Van Eigen Bodem puts growers with fresh products in the spotlight

Also for manager of Marketing and Innovation at ZON Linda Naus, the world is now upside down. Because of the measures around the Corona virus, consumers are more at home and take more time to cook. Naus: "Two months ago the focus was mainly on convenience. Think of fresh food packages or pre-cut vegetables from the refrigerator, for example. Now you see that people are doing more themselves and start to cook more extensively." That also offers perspective, because this development is causing many consumers to look online for special recipes and other information about their daily food. ZON's fresh food platform, Van Eigen Bodem, fits in perfectly with this trend.

The fast world of fresh

Linda Naus had to get used to the fast-paced world of fresh when she joined ZON. "Before that I worked at sauce manufacturer Hela Thissen. But fresh works very differently, you have to sell it even before it's harvested and you can't just turn a knob to increase production. The grower has to look at how he can produce an optimal product in sufficient quantities and profitably. So that grower, he's always in the back of my mind."
Van Eigen Bodem was conceived at ZON back in 2016 as a platform to put growers and their beautiful products in the spotlight with consumers. Naus: "This starts with the needs of consumers, who search the internet for tasty recipes. By linking recipes to the story of the grower and his product, we give the grower a face and make everyday fruit and vegetables the heroes."

"We're growing fast in visitor numbers"

Trial and error

By experimenting plenty and constantly measuring the results, the creators discover what works best. "It's continuous trying and learning through trial and error. We started with just a website and a Facebook page, but our target group is very broad. That's why we now also use channels like Pinterest and Instagram. We see that partly because of that we are growing fast in visitors." Hard figures will not be revealed, but Naus is willing to say that the first quarter of 2020 already managed to attract as many visitors as the whole of 2019. A next step is to use influencers to increase the reach.

Passion of the grower

The recipes are one thing, but the story of the grower is at least as important, Naus argues. "The recipes are a way to attract consumers. But of course, at the end of the day, we do all this for our growers. Every time you speak to a grower, you notice how much passion and knowledge there is. We try to convey that on the platform with the videos of Nederland Proeft and the Hippe Vegetariër. The consumer then learns first-hand how a product is grown, but also, for example, how you can see in the store whether a product is fresh. In this way we want to inspire people to choose that seasonal product from their own soil and from a quality grower."

Growers as TV stars

Not every grower is immediately eager to get in front of the camera. "Growers are first and foremost doers and go all out for that perfect harvest, they don't need to be in the limelight. Running a video will not increase the harvest, of course. But if we explain how important it is to jointly show where a product comes from and what we do to deliver a healthy, fresh and tasty product, then they usually see the long-term benefit. A product with a story just tastes better."

Seeking collaboration

Another challenge Naus faces is that the products often do not carry a brand and therefore seem interchangeable. A cucumber or a leek, what consumer cares which grower it comes from? "By cooperating with A-brands, we can influence the consumer's choice behavior and add weight to the Van Eigen Bodem brand. We have, for example, collaborated with Santa Maria, combining their vegetable marinade with our vegetables. We also combine our asparagus with Maggi sauce and Campina grass-fed butter. It's good for all parties, because presenting products on the shelves together and promoting them together also means being able to share the costs. It is not always possible, because as ZON we are not always 100% shelf-filling per product, but we try to do that when we take it to retail. Because of our cooperation with the National Asparagus Center, you can even jointly serve almost the entire market."

Innovation Trail

ZON also wants to help growers continue to innovate at the product level. "We regularly go through an intensive process with various growers to respond to new opportunities together. Growers receive a trend presentation from experts, we make a competitive analysis and together we look for new opportunities. Should we focus on health, convenience, price or something else? In this way we bring together market and marketing knowledge with the knowledge of the growers, and that is essential for successful innovation. You can't innovate from an office anyway and certainly not in this fresh market."

"Online will become even more important no matter what"

The future is online

By these unique corona times, Naus almost dares not get burned on a future prediction. "We will really have to see what the impact is on consumer behavior when the measures are phased out. But I dare say that online will become more important in all contact moments with the consumer. To get inspiration or new knowledge, to order, to share, and so on. And if we continue to experiment and develop on this front, we can use it to our advantage and influence consumer perception. As far as that goes, Van Eigen Bodem is far from finished and perhaps never will be."

Want to learn more about the platform and their social media approach?
Go to Van Eigen Bodem, visit the Facebook page or go to Pinterest.