Marketing snapshot - Hortlink, 2017 edition 4

This Hort Innovation Cherry Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2017, edition 4.

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the cherry marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Cherry Fund. Below is an at-a-glance look at some of the most recent activity. Look out for the more in-depth feature on the industry’s marketing activities, scheduled for the summer 2017/18 edition of the levy-funded Cherry magazine.

DOMESTIC CHERRY MARKETING

A new domestic marketing strategy

The cherry industry’s new domestic marketing strategy was developed in collaboration with cherry growers and professional marketers with sound industry knowledge and experience and expertise in reaching a range of audiences. The new key messages that have been formulated as part of the strategy will be tested over the coming months to see what resonates best with consumers.

Retailer engagement – a key pillar of the marketing strategy

Key aspects of the marketing strategy revolve around in-store promotion, point-of-sale advertising, and in-store sampling. In particular, to leverage the common consumer trend of cherries being an impulse buy, a three-week in-store program with Woolworths was launched in November. It included quality displays of cherries in-store (a key purchasing driver) and engaged customers via sampling. This activity has been supported by point-of-sale advertising, with more than 500,000 cherry bags have been delivered to all states to support launches across the different Woolworths store locations.

State-based promotions

State-based promotions have so far seen a range of location-specific activities…

• New South Wales: The first cherry-case auction to launch the season was held at Sydney Markets on November 7, and a two-day ‘Season Launch’ event was held in Young on November 4, in collaboration with the NSW Cherry Growers Association.

• Queensland: Activity has and will include tasting events in ‘Your Local Fruit Shop’ stores, via Brismark’s Retailer Program, plus social media, digital advertising and e-newsletters targeting key household grocery buyers.

• South Australia: Season activities will involve an ambassador program encouraging foodies and influencers to promote Australian Cherries via social media. Useability of the Cherry Map App will also be enhanced to boost ‘pick your own’ sales. This activity is facilitated through the Cherry Growers Association of SA.

• Tasmania: Once again, there is industry involvement in the Tasmanian Farm Gate Guide, plus ads on WIN television and a ‘Get Fruity’ campaign under Fruit Growers Tasmania’s partner organisation ‘Eat Well Tasmania’.
• Victoria: Point-of-sale kits have been distributed to key retail markets, plus there’s been an update of a cherry fact sheet on the VCA website, including Victorian Cherry Trail information and Sweet Cherries Health Report. A media release has been sent to influencers, Melbourne Markets and marketing managers at the four main retail markets and media tours have been conducted with key influencers to give a hands-on experience.
• Western Australia: This state-based program has engaged with influential WA media, distributed point-of-sale material to retail stores, and activated demonstrator-led sampling events in independent stores, including point-of-sale installs.
  
  

EXPORT ACTIVITY

Advice from growers has seen an increase in levy expenditure across the new ‘Taste Australia’ retail program in the following markets:

• Hong Kong
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• Indonesia

Through this increased expenditure, strong marketing support helped to launch the Taste Australia campaign into Hong Kong for the first time, to support the priorities of the cherry industry. Campaign elements across all new markets have included activated social media, point-of-sale kits, sampling, launch events and retailer training.