The Vidalia® Onion Committee’s (VOC) 2011 “Sweet Vidalias & Country Music” promotion featured a retail display contest that drew more than 100 entries from around the country.

I have often wondered on the value of display contests and how to get retailers to really participate. But this recent contest that we launched for our client not only generated participation and excitement in-store but retailers went above and beyond the call of duty!

The winning display entry came from Store Manager Charles Hanks of a Harvey’s store in Tallahassee, Florida. Hanks and his staff built a massive “Grand Ole Opry” stage in the produce department with Vidalia Onions as the “featured act.” The display came alive with guitars and dancing Vidalias that Hanks and his son drew out by hand on plywood and constructed. Hanks reported the display was so popular that they had trouble getting a snapshot of it without a mob of customers.

The first runner up featured a unique farm twist: a front end loader dragging bins filled with the famous Georgia sweetie through an “onion field.” The second runner up also erected a very detailed rendering of the Grand Ole Opry.

I admit that the majority of participating retailers were from smaller independent chains. But the small numbers combined resulted in a big success.

Here’s what worked:

Central theme sparks creativity:
Country Music was the central theme for this promotion. The VOC teamed up with Universal Music in Nashville and several country music stars were featured on the point-of-sale materials including: Vince Gill, Gary Allan, Billy Currington and Ashton Shepherd. The contest created an opportunity for the store personnel to have fun and be creative with country music.

Award winning incentives:
The grand prize award was a trip to Nashville that included round trip airfare for two, hotel accommodations for two nights, Grand Ole Opry tickets, and more. Additional prizes were awarded for several runner ups.

Value-added point-of-sale materials:
Colorful POS materials were provided to participating stores that featured the country music artists and highlighted Vidalia onions from Georgia.

Downloadable artwork and advertisements:
Retailers were provided with downloadable artwork available online that also featured the country music artists and product shots. Artwork was also provided for in-store circular advertisements making it easy for retailers to promote Vidalia onions to their shoppers.

This retail display contest proved that traditional marketing still has value in this day and age of high-technology and social media.

As a food marketer, I have found that we’re not just competing for “share of plate” but also share of time which is becoming more fragmented. So what’s working? I can only speak for my personal experiences with our clients this year.

Here’s what worked for us:

1. Consumer-friendly packaging: We spent more time this year focusing on the consumer when it comes to packaging design. From health and storage tips, to recipes and contests, we noticed a difference in both sales and the response when the consumer was put in the center of the design process. This is nothing new for packaged goods, but has not been the case in produce. The produce industry is changing as new innovations in packaging provide a better platform to communicate with shoppers.

2. Engaging with food bloggers: Online influencers became a great vehicle for providing value-added endorsements to a very targeted audience. We spent more time developing relationships with bloggers this year.

3. Partnership marketing: Teaming products up with established brands can create a good synergy for increasing sales. Our client, the Vidalia Onion Committee, teamed up with Universal Music for an exciting country music campaign featuring key artists on the packaging and point-of-sale materials. They got a tremendous response from both retailers and consumers.

4. Coupons: With these tough economic times, coupon promotions continued to be successful this year.

5. Customized POS for retailers: When it comes to point-of-sale materials, one size does not fit all. We developed more customized point-of-sale materials this year for key retailers to meet their specific needs for format and style. This helped our clients to strengthen their retail partnerships resulting in a win, win.

6. Facebook Advertising: Its very inexpensive and has the ability to reach a highly targeted consumer audience. This became a no brainer in driving more traffic to our client’s web sites.

7. Integrated Marketing: We spent more time helping our clients to integrate their marketing, public relations and social media initiatives to ensure they worked together in tandem to deliver the same key messages to strengthen the campaign.

As we ponder the successes and challenges from this year, we’re looking forward to the next adventures in 2012.

In fact, 75% of Moms say that marketers don’t understand what it’s like to be a mother. And, 60% of Moms feel that marketers are ignoring their needs.** Why is that? Here’s what I have found:

One reason is that today’s Mom is not the stereotypical woman of the past with the June Cleaver pearls and apron. It’s this image of perfection that tends to lead marketers and Moms down the wrong path. The reality is that the modern mother is a multi-tasker, performing a constant juggling act of balancing family, career and everything in between.

“Influenced by a legacy passed down from their own mothers and rosy retrospection, Moms often feel pressure to portray the perfect mother during marketing research. The marketers then take this misleading information and craft messages that idealize and trivialize the experience of being a Mom. The result is aspirational advertising, which reinforces the cultural ideal of the ‘perfect Mom.’ ” According to the Mom Complex.com, a think tank at the Martin Agency and a web site designed to assist marketers.

