From Tommy Leighton in California
Kurt Vetter, vice president of international sales at California-based pomegranate producer and marketer Pom Wonderful, told Fresh Summit delegates that an innovative approach from day one has catapulted an almost unknown product into the minds and mouths of US consumers.
One of five original members of the Pom Wonderful team, Vetter said one of the keys to success was the initial desire to turn the consumer figures on their head. Four years ago, just four per cent of US consumers had purchased a pomegranate in the previous year. But 39 per cent had purchased the fruit at some stage and only nine per cent of the researched group didn't like it. "That gave us 91 per cent of the market to go at," said ex Coca Cola man Vetter.
He said that Pom Wonderful set out to try and build both supply and demand simultaneously. "We realised this was not going to be a business where we could hire a bunch of telesales people who could talk to customers about price - we had to create a concept around the pomegranate and get the buy in of the customer and consumer."
The October to December season for fruit in the US, he added, was a natural lull in the calendar, and Pom Wonderful began to make some noise with celebration of its new season, constant communication to customers from August onwards, attractive and useful in-store theatre and a well-targeted PR and promotion campaign.
"Everything communicates," he explained. "We decided to cast a lot of nets and mix traditional marketing with intuitive methods of getting people to try, taste and understand the product. There are many channels, but it starts with your customers. We talk to the customer early, and we constantly innovate. Consumers decide how much space we get in store and we are very aware of that.
"In a short space of time, we have Pom Wonderful juice in 17,000 outlets in the US and our fresh pomegranates are sold in 37 countries." Exclusively through Wealmoor, Pom Wonderful is this season selling its Wonderful variety of pomegranate into the UK market.
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