Creating a New Brand for Fruits and Vegetables

Consumer Focus Drives "More Matters" Message

More than anyone else, Moms influence what Americans eat - she prepares the meal plan, does the shopping, watches the food budget, prepares meals and monitors what family members consume. Mom is the food gatekeeper and a critical ally in the produce industry's goal of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.

The National 5 A Day Partnership, which is chaired by the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH), probably best known as keepers of the 5 A Day for Better Health campaign, has mom in the crosshairs - the all-important target consumer who can help boost produce consumption for millions of Americans. The ammunition: Fruits & Veggies - More Matters, the new brand identity for the partnership's quest to get more fruits and vegetables into the American diet.

The More Matters identity opens an exciting new phase in the quest to convince consumers to eat more fruits and vegetables. But deciding on that brand identity, especially working with a large national partnership, was sparked by necessity and took several months.

Dave Parker, immediate past chairman of the Produce for Better Health (PBH) Board of Trustees, says he realized that science had "just rocketed past" the 5 A Day campaign.

It was in 2005 that the United States Department of Agriculture announced new dietary guidelines for all Americans. It's a comprehensive collection of recommendations addressing caloric intake, nutrients, physical activity, alcoholic beverages and more. Among the top recommendations: eat more fruits and vegetables - the only food group garnering an across the board "eat more" status.

The partnership, which is supported by produce industry members, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments and others, played a role in convincing USDA to adopt the new dietary guidance. Fruit and vegetable believers helped provide input to USDA's guideline revision process, and boosting the government's dietary recommendations for fruits and vegetables was nothing less than a landmark victory. After all, the federal guidance is the foundation (or it should be) of American menu planning.

But the PBH victory came with a price. The original "5 A Day for Better Health" campaign, originally a California program started in 1988, was no longer valid. Back then, average consumption was around 2.5 servings a day, so doubling consumption to "5 a day" seemed a natural goal. It wasn't developed or tested as a formal brand, but it's nonetheless done a great job.

Today, the government recommendations are much higher than five a day. Depending on the individual, the USDA's new dietary plan might call for as many as 13 fruits or vegetables a day. For millions of consumers, five servings was just a fraction of what they should be eating.

Elizabeth Pivonka, president and CEO at PBH, (shown here at an FFVA convention) feels that the equity established by the 5 A Day campaign can help create a program identity that will motivate people to eat more fruits and vegetables.

"The science had just rocketed past us," said Dave Parker, director of marketing at Fruit Patch Sales in California and immediate past chairman of the PBH Board of Trustees. "Last year when the USDA came out with new recommendations of 5 to 13 servings a day, depending on age, body and gender, then we knew we were in trouble. 5 A Day wasn't viable anymore."

It was an opportunity, as Elizabeth Pivonka, president and CEO at PBH said, "… to take the equity of the 5 A Day brand and create a program identity that will motivate people to make fruits and vegetables the cornerstone of their meals and snacks."

"I had no compunction about walking away from 5 A Day and developing a more compelling and understandable message," said Parker.

BRING IN THE EXPERTS

With the existing 5 A Day program as a foundation, the partnership sought the counsel of a professional branding firm to guide them through the process. It was a challenging assignment to be sure, but several leading branding agencies from across the country sought the account. After several weeks spent reviewing agency backgrounds and listening to proposals, the partnership chose Sterling Brands, based in New York.

Sterling knew the task wasn't easy. Create a brand identity for a product category that comes in hundreds of different shapes and sizes, can be fresh, fresh-cut, frozen, dried or canned, and already has several companies branding their own products within the category. But that was what made the project so attractive - it was a challenge like no other.

What followed was research, several weeks worth, learning how consumers made decisions about buying and eating fruits and vegetables, and what other foods were competing for the "share of stomach." Sterling led focus groups with consumers with a variety of incomes, and from several key geographic areas and ethnic backgrounds.

"Sterling Brands told us to focus on a market segment. Let's start talking to moms, they told us, because they can influence their kids," said Parker, who served on the PBH task force working with Sterling on the branding project.

With moms in mind, Sterling and PBH representatives spent entire days shadowing families, seeing how they planed meals and how they shopped. They heard concerns about food budgets, healthy eating and pleasing picky eaters in their families.

"The moms told us, 'we think we're doing OK for our families. We don't want you to preach to us, because we know it's important. We know we should be eating more fruits and vegetables and we know it really matters,'" added Parker.

A MESSAGE TAILORED FOR SMART MOMS

A leading strategy emerged from the research. Moms generally already know the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. They try to find ways to provide healthier meals to their busy families. Specific consumption goals can be intimidating or unrealistic. But they can make incremental strides towards more fruit and vegetable consumption if they know that even small steps matter.

Sterling recommended "Fruits & Veggies - More Matters" as the new brand. It's an honest and plain-spoken reminder for moms and all consumers about the benefits of produce consumption. When presented by Sterling to representatives of the legacy 5 A Day Partnership, the response was overwhelmingly positive.

"It's seemed so clear after hearing from those moms," said Parker.

"Fruits and Veggies -- More Matters, is brilliant in its simplicity," said Simon Williams, president and CEO of Sterling Brands. "It's a clear, direct message to moms of all ages, incomes and ethnicities that eating more fruits and vegetables is important and will help them take better care of their families and themselves."

Simon Williams is president and CEO of Sterling Brands, the company that developed the "Fruits & Veggies - More Matters" brand. He says the brand is brilliant in its simplicity.

With a fresh brand to work with, Sterling's artists developed several dozen logo concepts to visualize the More Matters message. The branding task force and partnership representatives sifted through several dozen ideas over more than a month. Industry marketing experts wanted a logo that would spark sales; health community experts needed to communicate the lifestyle benefits of produce consumption. Even with these different perspectives, the team settled on three or four concepts for testing. Let the consumers tell us what motivates them, they said.

"After looking at so many concepts, it was frankly a relief to use the market research to find the best logo," said Ray Gilmer, public affairs director for FFVA and a member of the PBH branding team. "All of the finalists were very strong, but none of us on the task force were removed enough from the process to have a feel for which logo would really touch consumers."

Thankfully, testing of 1,000 consumers revealed an unmistakable winner. The new brand and associated logo scored better than expected with moms in all the important consumer segments. Underscoring the success, the research director for the contractor who conducted the survey said he'd only seen such a strong result a half-dozen times in his 30 years in the business.

"We even tested 'veggies' versus 'vegetables' in the brand message, and 'veggies' scored much better with consumers saying it was friendlier, fun and less formal," added Gilmer.

Over the next few months, the Produce for Better Health Foundation will help launch the new More Matters brand. Formal market launch is slated for March 2007, but the produce industry, retailers, government and health partners and others are already working plans to plug the new message into their programs over the remainder of 2006. Pilot testing, which may include some packaging and point-of-sale research, will help smooth the way for the brand launch next spring. And a new More Matters-branded website, with a variety of messages and tools targeting consumers, will complement the brand's introduction.

"We don't have the money the milk board does, or Coke for that matter," said Parker. "If we did, we could really drive the message home to moms. That's why it's so important to use the marketing and communication muscle from all of our industry, healthcare and government partners to remind moms that more fruits and veggies really do matter."