South Africa’s Golden Delicious growers have halted their UK market development programme after just one year of the planned five-year campaign as one major player pulled out and importers bemoaned pr agency involvement.
The move comes because the board of directors of True Cape decided no longer to support generic marketing initiatives stating it would rather work directly with its UK category manager and retailers. “We need the whole of the industry behind a programme like this and if a major player is unable to participate it is unfair to ask the rest of the industry to continue,” said Pome Joint Marketing Forum chairman Nigel Mudge.
The decision to stop the campaign, which began with hopes of reviving South African Golden Delicious growers’ fortunes, came as the UK agency running it reported a successful first year. Richmond Towers Communications managing director Rob Metcalfe told a recent growers and exporters meeting in Paarl that the first year’s activity had delivered publicity and a significant return on investment as well achieving the anticipated small price increase. “We have had fantastic co-operation from UK importers during the year and all parties were looking forward to the 2007 campaign, which was planned to include an upweighted in-store promotional element alongside public relations,” said Metcalfe
But with a light volume year on Golden Delicious last season and a very short lead time for the agency to get activity off the ground and involve retailers, the campaign was destined to find the going tough in 2006. “As importers we lost a lot of interest and felt that the promotion did not have enough structure,” said one importer. “It didn’t really have any teeth and the agency could have been more proactive in getting retailer support.”
Stefan Conradie, product manager of pome and stone fruit at the Deciduous Fruit Producers’ Trust said criticism of the agency was unfair. “What they did they did well,” he said. “But there has got to be visibility in store as well as pr and they did not have enough time to set it all up.”
Conradie does not rule out a renewed promotional effort in the future, though more information will be required prior to launch next time, he warned.
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