For the love of food!

Given KS19’s mission of reducing single-use plastics and contributing positively to Cambodia’s waste management practices, this year’s tagline, For the Love of Food (FTLF), is focused on innovation, originality, and sustainability that can be borne through food. It’s a reminder that food isn’t merely a means to an end, it can be consumed with mindfulness; food isn’t merely a commodity, but something that nourishes our souls; food isn’t merely sustenance, but a deliberate creation that connects us.



What is FTLF?

In the same vein of the popular saying “For the love of God!”, FTLF is a call to action. 

While being centered on wholesome feelings and actions, KS19 aims to start conversations around the realities of waste management, sustainable practices, and mindful consumption.

FTLF is meant to encourage a sense of awareness on the negative impacts of our eating habits. Food isn’t just consumable; it’s intricately linked to relationships necessary to our existence: friends, families, shared histories, shared futures, the environment, and life. FTLF isn’t only a tag, but a lifestyle that we should partake in to ensure our Earth can nourish the future.



Why FTLF?

We all relate to the idea that food allows us to surpass multiple social understandings. 

Food is a connection to our past - the unforgettable recipes we learned from our loved ones, the indigenous ingredients that built communities steeped in strength, the ways the scent of a meal invokes memories of a beautiful past. 

Food is our connection to the now - the innovation happening before our eyes and taste buds that embed in the hearts. People connect the notion of food with its beauty, ingenuity, ability to fuse multiple cultures.

Food connects us to our shared futures: how can the collective consciousness across cultures, nations, and beliefs call us to actionable responses that will create sustainable, responsible and tangible changes, no matter how separated from the other?

FTLF begs us to examine ideas that connect food and love. Perceptions such as how has food enriched our lives and relationships? How has food shaped the social landscape of communities? How has food forced us to question our wasteful everyday practices - and how can we change that? It only takes one thought to start a movement.



Who connects with FTLF?

When we hear the word “food”, multiple images are flashed into our minds; yet, one of the strongest connecting emotions is the feeling of love.

Mothers who ensure dinner was made before their childrens’ return from school? Love.

Fathers who share memories of their grandma’s most spectacular dish so they aren’t lost? Love.

Families who religiously meet to share a meal, memories, and dreams? Love.

KS19 is an event for all to connect and share. It brings people from polarised experiences together; it brings lost ones back into the psyche; it bridges those who have no connection except for a shared love of tastes. Food connects us in the way we can see beyond our differences to the ways in which we’re exactly the same.

For the Love of Food is for all.

 

 

How a Motor Company used a Food Festival to increase Market Share

Background

In early 2017, Yamaha faced stiff competition in the Cambodian motorcycle market from the likes of Honda and Suzuki. They were about to launch a new model, the QBix and wanted to test market response. 

After a marketing consultation with The Idea Consultancy, Yamaha’s management team took a risk and joined Slaprea, Cambodia’s Biggest Food Festival for its very first event.

Shifting gears from traditional to modern marketing 

Businesses in Cambodia are cautious by nature, tending towards strict top-down hierarchical structures with a small number of decision-makers at the top who favour traditional marketing methods.

So what convinced Yamaha’s management to join a food festival? 

Answer: Exclusivity and Numbers.

Know your target audience and where to find them 

Yamaha’s management team understood that over 12,000 people would attend Slaprea, with an expected average spend of $10 per person. This placed all their targets at middle-income status. And the best part? Yamaha would be the only motor brand at the festival to build relationships with customers.

But this was only the beginning. Together with The Idea Consultancy, Yamaha applied marketing tactics and research at the event to build business strategy and influence at the festival.

Yamaha Marketing Tactics at Slaprea 2017

#1 Placement

Firstly, Yamaha displayed all of its existing models in Cambodia and brought catalogues of their motorbikes from other markets such as Thailand and Vietnam. They carefully placed their display booths at the entrance of the festival, right next to the motorbike parking ensuring every festival goer to walk by their booth at least twice. “We knew where we had to be: right next to the motorbike parking,” said Rachana, Yamaha’s Marketing Manager. “We wanted people to consider upgrading their bikes as they were leaving.”


#2 Incentive & Research

Now they had the right location, Yamaha needed the right data. They mounted a 2 prong approach, segmented by audience: one targeting the 100+ vendors (B2B) and one for the 12,000+ festival visitors (B2C).

Marketing to Consumers (B2C)

Every festival goer who answered questions about Yamaha products was given a coupon worth $2. This tactic was wildly successful - the team met their KPI of 300 surveys in the first evening of the 2-day festival. This reinforces the notion that cash incentives are powerful, especially in Cambodia.

Marketing to Business (B2B)

Yamaha built a positive relationship with the organizer who designed and disseminated targeted  messaging to the 100+ vendors: “Yamaha’s $2 coupons injected cash into the economy of the festival for community and small businesses development so consider Yamaha for your next delivery vehicle!

#3 Marketing Analysis

From the data collected at Slaprea, Yamaha developed its inventory and marketing strategy together for the rest of 2017 and 2018. The analysis of this data led to the birth of their latest model the Qbix, which quickly took the Phnom Penh market by storm, nearly doubling their existing market share in the following quarters.

Lessons learned: Marketing in Cambodia

Marketing requires careful thought about business strategy before committing resources to marketing activities. Together with The Idea Consultancy and Slaprea, Yamaha was able to eliminate marketing and business assumptions and thus innovate an event sponsorship into a marketing and research activity to pivot their position in the market.