Estudio Mercado

MODELING AND POSITIONING THE WORLD CONSUMPTION OF FRESH TOMATO. The Spanish Case.
J. DE PABLO VALENCIANO M. A. GIACINTI BATTISTUZZI C. VENEGAS NAVAS A. GORRIZ HERNANDEZ ABSTRACT This article presents the current situation of the tomato consumption in the world. This paper proposes a new methodology for classifying countries into four main markets, ‘the sustainable market’, the ‘effort market’,the ‘vulnerable market’ and ‘the declining market’. Each market has its own producing and consuming trends and its particular strategies for producing, exporting, distributing and logistics strategies. Finally, this paper identifies the most influential variables in the commercial process of producing, consuming and exporting of Spanish tomato. . KEY-WORDS Trade Vegetables Sustainable MarketVulnerable Market Declining Market Effort Market

1. INTRODUCTION Since Smith’s (1956) introduction of market segmentation, marketing practitioners and academics have adopted the concept enthusiastically, and standard marketing texts now include at least a chapter describing segmentation and the benefits it will bring to marketers who adopt the technique (Hoek et al, 1996; 25). "Market segmentationis, according to many authors, one of the fundamental principles of modern marketing” (Dibb; Stern, 1995; 625). In literature there are a lot of definitions of market segmentation but most of authors agree that segmentation is the breaking up of a large usually heterogeneous group into smaller market groups that is segments that respond to a particular marketing mix in a similar way (Kovacic et al.,2002) Kotler (1988) pointed out that the some of the advantages of the segmentation are: A full understanding of a market. The ability to predict behaviour accurately. 1

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An increased likelihood of detecting and exploiting new market opportunities.

The segmentation can help businesses allocate financial and other resources more effectively (McDonald and Dunbar, 2004; 16). It is alsosuggested that it leads to a better understanding of customers, which can assist in the design of more suitable marketing programmes (Dibb et al., 2002). The purpose of market segmentation is to identify the taxonomy of consumption patterns by dividing a market into several homogeneous sub-markets. Marketers can formulate product strategies, or product positions, tailored specifically to the demandsof these homogeneous sub-markets. Homogeneous sub-markets are defined by predetermined segmentation variables (Lin, 2002; 249). The main objective of this paper is to analyze the global trend in consumption of tomato in the most important consumer and producer markets as well as to figure out what is going on in one of the main markets of Spain exportation. For this purpose, the AgrifoodConsumption Analysis Model (ACAM) is applied. According to this model the markets consumption has been divided in four based on their annual rate of change. Countries rated with a “sustainable” market have experienced an increase in tomato consumption and in other vegetables. By opposition countries in the “tough” market have experienced a rise in tomato consumption and have experienced a reduction in theconsumption of other vegetables. Countries in “vulnerable” markets have shown a decrease in the consumption of all others vegetables. “Declining” markets show a clear decreasing trend in the consumption of tomato as well as in all other vegetables. As a matter of fact this paper is organized in four sections; after this section it will introduce an explanation of the methodology used by theAgro-Food Consumption Analysis Model. The third section contains the description of the global results and results for Spain. And a conclusion will end this article.

2. METHODOLOGY The proposed Agro-food Consumption Analysis Model (ACAM) helps to understand the tomato market classification and allows visualizing the current situation (Giacinti, 2001b; 42). The purpose of the model is to establish...