Case StudyWorldwide Fruit

at the BBC Good Food Show Winter

Company NameWorldwide FruitCompany DescriptionDistributor of Jazz branded apples, the seventh most popular apple in the UK, and also pears, kiwi, dates and avocadoIndustry sector: FoodTotal amount of yearly marketing budget spent on live marketing: 50%

The EventBBC Good Food Show Winter EditionEvent DescriptionThe event brings together producers, celebrity chefs and food enthusiasts for a feast of seasonal-themed food and drink inspirationVenue

National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham

Educating the public...Worldwide Fruit (WF) is one of the biggest fruit importers in the world and is 50% owned by Fruition, the UK’s largest apple and pear growing group. The turnover created by WF in the 12 months prior to the show was £98 million, with a pre-tax profit of £2 million.

WF supplies many major high street supermarkets and the biggest reason for exhibiting at this edition of the BBC Good Food Show (GFS) was a desire to educate the public about a particular apple brand named Jazz.

“We supply to the top supermarket chains but the consumers won’t necessarily know they are Jazz apples because the retailers class them as their ‘own brand’,” said Gary Harrison, Commercial Manager of WF.

“Each pack will have Jazz Apple on there but sometimes you have to look hard to find the variety on the pack.”

Planning for success...Gary believes exhibiting at shows like GFS really does make a difference to brand awareness and this was WF’s fifth time there. He recalls meeting some people who, three years after initially handing them a free sample, still only buy Jazz Apple as their apple of choice.

“That is exactly why live marketing is a key component of our marketing mix. We know we won’t get every visitor hooked, but it is worthwhile with the ones we do,” he explained.

And, as the GFS attracts a mainly ‘consumer based’ visitor profile, it makes the show a perfect platform for WF as it also aims to increase Jazz Apples’ overall UK market percentage of 3.5 by a further 1%. The brand, currently seventh popular with UK shoppers, brings in around £25m a year.

Gary also explained how the WF team wanted to sample or sell a combined Jazz Apple product of 20,000 units, give away 2,000 branded recipe cards (which also covers stockists) and gather 1,000 e-mail addresses from interested visitors to add to its in-house database.

WF assigns half of its yearly Jazz Apple-specific marketing budget on attending live events and that came to £70,000 in 2011.

“We do a lot of online and consumer facing PR, competitions and social media to heighten the product’s awareness, but live events is by far and away the most cost effective avenue for us to use,” added Gary, who admitted the live events budget is the only one not to suffer a decrease in expenditure during these times of recession.

Rolling out the game plan...WF starts promoting any exhibition presence about six months before the GFS doors open in terms of using their own online newsletter, posting messages and information up via Facebook and Twitter, and mentioning at least basic information on all other PR exposure where possible.

In total, WF spent nearly £30,000 on its GFS presence including space, stand design and build, samples and staffing costs: “We’ve used the same stand design company for five years and that helps ensure a smooth running relationship. It helps with the brand recognition if the visitors see Jazz Apples on a consistently designed stand year-on-year too,” he added.

And it has taken WF those five years to get what Harrison calls ‘the perfect spot on the GFS floor plan’: “Stand position can be key so, now we have a position on the corner of a main aisle and can be seen throughout the hall, we won’t be giving it up easily.”

Gary believes very much in using WF staff to populate the stand as their passion and daily integration of both brands is invaluable.

“My experience of agency staff is that they are potentially sampling a different product every week and that is not a good thing. A bad brand experience on our stand will be carried away by that visitor for a long time, so it’s important to get that part right,” he added.

No agency staff were used by WF during this exhibiting presence and over 30 in-house staff enjoyed time out of the office or warehouse for at least one day to help grow the business and themselves.

Results...

Gary and his team had a successful time at Good Food Show in 2011 and managed to hit all of the objectives they had set:

n WF handed out/sold the entire 20,000 Jazz Apple samples across the five days (to a combination of visitors - both familiar or new to the brand

n There was a national sales spike (+12%) of Jazz Apples in the first few weeks after GFS closed

n All recipe cards were distributed and more than a 1,000 e-mail addresses were collected to add to the newsletter database

A word on success...

“In the last three years our sales of Jazz Apples have increased by

around 40% and I attribute a lot of that success to being at live

events.

“Over the last 5 years we’ve spent around £250,000 at exhibitions

and a myriad of other events to get the taste of our products into

the mouths and minds of the public and I believe it has been worth

every penny,” Gary concluded.

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