With his cheeky grin and buffed body, American actor Jesse Metcalfe made the ladies in Channel 4’s Desperate Housewives swoon, but can he really persuade mothers to buy more potatoes?
Metcalfe was recently announced as the new face of Roosters potatoes, replacing his former co-star Marcia Cross. Albert Bartlett, the company that owns the brand, is upfront that it chose the pin-up to gain the attention of mothers when the new advert launches in October up until Christmas.
The marketing tactic of ‘sex sells’ has been used previously in the produce industry, albeit more overtly than the sharp-suited Metcalfe, with images of semi-naked women such as models Sophie Anderton and Nell McAndrew covered in food not uncommon earlier in the decade.
More recently a major fruit producer suggested during a conversation with a client that fruit and vegetables needed to “get sexy”.
For an industry that clearly does not have the huge marketing budgets of the FMCG sector, provocative images of naked women are tempting as they inevitably attract coverage in the national press. But do they actually influence consumers, specifically the significant mummy market, to buy the product?
According to an online poll conducted by FPJ, only two-fifths of the industry believe women are put off. However, exclusive research conducted on behalf of this magazine by marketing experts MumsPanel, suggests a much more dramatic result.
MumsPanel has over 6,000 UK mothers on its database, cutting across different social classes and economic brackets. When the company asked its respondents to rank in preference the major influences on their fresh fruit and vegetable purchasing decisions, taste came first with 46 per cent of the vote.
Appearance came second, at 29 per cent and, surprisingly, cost came in third with 19 per cent. Presentation mustered only 0.02 per cent and advertising had almost no influence at all.
“The results actually back up a lot of what we hear from mothers - that they only want what’s best for their children and they will pay for that as long as they think they are getting quality as well as value,” says MumsPanel’s marketing director Nicola
Cooper-Abbs. “Advertising had little or no influence upon them and in the case of the images of women covered in produce, the overall reaction was that it was rather silly.”
It could be argued the reason mothers did not rate advertising higher is that there is so little direct marketing of fresh produce, especially on television. Albert Bartlett is one of the few producers to be bankrolling a TV campaign; other notables include Florette salads and Chiquita bananas.
Bartlett marketing executive Anne Rodgers claims the Marcia Cross adverts have been a tremendous success, boosting recognition and recall in the potato aisles (giving it 4.5 per cent of category value, with brand value climbing 9.9 per cent year on year).
And the company’s marketing director John Heginbottom is hoping Metcalfe, soon to be seen in the re-make of soap opera Dallas, will continue to help propel sales of the brand. “Our core consumer is the older generation, and we need to reach out to those young mums and young consumers,” says Heginbottom.
“If you had asked people 10 years ago to name varieties of potato they would have said King Edward, Jersey Royals, but Roosters would have been nowhere. Now we are number two in the market.”
Ofcom has noted in its observations on the effect of advertising on obesity that the child’s own taste preferences are paramount and price and familiarity are also important. Peer pressure is also a notable influence on food choice for kids, while parents are influenced by the healthiness of the products.
So how can the fresh produce industry reach out to such a powerful consumer market?
“The industry needs to engage with mothers on a ground level,” says Cooper-Abbs. “Do not think of them as a homogenous mass and presume you know what they want. Mothers are incredibly savvy, and they are more likely to be influenced with what we call the ‘inner circle of trust’ that’s their family, neighbours, friends and other mums.
“Clearly from these results mothers are saying it’s taste that is the most important factor. So get the product into their hands, and that does not mean just sampling in a supermarket. It’s important to connect with mothers in the less obvious places too, because not all of them are online or at the school gate. But what we have found is that if you can get into that inner circle of trust, mothers will respond positively.”
FPJ also asked members of the Mumsnet website forum what influenced them in their fruit and vegetable purchasing decisions. Again, overwhelmingly it was taste, quality and cost. One of the repeated comments was that if they were given ideas for feeding their family with good-tasting and value-for-money food in the form of convenient recipes or meal planners, this would encourage them to buy fresh produce. Not one of them said images of semi-naked ladies would do the trick.
