Dole Salads and the group's on-pack Dole Salad Guides have been named as the best examples of integrated marketing among all consumer packaged goods sold in US supermarkets this year.
Leading retail trade publication Supermarket News handed its Supplier Leadership Award in the Best Traditional of Integrated Marketing Category to Dole Fresh Vegetables, for its promotion of 38 Dole salad blends and all-natural salad kits.
Dole was rewarded for 'reinvigorating a key category' in supermarket produce departments, Supermarket News revealed, with its packaging and product innovations helping to overcome problems faced by the industry since 2009 – such as overall consumer confusion leading to a lack of passion, in-kitchen experimentation and new product trials.
The group's packaging and product innovations included its Salad Guide, one of the first on-pack ratings of taste and texture, and a salad-specific 'Pairs well with' section, while the publication also picked out Dole's multimedia marketing programme.
Ronda Reed, Dole Fresh vegetables' vice-president of marketing, said that the award was testament to not only the brand's mission to transform its own product line, but also the industry as a whole, as well as its efforts to increase the nutritional health of Americans.
'We're finding that people want to be inspired and creative. They want to experiment with new ways to prepare, serve and enjoy salad and fresh vegetables,' she said. 'While of course we want to boost sales of our own salad blends and kits, our larger goal is to stimulate the public's passion for all fruits and vegetables because, in the end, this represents a win-win for everyone.'
Looking ahead, Dole will unveil two salad lines developed from research showingthat customers want even more from their packaged salads – DoleExtra Veggie Salads, a new family of blends that includes up to2 full cups of fresh vegetables per bag, and Dole Hand Picked Selections, which will feature two new specialtyitems in clamshells that each contain a pair of multicolored heads oflettuce that, when cut at the core, create a 'fresh, designer-worthycreation'.
Both new lines will be available to consumers in spring 2012.
