Farmers go zesty for feedback

Cabot Creamery, a dairy agricultural cooperative in New England and upstate New York, doesn't think focus groups are cheesy.

The co-op proved it recently, too, in Tampa, when it used the marketing technique to test out its new line of Farmer's Legacy cheddar cheese. The line has been sold in Publix and Walmart stores across Florida for about two months, and now the Montpelier, Vt.-based co-op wants some real customer feedback.

“Florida represents a diverse demographic for us,” says Cabot Senior Vice President of Marketing Roberta MacDonald, who specifically cites markets like St. Petersburg and Fort Myers. “It hits a lot of bells and whistles for us.”

The Tampa market, adds MacDonald, has a lot of cheese eaters, according to the co-op's intensive research. “We've been doing well here since the mid-'90s,” MacDonald tells Coffee Talk. “We've come to really respect this part of the state.”

Cabot, made up of 1,200 farming families, held its focus groups in Tampa Nov. 20 and Nov. 21. Around 60 people attended, says MacDonald, in groups of 10. The groups were there to test and talk about three new Cabot cheeses: Farmhouse Reserve, a bold and creamy extra sharp cheddar; alpine blend, a creamy refined cheddar and Parmesan blend; and white oak cheddar, a blend based on Cabot Clothbound.

MacDonald says one important element of the sessions, a lesson for any entity doing focus group research, is to collect detailed feedback in a non-intimidating conversational format. That goes for what the participants think about everything from the color of the packaging to the size of the product. Avoid one-word answer questions, too. “The worst question you can ask is how much will you pay?” says MacDonald. “Or don't say, 'Do you like the taste?'”

Cabot spends a significant amount of money on market research, says MacDonald, including the focus groups. She declines to detail how much, only to say it's the equivalent of two months' worth of sales.

And MacDonald doesn't mince words about Cabot's high-end place on supermarket shelves. “We have this incredible quality,” she says, “but people will have to pay for it.”