Consumer-focused apple campaign launched

RAY SMUTS AN AMBITIOUS five-year campaign to promote South African apples direct to the UK consumer rather than work through supermarket chains, will soon be launched by the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum (FPEF) in association with the South African Apple and Pear Producers’ Association. The commitment to turning the project into a huge marketing success is such that each involved exporter is pledging R1.50 per carton toward a first year budget of R5 million which will target print, radio and electronic media. FPEF CEO Stuart Symington makes the point that apart from too much fruit being available worldwide, one is up against the very powerful supermarkets which tend to take the rebates out of the chain. “It’s a buyer’s paradise when you have too many suppliers and too much fruit, so a buyer can generally reject a consignment at any time and go to someone else for supply.” This year, only the sweet Golden Delicious variety will be promoted, followed thereafter by the more astringent Granny Smith apple. Symington says the last industry campaign in the UK in 2004 was directed at supermarkets alone but the target is now the exclusively the consumer. “The South African avocado industry has been doing the same thing (marketing direct to the consumer) very successfully for nine years and we may see something similar develop in Japan to try to increase shelf space and create consumer demand.” Symington estimates around 30 million cartons of Golden Delicious and Granny Smith will be available for the campaign whose launch coincides with the publication of this special feature. Illustrating how successful direct consumer marketing can be, Symington says: “What our avo guys did was convince the British to eat avocados on their summer salads and it worked.”