Marketing snapshot - Hortlink 2018, edition 2

This Hort Innovation Citrus Fund marketing snapshot has been taken from Hort Innovation’s Hortlink 2018, edition 2.

Hort Innovation is responsible for investing the citrus marketing levy into a range of activities to grow awareness and consumption, under the Hort Innovation Citrus Fund. Here’s a quick look at some of the latest developments in the export marketing space…

Trade seminars in Japan

To begin the current marketing season – and the new 2018-2020 Citrus Marketing Strategy – two trade seminars were hosted in Japan, launching the start of the Australian navel orange season. This was a prime opportunity to raise awareness of Australian citrus and engage key Japanese trade customers.

Ben Cant, Chairman of Citrus Australia, and the industry’s Market Access Manager, David Daniels, presented key insights on the Australian citrus industry at the events, which were held on May 24 in Osaka and May 25 in Tokyo.

Joseph Ling, who is Managing Director of AGRIFresh, and Greg Noble, Director and Manager of RJN Nominees, both represented Australian citrus growers and answered questions from the 230 Japanese retailers and importers who attended.

For the first time, there was also sampling of fresh Australian orange juice at the seminars during the events’ networking sessions.

New insights to inform future activities

As noted in the R&D snapshot above, consumer research has been undertaken through project CT17005, delivering findings to help understand the export landscapes of two key markets: China and Japan. These insights will now feed into the industry’s export marketing strategy to help contribute to increasing the demand for Australian citrus in overseas markets. There is also a second stage planned for this consumer research work – a deep dive study that aims to identify and understand consumer preferences, purchasing drivers, barriers and influences, usage behaviour, life stage/demographic profiles, media consumption and more. By identifying potential target segments, it’s hoped that efficiencies can be developed through selective marketing activities.

New marketing assets and content

At the time of writing, Hort Innovation was working to appoint a service provider for the development of all-new consumer content, for use in the industry’s export marketing activities. This will involve building a library of premium images and other content to represent the Australian citrus industry. Likewise, trade-specific content will also be developed.