Mila is a milk cooperative of 2,600 small dairy farmers in northern Italy (South Tyrol). The dairy industry represents a unique agribusiness sector: dairy production is an agricultural commodity and milk is produced daily, year round Milk and dairy products belong to a global supply chain which encompasses multiple countries, each with unique production practices and consumer markets. The typical firm in this industry is small or micro, but this has changed recently thanks to new technologies and skills that are allowing farmers to manage larger organization. In Italy the milk industry is characterized by an increased concentration of retailers in the last few decades. This phenomenon is a cause of unbalanced power along the supply chain, and some innovative small producers are reacting with marketing innovation and market research in order to adopt a pull strategy, avoiding the buying power of intermediaries. In addition, consumers’ preferences are increasingly driving the entire industry, so it is critical to understand their motivations and perceptions. In these scenarios companies need to evolve their marketing strategies toward “umarketing, ubiquity marketing,” which means to be always present with always connected users, everywhere. This is possible thanks to the presence of technology that enables consumers to have access to the application when needed and desired. Social media allow them to share their real-time events and feelings through written posts or pictures.

Mila, serving several European markets, adopts social media for several purposes. One of them is to improve data collection and research on such markets. Mila began its marketing innovation in March 2016 when it faced the need to better understand consumers’ online content that is constituted not only of written posts but also a growing number of images. So, due to the lack of advanced technical skills, Mila decided to outsource this activity to Maxfone, a digital agency that since 2008 has been specializing in 3.0 digital communication services and technologies for companies........

Discussion Questions 

1. How was Mila able to do market research through social media? Is there any difference in doing so between small enterprises and large companies?
2. What kind of information can Mila collect about consumers’ habits from Photostream analysis regarding its target? Why is this information helpful to conduct market research?
3. Why is there a need to collect visual contents rather than mere written posts? What can they add to the company in terms of data and information?
4. What metrics could Mila apply to measure the effectiveness of the campaign?