The world becomes more technological, more impersonal, and therefore, with more possibilities of not forging long-term human relationships. We resist this tide, we explain how.
As I always try in these articles, I do not intend to bore you with data, trends from an X report or the opinion of a Guru on a specific topic. I usually base myself on the realities that happen around us, which turns out to be an example of life itself, and that, therefore, many people can identify with.
Technology is a tool (I cannot give it any other value than that), which has allowed me to obtain many positive things in my life, and above all, if we focus on professional life, the world has become very small thanks to the internet and communications such as Whatsapp, Zoom, Meet etc.
Accessing many people who are certainly not close to you, geographically, and still being able to contact them, being able to interact with them, without leaving your place of residence, is simply wonderful.
I was always a person of personal contact, face to face, where I moved, I feel like I seem a little humble, very good. There is no course today that teaches you what is essential to be valued positively, from a first meeting or encounter. For a simple reason: if you are willing to gain the trust of the other person, you will only achieve it if you really care about their needs and do not intend to offer your services / products as a priority.
Digitization and the loss of human treatment
But in the digital world, business relationships, in all honesty, is the opposite of a direct, personal relationship. That was the most important concern we had when we created Made in Spain Gourmet, the lack of personality, coldness in the treatment, and not being able to have real access to customers who were interested in our online gourmet store. We did not want to lose our identity that we had generated in the last 15 years, through countless events and actions based on relationship marketing, human treatment, empathy... human energy was our fuel. And because of that, we created an online store that was as interactive with us as we could.
The Spanish gourmet product: a great unknown
If we as Spaniards are surprised by the enormous amount of products that we are getting to know that are produced in our country (many of them we had not even tried), you can imagine people who do not reside in our country and who are interested in our gastronomy... doubts increase. In addition, the lack of knowledge of the brands means that, if they want to know them, they have to interact with the people who sell them.
That is our differentiating point. First, we create a lot of content around each category, each product, and each producer, to facilitate a much more pleasant shopping environment. We found that very lacking when we wanted to discover new producers, their information as a general rule was rather scarce or unattractive. Made in Spain Gourmet aims to convey that there are people behind the store, who want to help discover the gastronomic treasures that Spain can offer.
Then we added a category that absolutely differentiates us from the rest of gourmet stores, and it is our News, which is divided into nothing more and nothing less than 6 categories, Blog, Spanish Brands, Internationalization, Recipes, Gastronomic experiences y wine shop. We want here to bring together the information of our gourmet environment, so that the consumer can ensure a purchase of products of the highest quality, and that someone is responsible for it, and that is what we have done. Intelligent and transparent communication provides a significant improvement in the perception of brands and their products, and if these contents are personalized, that is, it is known who the people who write them are, then credibility increases.
And finally, we suggest that our clients ask us if they have any questions through the means that we make available to them, e-mail and our WhatsApp. The latter is very effective because we immediately see what the most common doubts are, and surprisingly they want to ensure that our products do arrive in their country (everyone in Europe except the United Kingdom for now).
It is very exciting to see so many messages in so many different languages. With so much interest in our Spanish gourmet products.
The European B2B (Business To Business) has aroused interest in our business model and our way of selecting producers, adding to the requirements of an excellent product, also its the packaging, its storytelling and knowing who is behind the brand and what values govern their companies.
Made in Spain Gourmet It saves them time managing each producer and our requirements seem very good to obtain the most representative products of our gourmet gastronomy.
Thus, we are already developing business in Portugal and soon in Andorra, Italy and Germany. Directly with restaurants and gourmet stores (physical).
In short, we reiterate the great potential that the European and world gourmet market has for our Spanish products in this category. But to gain market share, we must continue to invest in our brands and in communicating what we do internationally.
AUTHOR: Israel Romero, CEO of Made in Spain Gourmet.
