CMI Orchards, its growers and partners have tapped into current consumer trends to build its business.
“Our shared expertise and emphasis on data analysis helped us identify consumer and retail trends, then position our efforts to maximize those opportunities,” explained Bob Mast, president of CMI Orchards.
Here are some trends CMI highlighted:
Online shopping: “We were focusing on ways to support retailers recognizing that a large portion of shoppers were already migrating to online purchasing versus in-store. When COVID-19 hit last spring, we were positioned to pivot to the changes in consumer shopping habits,” explained Rochelle Bohm, brand manager for CMI Orchards.
Shoppers have increasingly moved to online shopping to buy apples and other grocery items.
As part of this realization, CMI began partnering directly with Instacart just over a year ago to sell bagged product. “It’s a partnership we plan to continue to grow as we see online shopping continue to increase,” says CMI Orchards’ marketing specialist Danelle Huber.
Digital advertising: CMI had already invested in understanding digital advertising channels to support online and traditional shopping and built relationships with partners who helped them execute digital campaigns. And in late 2019, it launched a digital marketing strategy to target apple consumers and drive retail sales. In the most recent campaign, the participating retailer’s apple category sales dollars grew 14.8 percent over the previous year, with KIKU® and Kanzi® apple sales growing 28 percent during the promotion period.
In turn, the company had to identify new grower partners. “In the past few years, we’ve added three growers to the CMI Orchards’ family to help meet demand,” explained Bohm. The new partners include Independent Warehouse, Yakima Fruit and Pine Canyon Growers.
Curtis, Mike and Thomas Wilcox of Yakima Fruit. Yakima is one of three partners CMI Orchards has added in recent years.
Shifts in consumer preferences: Another trend is the shift to consumers preferring pre-packaged fruit. In addition to providing fruit in poly and pouch bags, the size of the bags has increased.
“Consumers are making fewer trips to the store with larger purchases due to COVID-19. They’re buying all their groceries at once, and they want enough fruit to last their family until the next trip. To meet this shift, we’ve increased the package volume,” explained George Harter, vice-president of marketing for CMI Orchards, adding that the company is offering large-volume packaging for its core apples and branded apple packaging as well.
Consumers are not only more interested in pre-packaged fruit, but larger bags of it.
Interest in organics: CMI Orchards has also continued to increase its supply of organic fruit to meet retail and consumer demand. The company’s overall organic apple production is up more than 25 percent compared to last year and organic pear production is up 73 percent. Additional growth is expected in the new year.
For more information:
Rochelle Bohm
CMI Orchards
Tel: +1 (509) 663-1955
rochelleb@cmiorchards.com
www.cmiorchards.com