Perfect Partners
PG recognizes six best-in-class promotional and marketing commodity boards.
PG Commodity Board Retail Leadership Award winners
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
California Avocado Commission
Idaho Potato Commission
National Cattlemen's Beef Association USA Rice Federation
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
In a first-ever celebration, Progressive Grocer proudly tips its hat to six of the industry's most dynamic commodity marketing and promotional boards, whose individual efforts have made significant collective strides in bringing cutting-edge retail marketing and promotional campaigns to U.S. supermarkets.
Selected based on their abilities to convey the scope, capabilities and effectiveness of their retail-specific strategies and campaigns employed between Jan. 1, 2010, and May 21, 2011, these six groups have been instrumental in helping retailers plan and implement creative, innovative, demand-and consumption-building programs that positively impacted sales of their particular member-producers' products in U.S. supermarkets during the specified timeframe.
As the most influential sources of information on the various industries that they serve, the above organizations provide retailers with a medley of invaluable resources to make their particular products more vibrant, valuable and viable in both the grocery aisles and on consumers' tables.
Funded by producers, the diverse set of commodity boards highlighted on the following pages shares the same goals: to create awareness, stimulate desire and ultimately increase consumption of the products they represent. And though the strategies and approaches taken by each are as uniquely vital as the producers they represent, the propensity of their efforts revolve primarily around retailer support and development; nutrition; food safety; research; marketing, communication and education; merchandising and training; category management; creating new consumption opportunities through innovation, promotions, product development and consumer outreach; and related partnership opportunities to promote their producers' items and brands, among others.
Without question, our charter Commodity Board Retail Leadership Award winners have made monumental impacts in helping grocers increase sales and stimulate shopper engagement of their particular product families, alongside memorable and effective campaigns that foster brand loyalty and facilitate closer connections with the people growing, making and catching that which they're promoting.
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
Anchored firmly in a central mission of increasing the economic value of its home state's bountiful, sustainable, wild-caught seafood, the admirable retail efforts conducted by the Juneau-based Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) have been highly successful in luring consumers to the supermarket seafood case in greater numbers.
A public-private partnership between the seafood industry and the state, ASMI develops effective integrated retail programs that offer retailers an array of impactful merchandising, promotional and educational support to help consumers understand the value and quality of its wild-caught Alaska seafood “brands,” including five species of salmon — pink, keta, sockeye, coho and king, each of which has its own color and flavor characteristics — as well as shrimp, scallops, crab and whitefish varieties such as pollock, halibut, Pacific cod, black cod, sole and rockfish.
A cornerstone of ASMI's effective retail platform is its innovative “Cook It Frozen” program, which teaches consumers that they can easily prepare and quickly cook high-quality, heart-healthy seafood that's still frozen, with no pre-planning or thawing necessary. Launched nearly a decade ago, the innovative Cook It Frozen retail platform reinforces Alaska seafood's position as a perfect pantry staple, alongside its convenience attributes as an easy meal solution with a variety of cooking techniques such as grilling, broiling, sautéing, pan-searing, poaching, steaming and roasting.
In one of the most compelling examples of its successful retail performance achieved in the past year, ASMI embarked on a mutually rewarding partnership with Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle in the fall of 2010 that was so successful that two subsequent promotions have been executed, with similar outstanding results.
Timed to coincide with National Seafood Month in October, the integrated merchandising promotion, which ran from late September through early November 2010, employed custom POS materials, including banners, posters, static clings, recipes, shelf talkers, digital marketing, website education and an aggressive in-store demonstration program featuring the trademarked Cook It Frozen techniques.
At the conclusion of last fall's successful five-week promotion, frozen Alaska seafood enabled Giant Eagle to post impressive comparative seafood gains from the prior year.
Aside from Giant Eagle, many other leading retailers across the country are also taking advantage of valuable resources ASMI provides to stimulate sales and further increase consumer awareness and sales of wild, natural, sustainable Alaska seafood via on-pack labeling, posters, channel and case signs, instructional videos, photography, informative websites, and nutritional information.
ASMI also offers comprehensive training for retail seafood staff through its “Alaska Seafood U,” an interactive Web-based training program covering Alaskan species, harvesting methods, nutrition and sustainability.
