Enhancing the blueberry's market penetration, consumption and developing target markets is critical, especially next season, when Chile is expected to export more than 100,000 tons of blueberries.
Thus, the Fruit Exporters Association of Chile, ASOEX, together with ProChile and the Chilean Blueberry Committee have planned a series of promotional activities for the 2014-2015 campaign in the European and Asian markets, specifically in Russia, Sweden, Norway, England, Germany, Turkey, China and South Korea.
"The idea is to strengthen the work being done since last year, for example, of the promotional activities in Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden and Norway. We're also looking for new high impact alternatives, such as using Apps, in markets such as Germany. But we're also taking actions that allow us to expand the scope of some pilot promotions that were very successful, like the ones in the Turkish market, "said Christian Carvajal, ASOEX's Director of Marketing for Europe, the Far East and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Andres Armstrong, executive director of the Blueberry Committee, stated: "The Committee will continue to develop promotional activities in Europe and Asia to support the diversification of markets and the prospects of new opportunities with new importers, distributors and retail chains."
Promotional activities
There will be promotional activities in Russia aimed at boosting the Chilean Blueberry's penetration in that market, mainly through promotions at premium retail points of sale. The goal in Scandinavian countries, such as Sweden and Norway, is to strengthen the scope of the campaigns that have been ongoing by expanding the number of retail chains participating in them and by having a strong promotion at the points of sale in order to achieve greater shelf space for the domestic product, increasing its exhibition, sales, and turnover.
In England, the programs will support the actions being developed by the Seasonal Berry Committee, which brings together blueberry importers from the UK, specifically through competition activities at various retail chains.
The promotional campaign for Germany will be strongly focused on using Apps, as they are a great way of promoting and selling products. "The idea is to present the blueberry as a convenient product, that can be consumed as breakfast, dessert, or as an entrée," said Christian Carvajal.
Carvajal added that these applications were easy to use with smart phones, which would let consumers know about the promotions in certain supermarkets and would give them recipes and tips about how to use the blueberries, among other messages.
"In Turkey, we want to increase the scope of the promotions we performed last season, which proved to be very successful among consumers and retailers. But this time, we will focus on the Horeca or foodservice channels to promote the use of blueberries in the preparation of various dishes through recipes and promotions," Carvajal said.
It is worth noting that the Chilean fresh blueberries were promoted for the first time in the Turkish market during the 2013-2014 campaign and that their promotion took place in over 20 hypermarkets of Carrefour, Migros, Metro Gross Market, Macrocenter and Sutte. The focus of that campaign was to promote the nutritional health benefits of the Chilean blueberries via the Doctor Blue concept.
South Korea and China
The campaigns for these Asian markets will be aimed at points of sale and social networks. "In South Korea we'll have promotion programs at points of sale and campaigns using social networks to spread the availability of Chilean products, their quality and diversity of consumption, mainly between the young adults and younger people," said the representative of ASOEX.
The campaign in China will continue the actions carried out last season at the point of sale, and there will be activities through the internet and home shopping TV programs, which have a great influence on the consumption and sales of fruit and vegetables.
Source: SimFRUIT