After examining key trends and developments across the production, post-harvest and packaging sectors on Wednesday (18 November), the focus at Asiafruit Business Forum shifted to ‘The Consumer’ today (19 November), with a look at best practices in marketing and branding.
The programme got underway with a marketing campaign case study from Echo Yuan, account manager of China-based Joy Wing Mau (JWM).
After years of largely conventional marketing, Joyvio, JWM’s premium fruit brand, made a big move earlier this year by signing up China’s national women's volleyball team as a brand ambassador.
“They are not an ordinary team, but a national icon, a culture symbol for generations of Chinese,” Yuan explained. “The team fought tenaciously to win the World Championships five times back when China was still very underdeveloped, about 40 years ago. They have become a synonym for perseverance, determination and teamwork.”
Yuan said the team’s online presence can rival China’s most popular celebrities in terms of followers and interactions. “If we were able to leverage this and convert some of their fans, it would be very beneficial to our brand development,” she added.
As part of the campaign, Joyvio adopted a new tagline ‘Live up to the gift, rise up to the challenge’. Key visuals, packaging and point-of-sale materials were all renewed to reflect the partnership, and JWM’s status as the team’s official fruit supplier.
Online, Joyvio released short videos about the similarities between the team and the Joyvio fruit brand on major social media platforms, including WeChat, Weibo and TikTok. This coverage generated more than 10m views. In total, digital content, signposted with the campaign’s dedicated hashtag, was viewed more than 100m times on Weibo alone. Yuan said it had been by far the most successful marketing campaign for Joy Wing Mau.
While partnering with a national sports team is not something every marketer has the budget for, Yuan said the campaign was based on some basic marketing fundamentals.
“For small and medium marketers, the most pragmatic suggestion we can give is to start with the basics: identifying the value and positioning of the brand and maintaining a consistent output in visual content. Good content, combined with high quality products, will help convince the consumer and sustain brand growth.”
Elsewhere on the programme, Scott Howarth of Sinclair presented a case study on EcoLabel, a new sustainable labelling option appealing to shoppers worldwide.
Meanwhile, the value of a brand audit was highlighted by Matthew Crouch, founder of Australian-based Soto Consulting. Crouch's presentation addressed the importance of brand affinity, the purpose of social listening and the potential of gameification as a fresh produce marketing tool.
Today’s Asiafruit Business Forum sessions are available on demand to all registered Asia Fruit Logistica ON visitors and exhibitors.Simply click the content tab on the Asia Fruit Logistica ON platform.
Asia Fruit Logistica ON takes place online on 18-20 November.
Visit Asiafruit Congress ON –asiafruitcongress.com
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