In conjunction with ASMI's dedicated Cook It Frozen website, the organization also offers a user-friendly iPhone app that features recipes developed exclusively for use with frozen (non-thawed) Alaska seafood, in addition to how-to videos that provide consumers with on-demand cooking instructions to further support in-store campaigns.
California Avocado Commission
Since 1978, the Irvine-based California Avocado Commission (CAC) has created demand for California avocados through advertising, promotion, public relations and trade programs benefiting California's nearly 5,000 avocado growers.
CAC's “California Avocado Grower” marketing campaign, backed by its “Hand Grown in California” tagline, is a result of research indicating that 69 percent of U.S. consumers think it's important that the avocados they buy are grown in the United States. Communicating the fruit's reliable taste, quality and freshness, the campaign emphasizes the California brand and seasonal availability of the state's avocados.
National print ads in epicurean and lifestyle magazines, as well as online advertising, run in season and are complemented by regional radio, outdoor and in-store media, achieving 1.1 billion impressions in 2010 alone.
CAC's public relations activities further bolster its high-quality California roots with significant outreach in nutrition, creative recipes with usage ideas, and an innovative artisan chef program.
Maintaining strong, collaborative relationships with retailers through customized merchandising programs and data analysis, CAC offers a variety of support materials, including Hand Grown in California-themed avocado display bins and POS materials. Among the highlights of its 2011 retail efforts are support for Vons/Pavilions “locally grown” events, sponsorship of Fred Meyer's “Fresh Ideas with Leigh Ann” program, H-E-B California avocados product demos and website features, and an informative feature article on California avocados in The Costco Connection.
In 2010 and 2011, Cinco de Mayo kicked off the California avocado season with significant consumer outreach, including chef spokeswomen Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken (2010) and Ivy Stark (2011), an online microsite, social media outreach, and CAC's new mobile website. CAC has successfully built Cinco de Mayo avocado demand for decades, helping to make it one of the strongest retail sales occasions for the category.
In 2011, CAC also saw success with a creative “California Avo Babies” consumer promotion designed to spread the news that fresh California avocados are a good “first food” for tots. The multifaceted Avo Babies program encouraged parents to upload photos of their little ones enjoying California avocados on Facebook, for a chance to win cash scholarship prizes. The effort was backed by online marketing and advertising, a dedicated microsite, and digital marketing to more than 50,000 California avocado fans. Retail POS materials, meanwhile, further showcased the program alongside a display contest that provided retailers with additional incentives to build California avocado displays during the promotion period.
Another feature in CAC's retail lineup during 2011 was a cross-promotion with Copper River Salmon touting the duo's peak seasonal availability and high-quality attributes via display cards and recipe brochures available for retailers and wholesalers.
A centerpiece of CAC's retail platform is its long-term strategy to increase avocado demand by spreading the news that California avocados can be an important component in a healthy diet, with ample avocado nutrition messages disseminated through broad-based public relations, industry outreach and third-party spokespeople.
In April, CAC sponsored Oldways' Supermarket Dietitian Leadership Symposium in Santa Rosa, Calif., which brought together leaders in supermarket health and wellness, including 40 supermarket registered dietitians. In addition to highlighting best practice merchandising tips, CAC's Jan DeLyser presented a diverse assortment of California avocado recipes while demonstrating the versatility of avocados as a healthy substitute for saturated fats.
CAC also supports retail dietitians year-round with nutrition news, usage ideas, nutrition information and content ideas through the California Avocado Supermarket RD Nutrition Newsletter. Among its retail program highlights during the past year were coverage of California avocados as a spring superfood with Meijer's Healthy Living Advisor Tina Miller on “The Lucy Ann Lance Show” (WLBY-AM/Ann Arbor, Mich.); a feature in Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer's Healthy Living magazine; an integrated California avocado campaign in St. Louis-based Schnucks' magazine, website and cooking schools; and a full-page article about California avocados on Carson, Calif.-based Bristol Farms' blog, along with themed cooking shows.
CAC's creative, strategic, consumer-synergistic retail program development that integrates key marketing tactics such as advertising, public relations, promotions, merchandising, online and social media is the hallmark of the organization's leadership and dedication to increasing California avocado consumption for more than 30 years.
Idaho Potato Commission
Dedicated to facilitating the various mutually beneficial goals of Idaho potato shippers and processors, the Eagle-based Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) is a genuine trailblazer when it comes to promoting Idaho's famous brand and certification marks to consumers, retailers, and foodservice operators and distributors, domestically and internationally.