Dieter Lloyd, managing director of Pam Lloyd PR, one of the leading marketing agencies for fresh produce campaigns, says he is not surprised by this. “Often ‘sexy’ refers to the overt use of sex - the overdone American Beauty pastiche for example. As your research findings show, this doesn’t appeal to the decision makers and shoppers in roughly 80 per cent of UK households,” adds Lloyd.
“The request we often hear is that if sex can be used to sell everything from Cheestrings to sugary fizzy drinks, then surely it will help fresh produce become glamorous - greater awareness will equal more sales. It is very tempting to reach for marketing tactics that at first glance seem to offer quick wins. The challenge is that quick wins can often be just that, quick, but they are more often than not impermanent. Greater awareness doesn’t lead inevitably to more sales.”
Lloyd says that in a highly competitive environment, the fundamentals of marketing remain true. “Understand your target markets, what they need, how they perceive, access and use your product, how they like to be communicated with and use this insight to shape what you deliver, how, what you say and to whom,” he suggests.
There are examples of where the industry is getting it right, such as Pam Lloyd’s Tenderstem in Ten campaign that acknowledges the need for quick and easy meals.
Dole Fresh UK says that it recognises the importance of helping mothers with their snack choices. “We are well aware that the main shoppers for our bananas are mothers choosing an affordable and convenient, yet a healthy and nutritious fruit snack for their families,” says a spokesman. “We constantly look to fulfill their needs and we have found our smaller-sized fruit, in particular Bananitos, have proved popular as they are easier for children and babies to eat and fit more easily into lunch boxes.”
AC Goatham & Son is currently developing the marking strategy for Zari apples with the help of volunteers from Mumsnet. Goatham marketing adviser Sarah Calcutt says the company has sent out boxes of the apples to selected families and is waiting to get their feedback.
“We felt that it was best to place the apple firmly with the family, highlighting apples as a good part of a summer holiday picnic but also part of a good lunchbox for everyone,” she explains. “By engaging with Mumsnet parents, we are taking the questions about what makes a good marketing campaign right to our key customer.”
The Potato Council has also conducted ground-level research with both mothers and young consumers to find out what would encourage them to buy the product. Interestingly, in 2008 it launched a Love Your Potatoes campaign featuring a bikini-clad Nell McAndrew in a bathtub of spuds.
Head of marketing Caroline Evans says while that campaign was “of its time” and had certainly garnered much media coverage, there had been a sea change in consumer attitudes since then and therefore the team had evolved its promotional strategy. “We have seen major social changes taking place, with the recession being a significant one,” she adds.
“We asked mothers and young consumers what their [food] problems were and looked to ways we could provide solutions. What came back is that they wanted help with mealtimes, how they could feed their families with healthy but cost-effective meals.
“For young people it was how what was perceived as a traditional food could fit in with their modern lifestyles. For example, they saw pasta and tomato sauce as healthy and quick to make rather than, say, a cottage pie.”
The council’s response was the Many Faces of Potatoes campaign, based around a website that offers recipes and nutritional advice. The site has had over 1.2 million views since its launch in 2010.
Likewise, the British Summer Fruits campaign scored a resounding success with its Berries for Breakfast activity, which linked in with over 400 schools. More than 18,000 children took part in hosting a berry-themed breakfast, which they documented and sent in for a chance to win smoothie makers and supermarket vouchers.
British Summer Fruits says the campaign has been its most successful to date and alongside its Berry Power fitness initiative and the Jubilee coverage, has helped to increase its PR value by 25 per cent since 2010 to £8.5 million.
Notably, this is the same organisation that covered the model Sophie Anderton in strawberries. Its change in emphasis highlights the ongoing ev0lution of campaigns to meet the mood of the current consumer.
