Produce Marketing Association chief marketing officer Lauren Scott and The Packer’s retail editor Ashley Nickle discuss PMA’s new Joy of Fresh campaign and the resources it includes for grower-shippers, retailers and others in the industry.
Guiding PMA’s approach is an understanding of where consumers are. The organization gets this information both from its members and from its own research.
“We have support to actually talk to the writers of the media to get a sense of what are they interested in hearing about, what are they writing about, because that’s how you can get a preview of what things are going to come,” Scott said.
For example, the public discussion around produce started with safety, then moved to what foods should people be eating to stay healthy, and then turned back to safety again.
“That’s why the toolkit has many lanes so that you can react to what is the narrative that’s happening and be timely and try to get ahead of the curve,” Scott said.
She noted that the industry needs to be consumer-centric in its approach to marketing, especially now.
“It’s really important to focus on what is the consumer problem, what are they trying to solve, and demonstrating how our industry, or your products, can actually be a solution to that,” Scott said. “Where we have to be careful is we can’t say, ‘Well, if the consumer would only do this then my problem would go away.’ Yes, that may be true, but when you’re being consumer-centric you really have to take it from their vantage point.”
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