The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) has confirmed that this year, Italy was chosen as one of the markets for a new case investment project for salmon, with the main objectives being to increase learning and test new activities and approaches that can contribute to increasing sales.
Since 2017, NSC, together with the market group for salmon and trout, has explored larger investments in 1-2 markets each year. Due to growth in chain-based restaurants in Italy, and the positive development in salmon sales within this channel, it was decided to do this case investment targeted towards the country’s HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, and café/catering) sector.
“Even though salmon has been performing well in Italy, we have analyses showing us that there is still room for growth in sales and increased storytelling around the product,” NSC Country Director for Italy Tom-Jørgen Gangsø said.
It is expected, for example, that the number of poké restaurants in Italy could double to 2,000 outlets in just a couple of years. Therefore, the goal of this project has been to strengthen the visibility of Norwegian salmon in chain-based restaurants, as well as Cash and Carry, to support future growth in these sales-channels.
The project has had three main phases:
- Phase 1 – Preliminary study and interviews with some of the main players in the HoReCa sector
- Phase 2 – Consumer survey in the biggest cities in Italy and finalisation of market analysis
- Phase 3 – Market strategy and action plan
During phase one, in-depth interviews were conducted with market experts from prominent companies in relevant HoReCa businesses and in Cash and Carry sectors. The interviewees included key decision-makers in 17 companies.
In phase two, 500 interviews were conducted with OOH (out-of-home) customers living in the major metropolitan areas in Italy, who are more exposed to new trends and frequent new restaurants more often.
NSC also teamed up with and entered into agreements with Capatoast, Pescaria and Poke Sun Rice, and there are still more new partnerships to come, Gangsø said.
“These companies all have different food offerings, including salmon toasts, salmon burgers and of course salmon poké.”
Additionally, NSC has secured an agreement with the Cash and Carry business Docks. All these partnerships will be in place for the next 6-12 months and will include the use of the “Seafood from Norway” trademark, the term “Salmone Norvegese” and more storytelling about salmon from Norway in both offline and online channels.
Some of them will also include the launch of “limited-edition” dishes with salmon, PR, and academies for staff to increase the knowledge about Norwegian salmon.
In the insights presented in the Norwegian Seafood Councils Top Seafood Consumer Trends report, it was revealed how important country of origin and sustainability is for customers globally. Nearly 8 out of 10 Italians answered that it was important to them that fish and seafood was marked with origin-labelling when shopping for salmon. Seven out of 10 also remarked that sustainable seafood products were relevant when choosing where to shop for salmon products.
“The new insights from this report, together with the data from Italian HoReCa Channel report, show us the potential for Norwegian salmon in the Italian market. The expected growth of salmon as a product, combined with consumer-expectations, makes it clear that Norwegian salmon marked with origin has great potential in both B2B and B2C,” Gangsø said.
“Starting from the beginning of next year, we also plan to do a proximity campaign to drive traffic to restaurants offering salmon from Norway.”
This will be done by using different technologies, among them geo-localisation. This will ensure that potential customers receive push notifications with information that tells them where to eat salmon for lunch or dinner when they are located in certain areas in big cities such as Milan, Rome or Turin.
“We’re excited to see the results of the ongoing campaigns, as well as starting new ones next year. I believe there is a lot of potential in using technology like this, which will give us the possibility to effectively showcase Norwegian salmon at the right moment – and to the right customers,” Gangsø said.