When it comes to reaching Moms, here’s what marketers should know:

• Think Innovative not Old School:
Traditional advertising, PR and direct mail are not the most effective avenues for reaching Moms. According to Stacy DeBroff, CEO of MomCentral: “We are too busy to pay attention to ads. Moms now want to engage in conversation.”

• Go Social and Engage:
Seventy-one percent of mothers said they were very likely to use the Internet for product information, advice or general information.*** Many Moms have two Facebook identities. Nine out of ten Moms Facebook; three out of five Tweet; and three out of five blog. (MomCentral Consulting.)

Sixty-three percent of Moms read articles posted by others, 35% share what they are reading, and 35% post content that others share. (Lauren Weinberg, VP Strategic Insights & Research, Yahoo!). Actively engage with Moms on the social networks to build brand loyalty and referrals.

• Tap into the Mom Blogging Community:
Reach out and get to know the Mom bloggers who are key influencers. Word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing within the Mom market. Fifty-five percent of mothers say they rely on recommendations when making purchases for the home. The number jumps to 64% when it comes to buying a product for their child.***

• Conduct Informal Focus Groups.
Experts say the best way to really understand Moms is to ask them in an informal environment. A casual setting will allow Moms to open up and offer important feedback and insights. Gather one or more small groups of Moms from your local community or tap into small groups from an online community and have real conversations.

• Consider Cost Saving Opportunities:
During these tough economic times, Moms are using more coupons as they seek ways to save money for the family. Consider coupons and other cost saving approaches in your marketing plan when targeting Moms.

Sources: *Child’s Play Communications, **MinTel, Global market-research agency;***Marketing to Moms: Getting Your Share of the Trillion Dollar Market (Prima, 2002)
 

McIntyre Marketing helped to launch Produce for Kids and we have served the organization for the past ten years, so it’s wonderful to be able to make a difference.

This year’s spring campaign was the largest to date with 16 grocery store retailers nationwide including Acme Markets, Ahold’s GIANT Food Stores, Martin’s, Giant Landover and Stop & Shop divisions, Associated Wholesale Grocers’ Major Savings, Advantage, Independent, Country Mart, Homeland and United divisions, Kroger’s Southwest and King Soopers divisions, Meijer, Inc., Price Chopper and Publix Super Markets. In addition, more than 40 fruit and vegetable suppliers took part in supporting the campaign.

1. Map out the Long Term Vision
I always recommend starting with the universal which makes it much easier to drill down to the specifics. Don’t be afraid to think BIG. If the vision is the destination your plan becomes your road map in defining how you will get there. An electrifying long-term vision will also mobilize the team in being a part of something greater than themselves.

2. Provide Real Objectives
It sounds simple, but I often counsel clients on being very clear with defining real objectives. An example of a vague objective is “ to increase consumer awareness.” What does increase consumer awareness really mean and how does this translate into increasing sales? First, make sure your objectives are track-able so you can better manage expectations. Second, pinpoint what you really want to achieve so that you can reach your long-term vision.

3. Design Strategies to Meet Objectives
In creating the roap map to success, the strategies are the sign posts you designate along the way. They should clearly define how you’re going to meet your objectives. And they should be realistic from a cost standpoint as well.

4. Integrate, Integrate, Integrate
The consumer advertisements should be integrated with the messaging on the web site and twitter posts to the press release copy points etc. I can’t stress enough the importance of integration when it comes to all marketing and communication initiatives. It seems simple, but too many times I see the PR firm working separately from the marketing team and they are not maximizing their program from both a positioning and an overall value standpoint. Make sure you outline how you’re going to integrate all the communication vehicles in your plan.

5. Create Tactical Advantages
Make sure that the tactics in your plan are primed to reach your strategies and overall objectives as well as separate you from your competition. Question the value of each spend from trade advertising to the point-of-sale materials. Don’t be afraid to “think outside the box” and try something new and innovative.

For more information, check out my web site at www.mcintyremarketing.com.

The recognition from Promo Magazine completes a trifecta of highly sought after national marketing awards for the onion farmers this year. In April the campaign earned the group two first place REGGIE awards from Promotion Marketing Association for “age-specific” and “national consumer under $1-million.” In June “Ogres & Onions” clinched a coveted PRSA Bronze Anvil for non-profit media relations tactics.

McIntyre Marketing created the campaign graphics, retail marketing program, consumer online contest and social media support for the promotion.

The “Ogres & Onions” campaign coincided with the theatrical release of the final Shrek franchise installment, “Shrek Forever After.” The colorful, kid-friendly promotion escalated sales of bagged onions almost 30 percent for the season.

We developed the retail promotional campaign, point-of-sale materials and the consumer online Jingle contest which empowered visitors to upload a video of themselves singing their own song creation. A campaign micro site was developed for the contest at www.contest.vidaliaonion.org which showcased the videos and asked visitors to vote for their favorite video and post comments in an ongoing dialogue.

