The use of social media by the fresh produce industry has increased over the past year. Companies are now using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and mobile apps to engage customers and provide product information via QR codes and location-based services. The California Avocado Commission and Stemilt Growers plan to use QR codes on displays to share information with customers about growers and products. A new HarvestMark app allows customers to trace produce back to its source by scanning QR codes. While direct metrics are difficult, social media allows companies to build large customer networks and gain valuable feedback.

1. News Focus
social media
The fresh, social network
The use of social media by the fresh produce industry has blossomed over the past year.
Now, location-based services and QR codes could be about to change things even further
rachel sato-banks
 rachel@fruitnet.com
For many people around the world,
social media is a normal part of daily
life. There are 500m Facebook users
worldwide, 75m Twitter users and
YouTube is the second-largest search
engine next to Google; the number
of people to potentially target and
directly engage with is enormous,
and the demographic is constantly
growing. No longer exclusively used
by the under 30s, a total of 18m
people over the age of 45 are currently
active on Facebook. The key is not
just to engage with these potential
customers, but to also hold their
attention, which is no mean feat.
Fresh produce companies using social
media largely focus their campaigns around
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, with
most websites incorporating a blogging
system. The most innovative of these
businesses are now seeing the potential
in mobile marketing via phone apps for
iPhone, Android and Blackberry and QR
(Quick Response) codes – two-dimensional
barcodes that hold information (either a
text, website URL or any other data such
as product information or coupons), which
can then be decoded by QR scanners,
mobile phone cameras and smartphones.
QR codes can hold up to 4,000 characters of data
This month, Stemilt Growers, a familyowned tree fruit supplier and marketing
company based in Washington, US, plans to
put out 3,000 Piñata apple pop-up displays
with QR codes on them in retail stores
across the US. “The scanned Piñata codes
The Dole Salad Guide’s spokesperson has his very own first-person social media platform
will direct the consumer to a mobile site
with information about the grower and the
product itself,” says Roger Pepperl, Stemilt
Growers’ managing director. “People want
to know where their food comes from,” he
adds. “As a producer we owe it to people
to inform them.”
California-based HarvestMark, a
traceability system created for the fresh
produce industry, recently launched a free
iPhone app enabling consumers to trace
their food back to the field. The app takes
the consumer to a mobile site offering
instant access to harvest, distribution,
quality and food safety information about a
scanned product. They are able to make an
informed decision about their purchase and
the producer can collect direct feedback.
According to Elliott Grant, chief marketing
officer and founder of HarvestMark: “This
level and quality of information cannot be
found anywhere else.”
The thought of offering consumers such
transparency might make some growers
sceptical. “Some may have concerns about
disclosing harvest dates, as sometimes
products such as bananas can be stored
for awhile in cold stores,” says Mr Grant.
“Pesticide usage, which consumers may
not be aware of, is also a concern.” Mr
Grant is adamant however, that the
technology is beneficial to the supply chain
as a whole, offering insights that companies
have never had before.
3,000 Piñata pop-up displays will have QR codes
“Every time a consumer or buyer logs
into the website, the IP address or phone
location is revealed. This means the
producer knows where the product is at
any given time. This is vital for recalls of
any products,” says Mr Grant. “Instant
feedback is useful for testing new varieties,
packaging, taste and how the consumer
relates to the product overall. Focus groups
are a thing of the past and often too vague.
Social media users tend to be more honest,
as the web offers a degree of anonymity.”
“I love being able to trace my foods,”
says A Jackson-Hall, who purchased the
HarvestMark app through the iTunes
store. There have been 10,000 downloads
of the app since its unpublicised launch in
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2. News Focus
January 2010. The HarvestMark QR codes
appeared on 2m fresh produce items in the
US within two years.
Marketing movement
Mobile marketing and video marketing
have also taken off in the last few years.
YouTube has enjoyed enormous growth
and, although Facebook and Twitter are
the preferred channels for fresh produce
customers,” says Chris Mayhew, marketing
director for Dole Fresh Vegetables. “The
three Dole Facebook pages (Bananas, Salad
Guide and Nutrition), are followed by close
to 700,000 consumers that are passionate
about nutrition, healthy-eating and recipe
sharing.” Mr Mayhew feels Twitter is even
more instant and ideal for in-store offers,
last-minute deals and events. “We focus
this towards trade and media, including
foodie and health bloggers,” he explains.
“One example is our recent Blogger
Summit. We created an event-specific
hashtag (#dolesummit) that allowed us to
link to everyone talking about the event –
not just attendees, but the entire food and
wellness blogger community.”
The right response
Del Monte utilises Facebook for targeted campaigns
companies at this moment, many are
creatively using YouTube to capture
people’s attention.
The California Avocado Commission
(CAC), based in Irvine, California, uses all
three. Subscribers to its YouTube channel
are drawn in by a mix of avocado-centric
recipes demonstrated by chefs Mary Sue
Milliken and Susan Feniger (the ‘Two Hot
Tamales’) and interviews with growers
about how the avocados are lovingly
handled through the generations. “The
videos give fans something to be passionate
about,” says Jan DeLyser, CAC’s vice
president of marketing. Stemilt Growers’
Roger Pepperl agrees in this personal
But what is the point of social media if you
can’t measure its rate of return (ROI), you
may ask. Social media is so fluid that direct
metrics in the traditional sense can be
difficult to obtain. “The cost-effectiveness
is in the network of customers a brand can
build,” says Dr Tracy Irani, development
director of the University of Florida’s PIE
Centre. “The number of visitors to a page,
the size of the network (fans, followers,
members) and quantity of commentary,
are the new ways of measuring ROI.”
Dole Fresh Fruit’s communications
Twitter offers brands instant consumer feedback
recently offered a US$1 discount for all
‘mayors’ of their locations in the US. The
potential for marketers when it comes
to social media gaming, where you are
rewarded virtually for frequently visiting
places and ‘logging in’ via GPS, is to make
consuming a fun, even competitive pastime.
Foursquare launched in March 2009 and
now has 3m users.
Whether this will have any impact on the
fresh produce industry remains to be seen,
however. “We did think of getting into
Foursquare but I think it’s also important to
not do too much,” says Roger Pepperl. Dr
Irani agrees a choice must be made about
There have been 10,000 downloads of the HarvestMark iPhone app since its launch in January 2010
51,500 people ‘like’ the CAC’s Facebook page
approach: “Being authentic is really
important in social media, as we’re familyowned we come off as original.”
Fresh produce companies have a long
way to go to utilise video in the same
way as Facebook and Twitter, however.
“Facebook offers the most access to our
manager Bil Goldfield agrees: “Our true
metrics are viral engagement. While we
may not be able measure it precisely, we
can assume there to be a very positive
link between sales and conversations
with an engaged community.” An easier
way to monitor ROI is through coupon
redemption, he reveals: “We have used
the web and social media as a coupon
distribution mechanism, often adding a
contest to make it more compelling.”
Location-based services such as
Foursquare and Facebook Places now
offer loyalty discounts and deals. Starbucks
which channels work best with your brand:
“Our research shows that adults don’t like
to be overloaded with information.”
The risks involved in entering uncharted
social media territory may cause some to
shy away; but the risk in not effectively
integrating such systems into marketing
strategies, the way most successful brands
have done, could be far greater, believes
Del Monte’s marketing vice-president
Dennis Christou: “Consumers are online
researching and interacting with brands
and, if your company is not there, they are
liable to forget about you.”
n
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