The Big Food Project
Aims
To help The Big Food Project understand its current marketing situation and raise more money through digital channels.
Overview
Blackpool Food Bank was founded in 2012 and has grown significantly over the years, both in terms of the area it covers (Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre), and its central business operations. It is now much more than a food bank, but rather a food redistributor, working with other food banks in the area, and also reaching out to help people directly. Operating now under the new brand banner ‘The Big Food Project’, the charity seeks to find ways to improve its revenue generation in order to do more and help more people.
To this end, we were approach by The Big Food Project to help them better understand their current marketing situation in order that they become more financially sustainable, by generating more regular donations, rather than single one-off type donations that cannot be relied upon in an uncertain financial climate.
To support this project we employed a student researcher to help conduct a full market analysis, as well as a full audit of The Big Food Project’s current marketing communications.
Based on this research, we produced a detailed report which we delivered to the senior management team and members of the board in May 2024.
This report included extensive market research alongside branding guidelines and recommendations on best practice in order to simplify messaging and create a far more cohesive compelling message to persuade people to donate. We also explored options around the proliferation of ‘sub brands’, and how the charity might realign itself in order to make things more streamlined.
Results and Outcomes
Tab Content: For Partners and Engagement
Who did we engage with and how?
As part of this project, we engaged with the senior leadership team at The Big Food Project. We then conducted detailed market analysis research and a full audit of marketing communications across all digital and print channels, including the branding on one of the Project’s sub-brands, the Big Food Truck.
How has it made a difference?
We presented an extremely detailed market analysis report to senior leaders and board members at The Big Food Project in May 2024. This included a breakdown of the charity fundraising landscape as well as their ‘competitors’ (for donations) based in the local area.
Based on our analysis of the Project’s current marketing communications, we identified several key areas for improvement around the consistency of branding and messaging – and the need to create a more cohesive, compelling narrative that is not just tied to a single geographic location.
We also produced an additional set of branding guidelines to help with future communications, as well as strategy recommendations arranged in order of importance and difficulty, in order to help the leadership team prioritise where they focus their efforts in the short, medium and longer term.
Tab Content: For Academics
As lead academic on this project I employed and supervised a final year undergraduate student (Courtney-Mai Lill) who did an excellent job working on this project, and who really impressed the board members at The Big Food Project with her professionalism and marketing knowledge.
We worked really closely together on this project, as there was just so much material to audit, and so many different areas in which to feed our recommendations. While the project perhaps turned out to be a little more challenging than we first expected, I am really pleased with the final outcome and the report (and brand guidelines) produced will be incredibly valuable to the charity team going forward.
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