Contestants posted the videos on their own YouTube channels and sent in the link on an online registration form. Once approved, the video was uploaded to the web site. Contestants used Facebook and Twitter to reach out to their family and friends asking them to get the word out and vote. This created a buzz in harnessing the power of social media.

Visitors were asked to create a song about why Vidalia onions were their favorite, sing about the sweet flavor, usage in a recipe, growing region in Georgia and so on. The posted videos became an educational tool for consumers visiting the site.

The jingle site quickly became an active hub of lively comments and frequent interaction as thousands of consumers voted and posted. Contestants launched their own ongoing marketing campaigns to spread the word. The micro site received 136,347 visits with over 481,138 page views during the promotion. As we quickly found out, social media can be a powerful tool to increase consumer awareness during peak season.

This technology unlocks a door for providing an interactive platform to connect and communicate directly with consumers in the store or on the printed page through a virtual portal of possibilities. Although this is exciting news for marketers, the technology is still in the beginner stage with consumers. Here are some quick stats:*

–83% of US adults own a cell phone and 35% have a smartphone
–More than half a billion people access mobile Internet worldwide
–Usage is expected to double within five years as mobile overtakes the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web
–More than 5 out of 10 consumers have seen QR codes
–Almost 3 out of 10 have actually scanned one, with the three top actions being couponing, accessing additional information, and sweepstakes entry

We tested QR codes during a 45-day retail promotional campaign in the produce department of key supermarket chains across the U.S. QR codes were placed on recipe cards and on a floor stand unit in nearly 3,000 stores. The response was okay at best, with about 400 scans. But the jury is not out yet. We are planning to continue to use these codes with the expectations that these numbers will rise as consumers become more aware of what these are and how to use them.

As a consumer myself, I have seen a dramatic increase of QR codes in just the last 6 months on all types of items from direct mail to packaging to business cards. So the possibilities are definitely growing….

*beQRius.com, The Status of QR Codes, March 7, 2011
*Pew Research Center’s,“Internet & American Life Project Report” Spring Tracking Survey April 26-May 22, 2011
*MobiThinking.com

According to a consumer study conducted by the Perishables Group on behalf of Produce for Kids, parents seemed split on targeting kids with cartoon characters on produce packaging. Half of parents surveyed said that these characters and messages would not affect their purchase decisions, while another 27% said they would avoid purchasing produce labeled with cartoon characters.

By comparison, 28% said that characters promoting healthy eating habits were a good influence and might cause them to make a purchase. The most preferred characters were from Nickelodeon, Disney and PBS Kids.

The good news is that awareness of healthful eating habits is growing, thanks in part to first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move nationwide campaign to tackle childhood obesity, and television shows such as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

In 2010, we worked with the Vidalia Onion Committee to implement a supermarket promotional campaign that partnered with DreamWorks Animation to promote the Shrek Forever After movie release. The “Ogres and Onions” campaign featured Shrek on in-store point of sale materials and packaging as well as the cast of characters on an interactive online game and contest for consumers.

The results were a resounding success with the Vidalia industry reporting up to 50% increase in same store sales during the promotion. Not to mention national features on ABC World News Tonight and in the Wall Street Journal.

As the Executive Director for Produce for Kids®, I initiated a partnership with PBS KIDS® to include the cartoon character “Hooper” as the spokesperson for our annual Fall Campaign on in-store point-of-sale materials and online. We’ve seen large boosts to the web site traffic and positive feedback from parents on this promotion as well.

I personally feel that including cartoon characters on produce packaging is a good start. I am proud of the work that we’re doing with Produce for Kids. But it will take a coordinated industry-wide effort to combat childhood obesity.

That’s because it takes much time and effort to reposition a company or brand that has gained valuable brand equity in the marketplace.

But there are times when the brand has simply become outdated or is too limiting. This was the case with General Produce. The company began in 1960 as a wholesaler at the Atlanta State Farmers Market. Over the years, the company has grown and expanded their services and offering to a wide range of produce items.

Today, General Produce, Inc. is the largest full line wholesale produce house in the Southeast, servicing retail, foodservice and wholesale customers throughout 11 Southeastern States on their own fleet of trucks. But’s until recently, their brand image was stuck in another era.

Since the company wanted to keep the key qualities of the previous logo a refresh was in order. Going back to the basics, we kept the essential oval shape and gold/blue color scheme to showcase consistency over time. A modernized font was used along with a wide range of produce items to reflect the company’s growth beyond bananas.

We didn’t reinvent the wheel, we just updated it. This allowed the company to retain its roots while positively reflecting the changing times.