Martyn Fisher (MF) talks fresh produce character advertising with Polly Akielan (PA), and Dieter Lloyd (DL) - PR consultant and MD, respectively - of PamLloyd PR and Marketing.
MF: For decades, companies from nearly every industry have been using advertising characters to achieve marketing success, and in a highly competitive market, such characters go a long way to making a company stand out from the crowd. Probably related to the lack of brands in the industry, very few fresh produce marketers have succeeded on this front. Is that a fair assessment?
DL: 'While the fresh produce category doesn’t seem to be full of brands like FMCG, it does have plenty of brands and some of these are very, very successful.
'The most successful brands are the retailers’ own brands under which most fresh produce has been sold. Retailers can struggle to differentiate - except on price - their offer on Kellogg's, Coke or Ariel. A 2ltr bottle of Coke is the same product no matter where you buy it.
'Fresh produce, on the other hand, as with other fresh products like meat and fish, offers the retailers a way to differentiate their offering: be it by range (M&S donut peaches, black apricots); season/provenance (first UK asparagus, first UK strawberries, first Jersey royals); exclusivity (flower sprouts at M&S, Fresh and Naked at Tesco, Jazzy potatoes at The Co-operative); or demographics (for example, retailers in areas with high concentrations of ethnic minorities may offer a more diverse range of produce such as daikon, mooli, okra, plantains, red bananas, or more than one variety of squash).
'There have been and continue to be plenty of ‘brand’ names in fresh produce (Jaffa, Chiquita, Fyffes, Pink Lady, Good Natured, Kanzi, Tenderstem, Cameo, Bellaverde, Fresh and Naked, Steve's Leaves, Rubens, Rooster, Scotties), and as with all other areas of grocery some come and go, while other stay the course.
'It is true, however, that many of the products the fresh produce industry thinks are brands are either just product names or marks of quality rather than brands. They are not brands because they do not engage with the people who buy them on an emotional level.'
MF: Why doesn't the fresh produce industry have a Marlboro man, a Meerkat or a Duracell Bunny?
DL: 'The fresh produce industry has had its figureheads – the Chiquita Lady, and the Green Giant, for example. But because the main players have been the retailer own brands, there has not been the focus on fresh produce to warrant a figurehead unless you count Jamie Oliver when he was Sainsbury's ambassador promoting their produce on TV. Rooster, meanwhile, had Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives, who was positioned as an anti-brand ambassador.'
PA: 'To a certain extent, the fresh produce sector has been keen to communicate its health credentials over and above any ‘cool’ factor. Those products that have seen a cult following, have generally achieved their status through unofficial celebrity endorsement, such as kale thanks in part to the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Heidi Klum and Jennifer Aniston. This kind of ‘natural’ figurehead is a really powerful tool for a fresh produce brand to have.'
MF: Would an advertising character help fresh produce firms get across their brand's values?
DL: 'The use of characters is no different in fresh produce than any other area of marketing. They can definitely help brands to bring their values to life and make it easier for people to understand them. That said, in the age of social media, conversations about brands are often driven by consumers rather than controlled by brands. The use of consumers and user generated content in marketing may mean that the characters are the consumers.
'On the other hand, social is offering brands’ characters/mascots a new lease of life as they look for ways to have a voice on social channels.'
PA: 'Brands would have to be careful in their use of character and who they are using that character to speak to. A natural move would be to promote fresh produce to children through an already popular icon.
'However, marketing to children is a minefield when it comes to restrictions on messaging, so this would have to be done with care. Traditionally chefs, bloggers and writers have tended to be the favoured brand ambassadors as they showcase the messaging that brands are keen to get across such as versatility and ease-of-use to primary shoppers within the household.'
MF: Would an advertising character help a fresh produce firm stand out from the crowd?
DL: 'If there is sufficient investment available to make in a mascot then there is no reason it can’t stand out from the crowd. Investment is not purely about money, it is also about time – social eats time 24 hours a day, every day.
'However, these are challenging times. People enjoy and share great content - especially if ‘great’ is the need to involve a cat! The pressure to create strong, useful and shareable content is increasing as more and more content is created to market brands and the number of channels used to share this content multiplies.
'The question may not be will a mascot help, but what will they do and say that makes them stand out. Or will they be just another bit of noise in the cacophony of brands trying to be noticed?
'A recent piece of research by Havas Media suggested that the majority of people wouldn’t care if 73 per cent of the brands they buy disappeared overnight. The focus needs to be how can you be one of the meaningful 27 per cent.'
MF: What would be the disadvantages of pursuing a character advertising strategy?
DL: 'Brands succeed by differentiating and how they make people feel. If mascot-led marketing is seen to be successful, other brands will copy it and the space/messages will be come crowded possibly leading to loss of differentiation.'
PA: 'You could risk clouding the successful more scientific approach that has been taken to marketing fruit and vegetables and their health properties to date. On the positive side, character marketing could inject some energy into the category and bring it more in line with FMCG household brands.'
MF: Is celebrity endorsement or attaching the brand to an event more effective in 2014?
DL: 'No more effective than any other year.'
PA: 'I agree with Dieter, although it is becoming more popular over time. Many fresh produce brands are now aligning themselves with events, charities and celebrity ambassadors. It gives brands other subjects about which to create and share content with interested consumers, and if this means the media is talking more about products within the category then that is also helpful.'
MF: How would you go about creating a successful advertising character for the fresh produce industry?
DL: 'At PamLloyd we’re in the process of doing that with Jazzy Potato. Focussing on differentiation we have started to develop a brand with a voice. Our starting point was to have a brief that stipulated avoiding traditional methods of marketing potatoes – no fields, tractors or farmers.
'This gave us the freedom to explore other routes to promote the product and led us to create the potato that likes to be seen in all the right places. Based on a strong visual identity and with the backing to try different things, over the past two years we have been evolving Jazzy’s voice; tweaking its tone of voice to ensure the brand sounds and looks distinctive.
'Recently we have broadened our use of social media from Twitter to include Facebook, and while it still early days, we are having a lot of fun creating Jazzy content for the brand.
'We have several other ideas in the pipeline where Jazzy will appear using channels that competitor products don’t. Watch this space.'
MF: Are there any fresh produce firms working on creating advertising characters at the moment?
DL: 'Greenvale potatoes have invested heavily in their potato brand (previously Farm Fresh), which features a family of potatoes with a fun and appealing tone of voice.
'The work we do for Pink Lady apples is focused on developing a brand with character. Rather than muddy the waters by introducing characters that might confuse people, Pink Lady has a character and tone of voice all of its own that it’s fans enjoy and engage with.'
For the full feature on fresh produce character advertising, see the 4 April issue of FPJ.
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