The Food Hub Project from an Open Marketing Perspective - Part 2

Hello everyone. I am Hayashi, the representative of Monosus.

Since last time , Monosus has been working with the Kamiyama Town Office and the Kamiyama Tsunagu Corporation to launch the Food Hub Project in Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture, to connect agriculture to the next generation.
I am speaking from an Open Marketing perspective.

Last time,

• The issues facing Kamiyama regarding agriculture and abandoned farmland
• Solving the food-related issues faced by the people of Kamiyama

I told him that.

This time, I would like to talk about how we are specifically planning to share our challenges.

Have common indicators for sharing challenges.

One of the indicators set by the Food Hub Project is the "food-to-be-produced rate."
This is an abbreviation for the percentage of locally grown food.
This is a numerical representation of the percentage of ingredients used at the food hub's cafeteria, Kamaya, that are produced in Kamiyama.

Unlike the food self-sufficiency rate calculated by the government, which is calculated based on calories and production value,
It is also used in school lunches.
"Number of food items (produced in the town) / Number of food items (total)"
It is calculated in this way.

At first glance, it may seem that a more effective way to calculate food production rates would be to use calories or production value.

• Since rice and vegetables are already produced on their own farms, the calorie base tends to be relatively high.
• It is difficult to simply compare the production value of products grown on our own farms with that of products purchased from other companies.
• I want to properly count relatively low-calorie ingredients (vegetables, seasonings, tofu, konjac)

For these reasons, we have decided to calculate the production and consumption rate based on the number of food items.

The Food Hub Project also publishes these figures weekly on its website .

This production rate is an indicator that can be said to be the foundation of the Food Hub Project's activities.
We believe that sharing these figures and working to improve them will also help us to solve problems together with the people of Kamiyama.

The only index that is made public is the birth-feeding rate.
This initiative embodies the various aspirations of the Food Hub Project.

As we mentioned in Vol. 11 of Open Marketing,
There are several problems with the marketing techniques that were born and developed about 100 years ago.

it is

• The shift from small-scale production and small-scale consumption to mass production and mass consumption has made both anonymous.
• This has resulted in information asymmetry, which has been exploited in marketing.

That is the point.

As you can see from the words exchanged on anonymous Internet message boards in recent years,
Unfortunately, when both parties are anonymous, many people tend to say and do insensitive things.
To address these issues, companies have attempted to reduce their own anonymity through branding efforts.

However, it is important to remember that with this branding, customers are anonymous.

Branding is, in a sense, a fictional, insubstantial entity known as the "consumer," conveying to the consumer that "we are conducting our business activities in the right way."
It could be said that this is a one-way activity with no solution.

In addition, in the past, marketing
Many companies have taken advantage of information asymmetries.
This is partly unavoidable due to the distribution system.
This is because the places where production and consumption activities take place have become separated, and production activities themselves have become more complex due to industrialization and other factors.

Carry out activities openly towards a specific large number of people.

In response to this, the Food Hub Project places great importance on two things in its activities.

it is

• Targeting a specific large number of people with ties to Kamiyama, and valuing face-to-face relationships
• Be open about your ideas and efforts, and eliminate information asymmetry as much as possible.

That is it.

In the Food Hub Project,
The people who produce the produce on the farm, the people who cook in the restaurant,
All the bakers who make bread in the bakery will be there,
Visitors to the store can see all the production activities.

Furthermore, rather than simply making their activities visible,
The food production rate is an indicator that we can share with the people of Kamiyama and use to make our activities truly open.

The most important thing to do to improve the production rate is to
The people of Kamiyama visited the stores run by the Food Hub Project,
They can eat food made with ingredients from Kamiyama, or buy ingredients and cook them at home.

This will improve the quantity, variety, and quality of agricultural products and processed products produced in Kamiyama.
Abandoned farmland will be transformed into cultivated land, and the food in Kamiyama will become more abundant.

From indicators within the Food Hub Project to indicators within the town

Currently, the only indicator of this rate is the ratio within the Food Hub Project's restaurant, Kamaya.

To calculate the production and consumption rate for the entire town, we need to patiently collect a huge amount of data, so to be honest, we haven't started on that yet.

However, within the next 5 to 10 years, we would like to calculate and share the production and consumption rate not only within the Food Hub Project but also within Kamiyama Town.
This was the original purpose of the Food Hub Project.
In addition, the company aims to solve social issues together with its customers.
This is because it is in line with the purpose of Open Marketing.

In the last two posts, we will introduce our efforts in the Food Hub Project.
I shared a concrete example of how we are building a system to solve social issues by solving our customers' problems .

I'll leave it here for now.
Thank you for reading to the end this month as well.

※PS
The restaurant "Kama-ya" and "Kamapan & Store" operated by the Food Hub Project
It opened safely on March 3rd.
We are very grateful to the many customers who visit us every day.
If you are reading this article and are in the area, please do drop by.