Why do Greek food products lack of competitiveness?

At the end of 2010, during my initiative market research, which took place in two of the biggest quality food retailers in London, British consumers were asked, to respond to the following question:

Which country does  produce the best quality of olive oil?

The responses were unpleasantly shocking. The British believe that the best quality of olive oil is produced in Italy, Spain while Greece follows.  This is an achievement of the major players who implemented successfully great marketing strategies. This is also confirmed by the shelf shares.   The majority of the interviewers have admitted that they express just their perception and not their knowledge about the product. Most of those who went for Greece, they had already experienced the Greek olive oil during their vacations in Greece. This was the only source of information available for them. This highlights the influence of marketing and communication on buyers’ mind, along with the great gap on Greek’s producer strategic marketing.

 Although Greek olive oil confirmed quality, most of the consumers are not aware of its high quality. Thus, they are not willing to pay higher price. This phenomenon appears also to other traditional Greek food products of top quality. This fact makes these products to lack competitiveness comparing to professionally marketed Italian or even Spanish products,  which often kick the Greek products out of the market.

George Gkekas | Brand & Export specialitst