California-grown Wonderful Halos mandarins were available in stores for eight months (November 2017 through June 2018) this past season. The last mandarins left the packing house early June. “Not only did we have a record season in terms of availability, it was also our best-selling season ever,” says Diana Salsa, director of marketing with Wonderful Citrus. “We are up over eight percent versus last year in dollar sales and have 52 percent market share,” she added.
Trees and tractors in stores drove sales
The success of the season can be attributed to several factors. The quality of the fruit was high as the brand waited a few weeks until quality was at its best before picking, shifting the season back a few weeks compared to the year before. "In addition, our investment in the Halos brand continues to be huge," said Salsa. The Wonderful Company spent $28 million on marketing, which included tv, digital, social, and in-store marketing. Salsa says the point of sale (POS) ‘Grove of Goodness’ display program contributed significantly to the increase in sales. “We had 20,000 tractors and trees shipped to retailers across the United States and Canada.” They were provided by Wonderful and installed by the company’s 175 merchandisers at no cost to retailers. In addition to the fresh produce department, the ‘Grove of Goodness’ displays could also be found in unexpected areas of stores, including the frozen food aisle, deli, pharmacy, lobby entrance, and at checkout. “The results show that stores with displays outperformed stores without displays. Stores with displays experienced more than two times lift in velocity growth versus stores without. Hopefully, stores that didn’t partner with us this past season, will be able to make space this upcoming season.”
Michael Celani and Diana Salsa with Wonderful Citrus proudly show the 'Grove of Goodness' display.
Halos primarily targets parents with kids and secondarily, the company focuses on marketing to adults ages 55 and older without kids in the house. “Based on results from IRI data, we added over 3 million new households this season,” Salsa mentioned. The successful season resulted in Halos contributing to 27 percent of total produce dollar growth during the California mandarin season, according to IRI. "The Halos brand is two times bigger and moves 1.8 times faster than its nearest competitor," shared Salsa.
E-commerce
The trees and tractors drove sales, but the Wonderful Company also tested the e-commerce channel with Halos being available on Amazon Fresh in a limited number of markets, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Miami, New York, Northern Virginia, and Philadelphia. The results were very good, and the company is excited to further explore this additional sales channel in the new season.
New in-store displays
As for next season, the company plans a similar size marketing investment and new in-store displays will be part of that. “We want to celebrate the fact that we are vertically integrated and control everything from farm to table. Our displays really bring that to life and we’ll double down on our POS collection next season.
For more information:
Erin Shiba
The Wonderful Company
