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Helping communities: Portland Mercado works with CMCI to support food innovation
Portland Mercado worked with the Center for Marketing and Consumer Insights to conduct a market study and cost and revenue model to better understand client need for a mobile food lab throughout the state of Oregon. The Portland Mercado Mobile Food Lab would support food businesses in the pre-business and early-stage phases of operation, assisting entrepreneurs in overcoming common barriers to their business planning.
Portland Mercado is a market provided by the non-profit Hacienda CDC for Latino entrepreneurs to launch their businesses. To better serve this growing community, Hacienda CDC sought out CMCI to assess the market potential and financial viability for a “mobile food lab” to reduce development and production times for food-related products.
The concept is to drive the mobile lab with a suite of food testing equipment directly to the business and test onsite both in Portland and around Oregon. CMCI developed financial models for mobile food lab operations and market assessment of the concept. Student researchers and faculty developed and administered both bilingual online surveys and bilingual interviews with target users.
Additionally, the student researchers acted as a liaison between Hacienda CDC and the business owners. In addition, this project encouraged bilingual students, students studying a second language, and international students to participate and benefit from the opportunity to showcase their language proficiency. As a result, CMCI reached a broader group of OSU students to act as researchers and engage in a multicultural learning opportunity.
Finally, the economic impact to the state of Oregon is significant (though Hacienda CDC has not shared the exact impact with us) through the promotion of entrepreneurship in this growing community and industry
Portland Mercado worked with the Center for Marketing and Consumer Insights to conduct a market study and cost and revenue model to better understand client need of a mobile food lab throughout the state of Oregon. The Portland Mercado Mobile Food Lab would support food businesses in the pre-business and early-stage phases of operation, assisting entrepreneurs in overcoming common barriers to their business planning.