MILAN, Oct. 21 (Class Editori) -- China is not a country to conquer, but to persuade, which is the strategy of Monini, historical Umbria-based extra virgin olive oil producer that chose to use culture and dialogue to introduce its products to Chinese consumers. The goal is to triple revenues and sales volumes by 2024 while softly entering one of Asia's most strategic and complex markets.
As concerns olive oil, mainly Made-in-Italy one, China still must be conquered, at least considering its potential as it is already the second Asian target market in terms of shipped volumes, only preceded by Japan.
In 2019, 6 million liters of Made-in-Italy olive oil were exported to China, 4 million of which consisted in extra virgin olive oil. The market is almost entirely controlled by Spain, the world's first oil producer which has been able to establish its presence compactly and not randomly, as Italian companies usually do.
Despite the complicated framework, worsened by the COVID-19 crisis over these months, the time seems right for new investments since Chinese citizens with a high spending power keep exponentially growing, while Made in Italy is considered a sought-after luxury label.
Therefore, Monini's decision to spread Italian food style becomes strategic and opens the doors to the Chinese market through culture, an original choice for an Italian agri-food company interested in establishing its business in the country.
"We decided to massively invest on communication considered not as product promotion but as education," Umberto Villa, Export Manager at Monini, explained, adding that "we offer targeted contents focused on spreading the knowledge of olive oil, of its possible uses in domestic cuisine and of its healthy properties, merging all these aspects with environmental sustainability, a very important theme for many Chinese citizens. Our philosophy is to try to see things from a local point of view, without imposing anything, but rather attempting to integrate our product into everyday life".
To do so, the company has opened multiple communication channels, by joining the main Chinese social networks and by collaborating with local media in last April, in order to attract the most evolved and culturally open consumers in first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Monini is now present on WeChat, the most important messaging and social platform in China with more than one billion active users; on RED, a platform born as a product review space which has quickly evolved into an Instagram-like app with more than 300 million active users, mainly Gen Z women; on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok with more than 600 million users. Moreover, the Group opened its official page on Baidu Baike, the Chinese Wikipedia, while an agreement has been made with over 120 online newspapers to publish articles on Monini and olive oil.
These are only the first steps into China's digital world: in the coming years, in fact, investments are planned on platforms such as Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, or Kuaishou, a YouTube-like app.
On a commercial level, the initiative is supported by the opening, in collaboration with a local distributor, of a flagship store on JD.com, the largest online retailer in China with over 360 million customers, connected to the official WeChat account. Monini also sells its products on Alibaba's e-commerce giant Taobao, while physical purchases are possible at several local supermarket chains.
With 138 employees, 30 million liters of oil produced and a 144-million-euro turnover, the Umbria-based company is the leading brand in Italy. Zefferino Monini, the grandson of the founder, deals with the agricultural and industrial part, while his sister Maria Flora mainly coordinates brand communication and image.
(Source:Class Editori)
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