At the heart of its retail promotional objectives is a dual goal of reinforcing and growing Idaho's famous reputation as America's highest-quality, top-selling potato, while increasing retailer support for Idaho potatoes to drive volume and sales throughout the country and boosting category profitability for the retailer.
In terms of communicating with the retail trade, IPC has developed some of the most creative, innovative and effective campaigns, which not only speak to the nature of the Idaho potato brand, but also continuously redefine the boundaries of traditional trade outreach. For the past few years, IPC's retail “Comic Book” campaign has proved to be a tremendous success as one of the most impactful programs in IPC's history.
Touting the selling power of Idaho potatoes through tales of “Idaho's Potato Field Force,” IPC's comic book retail campaign aims to personalize the relationship between the category managers and their Idaho potato field representatives, while offering practical solutions in several fun and engaging formats and communicating the core message, “When you think potatoes, think Idaho.”
Featuring nine full-page ads, IPC's Comic Book campaign appeared in retail trade publications throughout 2010-11. In addition to a traditional advertising schedule, the ads were transformed in the following ways:
Comic Books: In a bid to make it easy to read and to enjoy the marvelous mayhem of the Idaho Potato Field Force, all nine print ads were compiled into a comic book and mailed to every potato buyer in United States, as well as being inserted into appropriate publications for PMA Fresh Summit.
Videos: Five of the nine ads were brought to life through engaging animated videos that are housed on IPC's YouTube page.
Online Ads: To generate as much play as possible, the videos ran as revolving banner ads on key trade publication websites primarily during the peak potato-buying season (October 2010 through March 2011).
Print Teaser Ads: A series of teaser ads was developed to launch the 2010-11 print ad campaign. In the weeks leading up to the new campaign, teaser ads appeared on the front pages of select trade publications to help introduce the promotion and excite readers.
Direct Mail and Premiums: Getting its message directly to retailers in a fun and compelling way was IPC's priority, and while the Comic Book print and online ads have certainly accomplished that goal, enlivening the campaign and placing it in the hands of retailers make it that much more personable and fun. Over the past few years, the IPC's Comic Book campaign has included bobblehead business card holders and USB flash drives in the shape and size of a credit card (featuring each of member of the Field Force) being mailed to the press and retail key accounts. These USB drives also provided Nielsen and MarketTrack data to every retailer called on a quarterly or semiannual basis.
As both individual elements and as a collective campaign, IPC's Comic Book campaign has won numerous awards for excellence and innovation in marketing communications, among them a marketing excellence award for retail trade initiatives for the past four years running and three National Agricultural Marketing Awards (NAMA), including a national series gold.
Though branded potato sales aren't possible to track, based on the amount of retailer feedback and support, the Comic Book campaign has dramatically improved Idaho's reach to the industry through a consistent, integrated approach and a touch of humor. The response from produce managers, senior category managers and retail advertising/marketing managers has been extremely positive to date.
In addition to the Comic Book campaign, IPC has developed support materials that are used to convey its message to the industry, including a special “Potato Retailing Today” supplement that appeared in four issues of Progressive Grocer during 2010-11. The special editorial section's unique message and exclusive content provided retailers with in-depth educational news and information, and it was subsequently mailed to retail buyers as a timely, practical and informative follow-up tool.
IPC's national television advertising campaign further communicated and reinforced the nutritional value of potatoes in general, and the unique value of Idaho potatoes in particular.
Another important element of IPC's innovative retail programs included the development and implementation of several bin promotions to help move specific elements of the crop, including a small-potato bag promotion when Idaho had an oversupply of size B, a bagged-bin promotion when it had an abundance of medium-sized potatoes due to demand for cartons, and a jumbo-bag bin promotion when it had too much sizing.
No discussion of IPC's award-winning retail activities would be complete without a mention of its annual Potato Lover's Month (PLM) Retail Display Contest, which for the past 20 consecutive Februarys has invited produce managers to put their merchandising skills to the test in an attempt to create the top tater display. With a prize bucket totaling $150,000 and a promise of a bump in produce sales, the promotion has become one of the most anticipated contests for retailers.
