Rice and Wellness as the Theme of the Marketing Management Contest

Wellness, in its various forms, is a very current topic: people talk a lot about their physical and mental well-being, as well as that of the environment, and they talk a lot about sport and nutrition, more and more often from a health-conscious point view. This was the object of the contest launched by Bocconi University in collaboration with Riso Scotti, which saw the students of the Understanding Consumer course realizing some marketing projects. The winning team, the M&M's, was announced this March: "The goal was to associate the Scotti brand and products with a healthy lifestyle", explains Stefania Borghini, Director of the Marketig Management Master of Science and responsible of the course. "During the course, students learn how to study and predict consumers' behavior. Every year I make them work on real and current cases", she continues. "They did a very good job because, through in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic and netnographic analysis (ie analyzing online blogs and forums) and observing retailers, they managed to give many ideas for innovating the product, as well as the packaging and communication".

First, students had to understand what the consumer would associate with the idea of ​​wellness and how this could emerge from the rice product, especially from Scotti products. The winning team oriented the project towards a specific target: young independent people between 21 and 27 years old and with a busy lifestyle. "One day I was coming home when I saw people distributing small milk cartons for free. That's how we came up with the idea of ​​offering a product to be consumed quickly and that was healthy, nutritious and light at the same time: small rice milk cartons proposed in delicious variants such as coffee, chocolate or hazelnut", explains Eleanora Armirotti, a member of the team. "Our target associates wellness with sport, taste, diet and/or ecology. 'Brikfast' meets all these factors because it is healthy, nutritious, tasty and produced respecting the environment", says Sara Carnevali, another team member (also composed by Carola Bocchio, Giovanni Andrea Mundo, Andrea Ronchetti, Laura Saporiti and Gioacchino Spinello).

Interesting ideas have also came up from the second and third-placed projects. The "Scottati" team proposed rice flour as a new product, since many consumers associate the idea of ​​wellness with homemade food. Also, after realizing that many people approach wellness to relax, they proposed a partnership between Scotti and QC Terme, where guests can eat dishes made ​​entirely with Riso Scotti by a renowned chef. "Project X" team members proposed instead a new biological product to be tested for six months in the "Rice Bazar", a temporary store, a rice restaurant with an open kitchen. They also thought of a communication strategy based on the role of the "mum" proposing a series of Youtube videos where worldwide mums show how to cook some Riso Scotti recipes.