New Zealand organic marketer All Good Organics has kicked off an innovative in-store marketing campaign this week using a high-tech focused sound projector.
Promoting All Good’s Fair Trade bananas, the ‘Listen to your conscience’ campaign is thought to be the first such use of the Audio Spotlight technology.
Set up last weekend in the New World supermarket in Victoria Park, Auckland, the promotion features a large sticker on the floor in front of the banana display.
A tightly focused speaker suspended from the ceiling projects a recorded message that can only be heard by customers standing on the sticker.
“Just in front of the bin is the floor sticker,” All Good’s director Simon Coley explained to Fruitnet.com. “In that circle, which is under a metre, you can hear the voice `from the` device suspended above the circle. On the floor sticker there’s also more information about what you’re hearing.”
The recording is voiced by New Zealand actress Rose McIver: “Know who I am? I’m that inner voice. I want to talk to you about something, something really important – Fair Trade…Choosing them means you’re helping growers feed their families and support their communities – they get paid a fair price. So now you know which ones to choose, make a good choice.”
The rationale behind the message, said Mr Coley, is that customers decide to buy Fair Trade produce because of their conscience. “It’s an active choice based on individual values.”
Developed by US-based company Holosonics, the Audio Spotlight technology has previously been used in museums and libraries to deliver information to people in specific areas without disturbing others nearby.
All Good Organics is trialling the campaign in one store to begin with, said Mr Coley.
“It’s just in the one to show that it works,” he said. “`The response has been` good. I’ve been in there watching the customers, and people do a second take and then go over and get what it’s about. It’s been a good weekend for us, and the store has ordered more `bananas`.”
All Good has been selling Ecuadorian Fair Trade bananas in New Zealand since the start of the year, beginning with one container every two weeks, and ramping up to the current three containers a fortnight.
New Zealand consumers are not as well aware of the brand and issues surrounding Fair Trade certification as those in markets like North America or Europe, Mr Coley told Fruitnet.com, but are becoming more aware.
“It was a bit of a struggle to start with, because fresh produce is not something people understand with Fair Trade,” he said.
“They understand it with coffee or chocolate, because they’re premium items, but bananas are such a common purchase. But that’s also been a good thing, because it was a differentiator in a crowded category.”
Per capita banana consumption is relatively high in New Zealand, according to Mr Coley; the country imports around 11 containers of bananas a week for a population of 4.4m, which works out to around 100 bananas per person every year.
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