferko, Xinzhou Li
As the world shifts towards a greener and more sustainable way of consumption, people have grown more aware of what they consume individually. Therefore, we are introducing “FarMi”, which offers seasonal vegetables that have grown naturally, at their own pace, with no chemical boosters, no GMOs and in an open field. Its concept, “Be a farmer in a big city”, stands for allowing its customers to enjoy the benefits of having their own garden, meaning freshly produced vegetables, which we deliver to them. However, what makes FarMi different is that it not only allows customers to get BIO and seasonal vegetables delivered to them, but also allows them to choose the vegetables they want us to grow for them and be part of their growth digitally.
Users can choose between subscribing to the webpage, which offers our basic services, or downloading the app. The app enhances the experience and simulates a digital garden where as previously mentioned users get to choose the vegetables they want us to plant as well as how much. To be a part of their growth, users are offered the “FarMi game”, where they can nurture the plants and take care of them daily, and as a reward they get discounts and if ranked on the “top five” players, they win a free box by the end of the month. All this for as long as they remain active players.
Once subscribed or using the app, they can choose from three different sizes of vegetable boxes ranging from small (for up to two people) to medium and large (for more than 5 people), respectively at 79€, 129€ and 169€ per monthly subscription and order up to a total of four boxes per month. Customers will get to choose their mix of vegetables from our monthly average of 11 offerings, however our full range includes 13 vegetables and 5 herbs with the most essential vegetables having year round availability.
In addition, we plan on selling boxes of perishing vegetables to our app users at a discounted price of 8.99€ to reduce food wastage. To further support our assumptions, we conducted a survey where we asked respondents questions regarding the quality of the vegetables they consume and even about their phone and app usage. Then we conducted a cluster analysis from which we derived 3 groups. Starting from the “young” group who typically spend a lot of time on their phones but do not play games. This
group is interested in the origin of food but does not value seasonality and the food being BIO as much. Followed by the “middle aged” group who value chemical absence, km0 and typically do not use their phones as much but prefer to play games when doing so. And lastly, the “mature” group who greatly value seasonality, absence of chemicals and km0, and just as the middle group don’t use the phone quite as much as young people but like playing mobile games. We chose to target the middle aged and mature segments, broadly 40-65 year olds, because they present the highest interest in values connected to our business such as seasonality, origin, BIO and km0, and are mobile gaming “addicted”. Additionally, they are high income and pursue a healthier lifestyle in general. Healthy and refined lifestyle has become a new consumption trend and consumers are now more caring about food safety and nutrition.
Promotion wise, advertisements on Youtube and Instagram are to be followed up by collaborations with influencers. While regarding offline methods, flyers and frequent discounts are to be distributed.
To conclude, the company will focus on the city of Milan. The land and warehouse to be rented are both located in Paderno Dugnano, in north Milan. We plan to divide our land in three parts and use a rotation strategy in order to allow it to restore and replenish its nutrients. Concerning the warehouse, it is to be located close to the farmed land in order to reduce handling and transportation costs. It is planned to act as a storage as well as an assembly location where our farmers will prepare the vegetable boxes for delivery. After preparation the boxes are to be delivered to customers by a truck, three times a week, namely on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting from morning to evening. Customers will get the chance to select the time slot that best fits their schedules, as well as the days. During these delivery hours, the truck is also anticipated to act as a pop up store for one hour intervals, focusing mainly on the wealthier and most central districts of the city.
