Education Festival at IFPA Global Show shines light on marketing
To support the multiple informational panels taking place at the International Fresh Produce Association Global Produce & Floral Show, the room was split into three areas. Each section was separated by dividers and the setting was cozy and casual with chairs, couches and fruit for snacking. All in attendance had their options of panels to pick from: packaging information, government updates, consumer insight and more. Two popular panels were: What Do They Really Want and Generation-based Produce & Floral Marketing.
The What Do They Really Want panel was moderated by Katie Calligaro, director of marketing and communications of IFPA, with speakers Kate Allmandinger, senior consultant of Fresh Foods Group Circana, Annette Maggi, president of Annette Maggi & Associates Inc., and Penn Whalin, director of Futures and Innovation Kantar.
Eating fruits and vegetables is healthy, yet many people still don’t eat produce as much as they should. So, telling consumers to each fruit and vegetables because they are healthy is not the solution. The panelists discussed consumer behavior and how to connect with consumers — letting them know how to have more enjoyment eating produce.
The panel discussed consumer data and talked about how to navigate and translate data to apply every day to meet business goals. Data was shared about how macro-consumer trends may occur over the next three to five years and that climate change affects the trends. Also, consumer values change over time, which will impact how retailers merchandise their produce. Whalin spoke about creating new opportunities for consumers to purchase produce and florals. “Men typically don’t receive flowers so retailers may want to invoke consumers to buy flowers for the men in their lives,” she said. With that, consumer research indicated ways to combine an individual’s improved mental well well-being trend with produce and florals.
In reviewing behavioral data, panelists also provided “ah-ha” moments to help consumers choose what to purchase. In general, retailers may combine fruits and vegetables as a produce purchase, whereas consumers separate fruits and vegetables because fruits are generally simple to enjoy — like an apple or grapes. Whereas vegetables need to be prepared sliced, cooked or even including a dip to be enjoyed. The panel discussed educating consumers on innovative ways to prepare fresh produce, for example, how to cut avocados and peppers.
The Generation-based Produce & Floral Marketing panel similarly discussed consumer behavior based on generations — specifically Boomers, Millennials and Gen-Zs. The panelists were Kim Chackal, co-owner and director sales and marketing of Equifruit Inc., Gianna Fiore, food marketing manager of St. Joseph’s University, Beth Keeton, CEO of Elephant House PR, Tara Murray, vice president of marketing for Fresh Innovations, Kim St. George, vice president of sales west for Dole Fresh Vegetables. and Chris Veillon, chief marketing officer of Pure Flavor.
The biggest takeaway was to focus marketing to younger generations when advertising on social media since they will be the primary consumers and the best way to appeal to them is to be relatable and not be afraid to be imperfect with social media posts.
Photo: Annette Maggi of Annette Maggi & Associates Inc., Penn Whalin of Futures and Innovation Kantar, Kate Allmandinger of Fresh Foods Group Circana and Katie Calligaro of IFPA.
