Emco is well-known Czech company selling healthy food, founded in 1990. Nowadays, majority of people trying to eat the high quality food to gain the best lifestyle. This is the main feature of Emco company; it focuses on healthy food, such as different types of Müsli, oat meal, bars, biscuits and cornflakes. Main target group are women between the age 20 and 45; that is because they are interested in this lifestyle and want the best for their families.
The below analysis is based on CHN framework (Valacich 2007).
Tab. 1, Valacich, 2007
*
Once customers visit the Emco Web site they will focus on ->
Graphic design and how far the main page is enjoyble. This is one of the factor that customers analyse within the hierarchy of needs defined by Valacich (2007), named as ‘representational delight’. The first attraction customer can see on the main Emco site is a slide banner which shows the picture of founders, top products and the label of Emco brand; web site is very colorful and customer should be now egaged to continue in searching. Emco is family business so the Web site is made in friendly and trustful tone.
The other category which has influence on customer trust is structure and security, in other words the ‘structural firmness’ (Valacich, 2007). It seems to by the basic requirement for consumers. According to Emco, privacy policies are available and also if customers have any inquires, they can fill the customer form, directly call their number or use their Facebook page.
The last part of needs that Web site should carried is ‘functional convenience’ (Valacich, 2007). It means the ease of use and interactive navigation. Regarding to Emco, customers can see all the useful links for various product, recipes, contacts, news atc. Everything is clear and easy to find.
www.emco.cz
Within the article The online consumer’s hierarchy of needs (Valacich, 2007), there are three types of consumer tasks – Hedonic, Utilitarian and Hybrid (which support both). In case of Emco; its website is mostly Hedonic, as there is a lot of information about products, company and customers can easily search for recipes or events so it can be enjoyble, too.
On the other hand if customers decide to join the Emco Club, then there is a possibility to purchase the goods online. Once they started to be a member of the club, customers have a chances to win some presents, they also receive special offers and are regularly informed about news.
Furthermore, Emco Web site has mainly brand and relationship building form but as I mentioned above, when customers join their club, they can also buy products online, so then it will have also transactional meaning (Valacich, 2017).
*
In contrast, there are few competitors on the market, such as Nestlé and Bonavita. Based on this fact, in order to keep customers loyalty, Emco could consider:
- Keep Newsletter more visible.
- Regularly post news, so then customers can look forward what is coming next and be still in touch with this brand.
- Set up a blog within the Web site.
- Keep informing about current events via more online tools (Emco sponsors and supports a lot of projects; after sharing this experince with customers, they can have better idea what is the Emco philosophy and which values they state).
www.emco.cz
The taste is good, the package is funny and more importantly it is healthy! 🙂
Reference:
Valacich, J., Parboteeah, D. & Wells, J. 2007, The online consumer’s hierarchy of needs, ACM, NEW YORK.
Very Interesting. 🙂