Croatian couple increases awareness of the Adriatic Sea and its fish

Influencing food choices through a children’s game

A young couple has developed a game for young children and their parents that will inform about fish in the Adriatic with the goal of encouraging the consumption of seafood.

Despite Croatia’s 1,777 kilometers of continental coastline (and roughly 4,000 km of island coastlines) and the importance of fishing for coastal communities, overall national seafood consumption remains surprisingly low. Per capita seafood consumption in Croatia is lower than in other Mediterranean countries. Marina and Filip Maksan, a Croatian couple, were aware of this underconsumption of seafood and additionally recognized a general lack of understanding surrounding seafood products and local species. Together, with local graphic designers and producers, Marina and Filip have created a children’s toy with the intention of educating young kids on the different fish in the Adriatic Sea and to remove the mystery surrounding fish species and increase individual willingness to consume sea products. By creating a product that encourages young children to try unfamiliar fishery products they hope to increase demand for fish products as a protein source for Croatians.

The origins of the game

When co-founder of the product, Marina, was taking a course on business and marketing, she was given an assignment to create a blog. Given her husband’s position in the private fish processing industry, she decided to make her blog about fish. She wrote on the importance of eating fish, information on fish, and guides on how to prepare specific products. The blog created a significant following among Croatians including chefs, people in the food industry, and people interested in fish. The blog caused her to realize that many Croatians do not know very much about fish or how to prepare it. She eventually shut down the blog but remained aware of this lack of knowledge among many in the country. While on maternity leave with her first child, Marina noticed that there were not very many products targeted at children related to fish or sea organisms. So, she and her husband created their game.

A simple memory game with an educational purpose

The first product that Marina and Filip created was a memory game intended for children ages 3-8. The set that they released consists of 12 different organisms, and 24 total cards for the children to play the memory game with. The game comes with a brochure that contains educational material for each species

Marina and Filip Maksan, a young Croatian couple, have developed games for children that teach them about marine life.

A couple of pieces from the 24 piece memory game that teaches children about different sea species.

that is depicted on the cards. The informational text was written by Marina and Filip, and they have received significant feedback on the value of the information. The text has even been used to supplement biology courses for older children or provide more general information on local species for the general public. The products have encouraged parents to feed their family a fish featured in the game, and they have made people more aware about what fish is available to eat. The game allows parents to playfully introduce fish to their children and removes some of the children’s uncertainty when confronted with something new to eat. The game also helps parents who wish to educate their children on the sea. Marina and Filip have received questions from parents on other ways to get their children to love fish or to love the sea, and even on how to encourage children not to litter or be wasteful.

A completely Croatian company

In the development of their product, Marina and Filip decided to make it a purely Croatian enterprise. They found Croatian graphic designers who they worked with to design the cards. They found a Croatian photographer for their marketing and images of the species for the brochure. Marina and Filip wrote the brochure themselves, however, they collaborated with a woman who works in childcare to ensure the language was accessible for very young kids. Finally, they partnered with a Croatian printing company to produce the product. The 100 Croatian origin of the product makes it a desirable product for Croatian stores as well as for tourists interested in shopping locally, despite the product only being in Croatian.

Just a hobby for the entrepreneurial couple

Despite the large amount of work required to launch the game and continue developing new games, this business remains only a hobby for Marina and Filip. Filip primarily focuses on communicating with stores where they will sell the game and on dealing with legal aspects of their company. Marina deals with the media, marketing, and communicates with newspapers. Marina is a researcher at the university and really enjoys her profession and wishes to continue. Her husband has moved away from the private sector and now works for the Croatian ministry of agriculture. Their day jobs have encouraged them to keep the company small and only offer the product in a limited number of stores to avoid being overwhelmed.

Large opportunity for growth and development for future products

Their busy work schedules have not stopped them from continuing to develop new products. Shortly after the release of the memory game, they created a 36-piece jigsaw puzzle with different species and a different brochure. They have also developed a separate set of the memory game that is not solely focused on the Adriatic Sea, and therefore, contains information on 12 new organisms. They are already developing ideas for a game that is focused on freshwater species. Marina works in research on microplastics, and she has mentioned that a game related to microplastics, and waste may be a potential next step. The demand for the game is very high because there is nothing similar on the Croatian toy market. In November 2020, their company saw very high sales as parents and grandparents were shopping for Christmas gifts. After the surge in sales at the end of 2020, they remained very active in 2021. The success of the game has resulted in a degree of media attention which further increased public awareness of the product. They are optimistic that sales will increase further in the summer season when tourists flood into Croatia. Their success shows that people want to learn more about the sea and the fish they can eat, and just need an accessible way to acquire this knowledge.

Maggie Liebich, maggie@eurofish.dk