“We have had to accept the fact that we’ve been good at driving existing consumers to eat more mangoes, by using price and improving the quality of the offer, but we’ve been less good, as an industry, at getting new consumers in. Most of our growth has simply been people eating more mangoes.”
Not necessarily a bad thing, you might think, but if you’re looking for long term growth then new people has to be the way forward, after all, consumers can only eat so much.
Abram says the key to driving that forward has been taking the activity out of the supermarket zone and coming up with new ways to innovate and promote.
“That was one of the main reasons we were one of the founding organisations for the Mango Association. We decided we needed to take every opportunity, wherever we could to tell people about mangoes.”
This strategy eventually led to the perhaps unlikely pairing of MWW and the Rugby League.
“We were approached by the RL authorities,” says Abram, “who said they had some spare marketing space. We discovered that around 35 per cent of the television audience for Super League games is female, so it was an ideal opportunity for us to get the word mango in front of people.”
The campaign, using the slogan ‘tackle a mango today’ and featured RL star Jamie Peacock biting into a juicy mango. “We didn’t brand it as MWW, just simply said mango,” adds Abram.
Other promotional tactics have included a regular radio slot, during which one of his colleagues will talk about exotic fruits and particularly mangoes.
“We also recently held a series of tasting sessions, part-financed by our supplier Martex Farms and Sainsbury’s.” The session involved a tasting booth touring around 60 Sainsbury’s stores car park during the summer, giving advice and information on the fruit. “We’re looking forward to getting some proper marketing feedback from that,” says Abram. “It’s all about getting the message out to a wider audience, and anything we can do to do that is great. If I could get a picture of David Beckham eating a mango, I’d be right there.”
He says all the activity has certainly paid off: “A few years ago it was one in 10 people eating mangoes, now its around one in five. I would like to think a large part of that is down to us taking responsibility for our own product.”
One issue that is perhaps generating increased interest in the mango sector is the focus on varietal branding, says Abram.
“We were one of the first companies to do a really organised varietal programme. We were the first with Kensington Pride and Pearl from Australia. We still have exclusivity on Pearl as well.”
Abram says MWW has brought in Heidi from South Africa, Maya and Shelley from Israel and Julie from the Windward Islands.
Fairtrade is also performing well for the company, he says: “We were first to market with Fairtrade, through our partners Agrofair, and we expect to have year-round supply within the next 18 months.” He says there is also an issue of sub-branding within Fairtrade, with the introduction of organic Fairtrade product.
However, he does sound a note of caution when it comes to the retailers focus on variety, particularly when it comes to the shift away from Tommy Atkins to the smoother fleshed Kent and Keitt.
“I agreed with what the Sainsbury’s buyer was saying about the fact you can’t just get rid of Tommy Atkins, it’s still the most popular variety in the US, which is one of the biggest markets for many growers.”
He says there was also a danger in narrowly focusing on only Kent and Keitt as alternatives. “There are a number of other varieties which we’re able to ship cost effectively by sea. Like Palmer, for instance; we’re seeing great growth in planting on that variety.
“There’s R2E2 in Israel and we’re expecting to see Manzanillo coming through from South Africa, and I still believe Parvin from Puerto Rica is an important variety particularly during the summer.
“There could be a danger in focusing on Kent and Keitt too much as we could exclude some very good, cost effective, varieties.”
Minor Weir and Willis is also committed to improving its sourcing he says both of new varieties, but also sourcing product that is nearer to the UK market.
“We’re not going to start seeing product being grown in northern Europe, but we’re keen to try and find sources closer to home, to cut down on transport times.”
On the technology front, he says there is still a lot of work to be done: “I think it’s extremely important to be able to detect internal difficulties on mangoes, but that technology doesn’t exist at the moment.”
He says the machines currently out there in the market are not capable of coping with the necessary volume: “There’s no doubt the SACMI F5 is good, but it’s too slow, the technology still needs to come.
“Our view is that we’re working with our partners to develop new technology. I don’t want to sound too negative, the technology will come in time. The potential is there.”
When it comes to issues on price though, he says that lies in the hands of the retailers: “I don’t see any reason why the price should drop enormously, its got to be up to the retailers to decide if mango is the right product to start a price war with.”
However, whatever happens, he remains philosophical: “But then again, lower prices will always encourage new consumers.”
WEEK-LONG PROMO GETS NATION MAD 4 MANGO
The main aim of Mad 4 Mango Week according to chairman Chris Abram, was to raise as much consumer awareness and exposure of the exotic fruit as possible.
The week was supported by all the major grocery multiples partaking in aggressive price cutting and multi-buys combined with a consumer PR campaign to boost sales in this rapidly growing category.
On the first day of Mad 4 Mango Week, Abram and the association’s adopted chef Bob Brown conducted 12 radio interviews nationwide, which reached a total of 1,842,000 listeners throughout the UK.
This kicked the campaign off with both talking about the week’s activities and objectives, mango recipes, the health benefits and the aphrodisiac qualities of the fruit.
Four mad mango recipes were issued to consumer press and websites, achieving great coverage including Hello! magazine and Nottinghamshire Today.
The traffic to the mad4mango.com website increased significantly and numerous enquiries were sent via the site.
The biggest consumer and trade mango fanatics in the UK were also found via the website. Samantha Reid eats a mango for breakfast and one before dinner every day. Her husband introduced her to the fruit and now she is addicted to them. Lovington’s Ice creams in Somerset are mad 4 mango as they launched an Alphonso Mango Sorbet this year made with real Alphonso mango puree. The company also produce a Mango and Passion Fruit Sorbet.
Abram comments: “It has been another successful mango week with some great coverage gained. From this and ongoing PR activity, I hope the numbers increase to two in five people buying mangoes instead of one in five. We need everyone to eat mangoes like our fanatic does, as that would guarantee an increase in sales.”
Abram continues: “I think the recipes worked really well this year as our key issue is getting people to trial mangoes. If consumers see mango ideas, this should encourage them to experiment with the fruit in new and exciting ways.”
The Mango Association’s next mini campaign is to support National Curry Week on 17-23 October, with a release of the definitive mango chutney recipe.
