Bug Shoppers with the Positives

NYC’s Brooklyn Kitchen has drawn notice for their Mexican feast special which included smoked corn custard sprinkled with pale yellow, squirming wax moth larvae along with chapulines, those little fried grasshoppers described as tasting like the exoskeleton of a potato chip. Not too long after that, Bloomberg Businessweek was reporting on the opportunities for retailing all sorts of bugs as food ingredients and nutritional supplements.
     Decades ago, Australian vendors of deer meat undertook a campaign to convince prospective consumers that what others might call a gamey taste was more accurately experienced as full-flavored. Such a marketing challenge is minor compared to convincing consumers in many parts of the developed world that eating insects makes sense.
     The tactics—bugging shoppers with the positives—can be applied to a range of retailing endeavors.

• Go overboard in addressing common concerns. For example, the world of insects does carry the stigma of being awfully filthy. So the highly successful insect merchant World Entomophagy publicizes their strict standards: The bugs are fed only oats, vegetables, and fruits. Organically-grown oats. Vegetables and fruits that are both organic and locally grown.
• Appeal to social responsibility. Although consumers often select the socially irresponsible choice, they want to think of themselves as socially responsible. Have you heard about researchers at Wageningen University discovering that breeding insects for food produces far less greenhouse gas per gram of meat than breeding livestock? If not, Hotlix, which has, for decades, been selling lollipops with a scorpion inside each, would be pleased to tell you. To establish credibility, they might add that Wageningen has as a mission statement, “healthy food and living environment.”
• Hide the downside. Be ethical and follow all laws in doing so. Simply recognize that there are some things some consumers prefer not to know. Etom Foods is developing ways to extract meat from crickets and grasshoppers, then throwing away the unsightly parts of the body.
• Get influential endorsers. BugMuscle is pumped up on using crickets, mealworms, ants and housefly pupae as a legal source of steroids, so is lining up bodybuilders to recommend BugMuscle nutritional supplements.
• Tout the challenge. Consumers go on the most treacherous roller coasters not only for the stimulating physical sensations, but also for the sense of pride achieved in prevailing over fears. To draw shoppers, publicize the thrill of confronting the exotic. Tell people they’ll be able to take away memories to verify their show of courage.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Ease the Guilt for Adult Unhealthy Eaters
Impress with the Exotic