The South African Citrus Growers Association (CGA) has announced it will join the Beautiful Country Beautiful Fruit promotional campaign for the second consecutive year, following on from the success of 2010 by promoting South African grapefruit in the UK market during May, June and July 2011.
The CGA joined the cross-category initiative on South African fruit in 2010, and this year follows similar promotions in categories including plums, peaches, and nectarines (December to March) and apples and pears (May and June).
Promotional activity on grapefruit last year took place in five retailers, and included in-store tastings and retail media as well as online consumer advertising and public relations.
The campaign focused on educating shoppers about the natural sweetness of modern varieties of grapefruit, particularly red variety Star Ruby, and aimed to expand consumers’ repertoire of uses for the fruit with inspiring recipe ideas created by TV chef and author Sophie Michell.
This year's promotional effort will develop key consumer messages, with retailer activity focusing on photographic point-of-sale highlighting the internal characteristics and superior eating quality of South African grapefruit.
In-store tastings will also take place, providing shoppers with the opportunity to taste before they buy while in the media, public relations activity will focus on younger consumers, capitalising on the many health and dietary benefits of grapefruit.
Activities will include a 'Grapefruit Challenge' conducted with a consumer 'beauty panel', who will report on their experience of eating a grapefruit every day, while Sophie Michell’s recipes will be used to encourage consumers to undertake their own Grapefruit Challenge.
Consumer research conducted by the CGA this season will also examine existing perceptions of grapefruit, with the aim of providing an understanding of barriers to consumption and how best to grow the UK market for the fruit. The qualitative and quantitative study will explore issues of usage and consumption, health, purchase drivers, fruit size and in-store communication.
'We are targeting outdated perceptions of grapefruit with this campaign and have begun to see results; however, there is still a lot of work to be done,' said Justin Chadwick, CEO of the CGA. 'The key to increasing consumption is to increase the number of people who regularly eat grapefruit in the UK, particularly by appealing to younger consumers. We are excited about the new program of activity and the streamlined campaign messaging, which will focus on the issues that have been restricting growth in the category in recent years.
'We saw positive growth in the retailers we promote with last year, and we are confident that with their continued support we can build on this and deliver strong results for the 2011 season,' he added.
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