Facebook Chatbots Offer Persona-driven Method to Boost Food Retail

South African retailer Woolworths has created a new research method using a chatbot on Facebook.

Reveal deeper insights into food sales by increasing engagement and data quality. This approach can be called persona-driven replacement of traditional food log research.


The real motivation and driving force for consumers to buy food


Woolworths account executive Charlene Van Zy asked a question, "How do we start to know what the real motivation and drive of consumers is?"


In fact, this method is an update of the traditional food log, which has two key flaws:


People answer far more rationally than they do

Engagement declines because respondents don't like the experience


Innovative persona-driven approach based on Facebook chatbots


To avoid this, Woolworths worked with research company Kantar to design a chatbot on Facebook Messenger, which is based on the high popularity of the Facebook platform.


The study analyzed the collected data with more than 1,000 user interactions, combined with natural language, and responded with pictures.


These data provide key insights into consumption habits based on different messages that appear at different times, of which health is considered important to think of.


The important point is that it provides data support for some of the company's key business areas, mainly in the following aspects


How to choose a language that is good for marketing

How to choose a time for a favorable promotion

How to meet consumer needs

Provide different perspectives on pricing


In Conclusion:


Discover and ask a substantive problem that plagues your business, analyze the cause of the problem, and possible new methods to solve it, like a chatbot. Woolworths creates a chatbot on Facebook to provide a more accurate method for its business development.



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Understanding food habits and motivations using chatbots