$2 BILLION is spent on promoting junk food to kids each year versus $116 million spent on advertising fresh fruits & vegetables to everyone.
These numbers were revealed in a recent segment on CBS Sunday Morning and shed light on the chasm between fresh produce marketing and the marketing of processed snack or junk foods. Quick math tells us that the fresh produce industry’s spend is approximately 1/20th of the processed folks, and if you work in the fresh produce industry you can certainly relate to the many reasons for this gap. But what we took away from the CBS segment was that, surprisingly, junk food marketing has more valuable lessons for us as fresh produce marketers than we may realize.
Take a look at how you can market like the junk food masters without selling your soul:
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Use words that evoke “irresistibleness.” Examples of words being bandied about by processed foods are “crave-ability,” “snack-ability” and even “more-ishness.” Aren’t cherries and tomatoes just as crave-able and snack-able as Cheetos? Maybe in different ways, but certainly YES!
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Determine and capitalize on the “bliss point” of fresh products. We are already using science to discover and develop non-GMO varieties with increased consumer appeal, but in order to get these fresh products on consumers plates, we need to adapt and become more effective at spreading the message about new varieties and products.
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Health claims don’t work as well as taste claims. Announcing the health benefits of fresh products is not translating to sales at the levels of processed foods that are exclaiming their crunch, sweetness and decadence. Therefore, incorporating more “terrific taste” messaging may very well boost our products’ marketability and our own marketing acumen.
In the end, fresh fruits and vegetables and processed foods are just different. And not just in calories, fat and other nutritional indicators. Regardless of fancy, expensive marketing campaigns, junk foods still must overcome what they ARE. And that’s something that we’ll never have to do.
Watch the CBS segment below and share your thoughts with us on the subject.
