VANUATU: Digital Transformation in the Pacific: La Touque à Poissons
This month we’re focusing on the Digital Transformation of small and medium sized businesses in the Pacific. Pacific Digital Transformation (PDT) Consulting Ltd based in Port Vila, Vanuatu specialises in providing quality digital marketing strategy to businesses. Through the BLP Subsidy we’ve connected PDT with eligible small businesses in need of digital marketing advice and assistance.
Here is the second story from PDT about enabling business growth through technology, featuring fish retailer, La Touque à Poisson.
In Vanuatu everybody knows ‘La Touque à Poissons’ as ‘LTP,’ the most famous fish retailer in the country, after more than 25 years of trading. Owners Anne and Augustin Pheu have vast knowledge of fish species, fishing spots, fishing techniques, and recipes. They opened the LTP store in 1993 on Teouma Street and have 6 boats, based mainly at Northern Efaté to secure their own supply chain.
LTP is committed to selling good quality fish and opened a Takeaway shop ten years ago, which is widely considered the best value for money in town, offering a range of dishes.
In 2018, La Touque à Poissons selected PDT to assist in digitising its external communication. The consultancy was made possible by the Business Link Pacific Subsidy.
With the recent increase in Internet coverage and usage in Vanuatu, there were new consumer behaviors to be considered. The main objective for LTP was to be more client centric by using all relevant channels, so PDT held workshops with the LTP team to define priorities.
The main priority was to ensure that LTP’s menu was easily accessible online so customers could learn what fresh fish and takeaway meals were available for purchase, while also portraying the high quality food standards LTP are committed to.
To achieve this, PDT implemented the following:
Website
www.la-touque.com was developed using the powerful and flexible website builder, WIX . The main functionalities needed were:
- Menu to be updated regularly, stating clearly which fish and dishes are available in store.
- Integration with social networks: Facebook, Instagram, TripAdvisor.
- Contact/Help pop up so customers could contact LTP.
- A Blog to provide tips and information about fish, fishing and cooking methods.
Social networks
LTP publishes an interesting variety of posts on Facebook, including the Takeaway menu, for instance when the Chef offers a new dish, or when highly demanded meals are available such as sashimi. Other posts are about fish arrivals, specifically after a shortage (climate related). The LTP team also publishes posts about fishing techniques and cooking recipes. Here is an example of a successful Facebook post:
Post (in French) about how to use ice while fishing; the importance of maintaining the freshness of the fish at any stage. 3,140 people saw this post in Vanuatu, with a very interesting 20% engagement rate, 614 people reacting to the post.
In Vanuatu, Instagram has limited reach, yet some LTP Instagram posts generate more than 60 likes, which is interesting for this qualitative communication channel.
Direct marketing
The LTP team was encouraged to collect consumers’ data in order to segment accordingly LTP’s communication. For instance, many clients want to receive a notification when LTP has a specific meal or fish instore, such as Tahitian salad, sashimi, smoked marlin and other product categories such as Tanna potatoes.
LTP’s Mailchimp account has been customized. For email sending, Mailchimp is a fantastic tool. It remains free at a small scale, and the cost is super reasonable when the company increases the amount of sent messages. For SMS sending, we identified local interesting solutions.
The LTP team is currently going through a reorganization, implementing for instance XERO and VEND software, and hiring new staff. The implementation of the above marketing strategy is also part of the process.
If you are a small or medium sized business (between 5 and 50 employees) and would like to know if you’re eligible for the BLP Subsidy in Vanuatu, contact:
Yvonne Leo Taiki
Vanuatu Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Pacific Digital Transformation Consulting Ltd ‘s partners are Marc Gérard and Martin Saint Hilaire. Currently, most of our clients’ problematics deal with digital transformation (strategy, processes, tools), both in public and private sectors. We have clients in various sectors: Tourism, Agriculture, Retail, Aquaculture. Beyond the service providers we’re working with, we have 4 consultants: an expat and 3 Ni-Vanuatu consultants. We are also in the set up phase of an incubator in Port Vila.