Analyzing Food Waste in Australia: A New Marketing Strategy for Youth

This report examines the issue of food waste in Australia, highlighting its significance and the need for effective marketing strategies to address it. The paper begins by outlining the background of food waste in Australia, emphasizing the substantial amount of food wasted annually and its impact. It then delves into the major causes of food waste, including reliance on take-away food, poor grocery planning, and lack of food management, and the specific demographic most involved in wasting food. The report analyzes a previous marketing strategy, the Foodwise campaign, identifying its shortcomings, such as lack of consistent social media engagement. A new marketing strategy is proposed, emphasizing the 4Ps (Product, Place, Price, Promotion), 5Cs (Customer, Company, Context, Collaborators, Competitors), and STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) of marketing. The report recommends that the new campaign focuses on consistent social media presence, targeting youth, and potentially partnering with large restaurant chains to increase awareness and achieve sustainable consumption goals. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of integrated marketing, particularly social media, to reach the target audience effectively.

Running head: FOOD WASTE IN AUSTRALIA
Food waste in Australia
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1FOOD WASTE IN AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Major causes of food waste in Australia..........................................................................................2
Previous marketing strategy............................................................................................................3
New marketing strategy...................................................................................................................4
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

2FOOD WASTE IN AUSTRALIA
Background
Food wastage among the Australian youth was perceived to be a major problem. A
survey among the Australians found out that, on an average every household wastes food of
approximate value AU$ 1036 every year (Alden 1987). It is a major concern not only for the
Australians but also for the entire world. If food is wasted in such a manner then the whole world
will have to suffer as a result. Therefore, this paper will outline a suitable marketing strategy to
create awareness among the youth below 35 years. While making amendments, the previous
marketing strategy will be focused on to see what went wrong with that one.
Major causes of food waste in Australia
Previously, certain factors were identified which were considered to play an important
role in food waste. The factors included- more dependence on take- away food rather than
cooking at home; weak planning of grocery shopping; no proper utilization of the left- over food;
not keeping a track of the food expiry date (Anagnostou, Ingenbleek and van Trijp 2015). The
survey focused on the population who was mostly involved in wasting food included families
with children, young people below 35 years of age and the individuals whose income was more
than AU$ 100,000. The survey highlighted that the Australians were indulged in wasting
4,000,000 tons of food every year (Armine and Cavusgil 1986).
For the past twenty years, several issues were raised due to the environmental
sustainability of the recent consumption trend in association with the change in climatic
conditions and biodiversity (Baalbaki and Malhotra 1993). Social media marketing and
behavioral science was considered as the major challenges in implementing sustainable behavior

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among the consumers. Sustainable consumption refers to rejecting the mainstream concepts of
marketing philosophy of pleasure, luxury and selfishness along with extravagant resources
(Balderjahn, Peyer and Paulssen 2013).
Previous marketing strategy
The issue of food wastage in Australia took into account many social marketing
campaigns to create awareness about the darker future regarding sustainable consumption. For
instance, Foodwise was a prominent campaign introduced by DoSomething (Cavusgil and Nevin
1981). DoSomething is a community organization in the Newtown region of New South Wales.
This campaign was started in the year 2015 with the aim of decreasing the negative impact on
environment in terms of food consumption. Foodwise campaign had intended to spread
knowledge among the Australian consumers regarding their consumption and wastage of food
and the negative impact that is associated with the same. The campaign had stressed on its online
presence by creating a website and stepping into the social media platforms of Facebook,
Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. The website had clearly explained the way consumers can solve
the issues of food wastage and it was aimed at numerous segments of target customers. However,
the focus was put on the youths of age less than 35 years (foodwise.com.au 2018).
The problem of the previous marketing strategy was that it was not properly
followed up. The survey highlighted that the Facebook page and the main website of the
campaign was last updated in 2016. There was lack of updated tweets or likes on the Twitter
page too (Crittenden et al. 2011). Therefore, it can be realized that there was gap in reaching the
targeted customers due to ineffective use of social media. With the ongoing change in the trend
and knowledge of consumer perception and food consumption, there was necessity of new

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marketing strategy. The new strategy will be helpful in evaluating the wastage of food among
Australians and change their attitudes regarding this severe issue (Chabowski, Mena and
Gonzalez-Padron 2011).
New marketing strategy
The goal of the new marketing strategy for Foodwise 2018- 19 will be to implement strict
policies for avoiding food wastage among the youths in Australia. Primarily, the 4Ps, 5Cs and
STP of marketing need to be considered for designing the strategy.
The 4Ps of marketing include-
Product- The product for which the social marketing will be done need to be in relevance
with the issues of food wastage in Australia.
Place- The place is based on Australia but the negative impact was felt by the rest of the
world.
Price- The price will play an important role in determining the value o the product for
which the social marketing is being done.
Promotion- Advertising and promotion will revolve around social media. As the youth
group of less than 35 years is targeted therefore social media platform will be best suited for
grabbing their attention (White and Simpson 2013).
The 5Cs of marketing include-

5FOOD WASTE IN AUSTRALIA
Customer- To avoid food wastage among the Australian youth the social media
marketing needs to be targeted to the customers who are more inclined to purchasing restaurant
food and do not look at the expiry dates.
Company- The companies such as restaurants and cafes need to make sure that they take
proper care of the left- over food items. They can implement innovative products, which will be
their USP in the international market.
Context- The limitations and restrictions posed due to political, economic, social and
technological issues need to be considered in designing the new marketing strategies.
Collaborators- The new marketing strategy should look into the interference of third party
sources to help in terms of distributing and supplying the food components.
Competitors- It is required to find out the immediate competitors who will get the benefit
of the food wastage among the youths in Australia (Chabowski, Mena and Gonzalez-Padron
2011).
STP refers to Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. In the new marketing strategy for
creating awareness about food waste, the segmentation will be done based on age. This is
because the survey data focused on the wastage of food mainly by youths within 35 years of age.
This specific age group will be targeted along with the other Australians along with the
restaurants and cafes. The positioning will be done in such a way that it modifies the previous
marketing strategy by keeping a track of the social media platforms (Anagnostou, Ingenbleek
and van Trijp 2015).

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Recommendation
After looking at the issue of food waste from different aspects, it can be recommended
that the Foodwise campaign for 2018- 19 should not repeat the same mistakes by not keeping a
follow- up of the social media platforms. As the targeted consumers belong to the age group of
35 years who are more accustomed to the use of Facebook, Twitter and others, therefore the
platforms need to be constantly updated. It will keep on reminding the customers not to waste
food, as it will lead to a bleak future of food consumption.
Moreover, it can be recommended that the campaign should spread on an international
level with the use of social media, which will be cost- effective as well as put an immediate
effect. In this way, the marketing goal of making Australia as well as the entire world free from
food wastage will be achieved. There are different channels of integrated marketing such as
advertising, sales promotion, PR and others. Based on the issue, the appropriate integrated
marketing channel for reaching the target market will be social media. This is because the youths
in the range of 35 years are more inclined towards the social networking platform and it will be
easy to grab their attention. As the non- profit organizations do not have huge budget for
advertising the campaign, they can tie up with a large restaurant chain such as Pizza hut or
McDonald’s. It will help in fulfilling the objective of sustainable consumption and promote the
name of the specific fast food chain.

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References
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