Former fresh produce buyer and founder of the marketing agency The Little Big Voice, Jonathan Corbett, says thankfully the industry is moving away from the media-grabbing formula of naked ladies. “The amazing thing about fresh produce is that there is nothing bad about it at all,” he says.
“That is where the marketing message should be - this is food that will nourish you, will taste great and will not harm you. How many products can claim that?” -
CASE STUDY: 'GET THE KIDS INVOLVED IN CHOOSING AND BUYING PRODUCE'
Bridget Duffy lives with her husband Peter and their four-year-old son Pete in Waterloo, London.
“We spend between £15 and £20 per week on fruit and vegetables, depending on what’s on offer. As a vegetarian I’m possibly more in tune with what’s in season and also I’m more open to being adventurous when it comes to buying different vegetables and fruit.
“I’m more likely to be influenced by cookery books and television shows such as MasterChef. I’m always interested in what other people are cooking, whether that’s a celebrity chef or when we go out to eat. For example, we went to The Garden Museum where I had Jerusalem artichokes and that inspired me to cook with them.
“I prefer to buy my fruit and vegetables from a farmers’ market as you know it’s coming direct from the farm. Supermarkets over-price and over-package fruit and veg. We’re very fortunate to have a greengrocer stall just yards from our flat. The shopping experience is a lot more fun for Pete as he can get involved with the shopping; if he feels he’s had a hand in the choice and buying then he’s more likely to eat the food.
“I don’t really take much notice of marketing campaigns. For me, it’s good quality produce at a good value price. However, I am more likely to associate certain products with certain events such as when it’s Wimbledon, you know it’s the right time to buy English strawberries.” -
FPJ SURVEY: WHAT THEY SAID ON MUMSNET
FPJ asked Mumsnet users what they thought of ads featuring naked women, and what works for them.
The things that would make me more likely to buy fruit & veg would be selling stuff that actually tastes of something, instead of products that sacrifice taste to appearance or shelf life.Minimal air miles,paying farmers a fair price,not using stupid multibuys and obviously dishonest claims of marked-down prices.
OatyBeatie, Mumsnet Forum
The best way to make us eat more veg is the carrot not the stick. [We] have massively increased the importance of veg in our diets because we got Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg every day at Christmas and the recipes have been
so lovely we’ve stopped having meat in our main meal. It has definitely increased my excitement level re veg! I think showing you interesting & achievable ways to cook is the way to go. After all, the person in charge of the household catering also has to menu-plan, which can be a pain in the neck, so anything that helps with that task by giving you ideas makes you feel warmly towards them.
TuniptheVegemal, Mumsnet Forum
I am actively put off buying products if I think sex is being used to sell it. For example, it bugs the hell out of me that Special K (largely marketed to women & presumably bought by women) is advertised by models cavorting in a slightly come-hither manner in towels, nighties & underwear. If they were advertising
viagra, or condoms or a sex-related product, then fine, but breakfast cereal? The same goes for fruit & veg.
PostBellumBugsy, Mumsnet Forum
If the point is, do adverts with women covered in food get my attention?, then no. For one thing, there’s so many like that, they blend into ‘wallpaper’, it’s such an over-used image and there is no stand-out from the rest of the noise. For another, it implies the product isn’t strong enough to stand on its own - your gaze is directed at the woman’s body, not the product. Thirdly, the misogyny implied and associated with that is very alienating.
The MightyMojoceratops, Mumsnet Forum
Words fail me. Except to say that these ads are presumably designed by 20-year old men, on the basis of what they would like to see. Is anyone’s 20-year-old son doing the family shop then?
AllPastYears, Mumsnet Forum
I just think the image of a naked woman covered in rose petals, strawberries, satsumas etc is just so boring, unimaginative and hackneyed. Lazy, lazy, lazy advertising.
Domesticslattern, Mumsnet Forum
When buying I tend to go for what is best value for money. However, as I find this type of advertising sexist and very annoying I would make a mental note of which company it was and ensure I boycott them in the future.
DizzyKipper, Mumsnet Forum
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