As IPC's longest-running and most popular promotional program, the contest is a sure-fire way to inspire store managers to design “spudtacular” product displays that drive traffic to the produce department. “For two decades, the announcement of the IPC's Potato Lover's Month Retail Display Contest has generated a flurry of excitement among retailers for two reasons: The promotion pulls customers into the produce aisle, ultimately increasing sales and profits during an otherwise typically slow month — not to mention that there is a significant cash incentive for them,” notes Seth Pemsler, IPC's VP of retail/international.
The popular contest has traditionally offered more than 100 prizes, with cash awards to the top five finishers in three store categories, as well as honorable mentions and opportunities for category managers to win, too.
PG will provide complete details on IPC's 2012 PLM retail display contest in the coming weeks.
National Cattlemen's Beef Association
An abundance of middle meats and a shift in consumers' purchasing behaviors posed new challenges for meat cutters and merchandisers. Retailers needed to adapt how beef cuts were merchandised to shoppers, especially those who were increasingly becoming more conscious of their portions and trying to make better nutritional choices.
With this market opportunity in mind, the Centennial, Colo.-based National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) set out to research and identify ways for retailers to capitalize on the profitability of middle meats while creating even more satisfying eating experiences for consumers. The result? NCBA's “Beef Alternative Merchandising” (BAM) program, which established an alternative merchandising technique around new methods to further fabricate ribeyes, top loins and top sirloins to create small filets and roasts.
Extensive research helped NCBA evaluate the potential application of these newly developed cuts. Through surveys and focus groups, consumers assigned a wide range of benefits to BAM cuts, with convenience, enhanced nutrition and portion control leading the list. More importantly, consumers demonstrated considerable purchase interest in the cuts. The data also showed that BAM would help retailers keep unit prices acceptable and offer portions at a thickness that provides a good eating experience. Overall, the research revealed an enthusiastic response to this alternative merchandising technique.
To gain valuable insights on BAM product appeal in-store and at home to support prior research, NCBA spearheaded a BAM in-market test during the summer grilling season, May 30 to Sept. 4, 2010. The study also set out to determine the attitudes of retailers who would actively merchandise, stock and promote a BAM product line.
In partnership with Homeland, a grocery chain operated by Norman, Okla.-based HAC Inc., NCBA introduced the new cuts under the Red River Ranch brand to Homeland's staff and shoppers. Products were placed in 11 stores, and in-store sampling and a host of valuable merchandising materials were used effectively to generate consumer interest and trials. These elements included in-store demos, radio ads, newspaper circulars, training of meat staff, distribution of the BAM training manual, and point-of-sale materials such as recipe cards, consumer handouts, recipe sheets, free-standing signage, photographs and instructional cutting posters.
Through in-store demos and tastings, 150 consumers were identified to provide insights in the store on product appeal. These same 150 consumers were then given Red River Ranch cuts to cook and share at home. Customers completed a diary capturing their reactions, and this data was collected online and analyzed. Consumers noted a multitude of product features and benefits, but were focused primarily on the lean, fresh, highly trimmed product appearance and the portion-controlled sizes.
Feedback from consumers exposed to Red River Ranch in-store and at home indicated:
★ In-store merchandising and product displays generated high consumer purchase interest; 47 percent of shoppers said they were definitely interested and 46 percent signaled probable interest based on in-store merchandising.
★ The majority of shoppers (60 percent) would purchase Red River Ranch in addition to the beef products they normally buy (versus replacing them) and make repeated purchases of Red River Ranch steaks, filets and roasts.
★ While consumers indicated an assumption that these cuts would cost more to purchase, they said it was worth it. After tasting the products and being exposed to the price, shoppers still have 84 percent positive purchase interest.
Feedback on the pilot study from Homeland's meat department associates also indicated the success of adding the Red River Ranch filets and roasts to the meat case. Homeland reported that in-store sampling was an effective tactic in generating initial trial purchasing at its stores, supplemented by butchers' customer interactions and educational point-of-sale merchandising materials.
Homeland's meat department staff also felt the POS merchandising materials were essential in educating inquisitive customers who wanted to know more about the cuts. Additional verbatim observations from Homeland's meat department staff follow below:
“BAM clearly offers increased meat selection and consumer choice.”
“If we offer BAM, we're offering more variety, which will naturally appeal to a larger group of consumers.”
“BAM isn't just a choice, it's a healthy alternative. It’s leaner, and along with leaner, it's smaller, which is also better.”
“BAM cuts offer competitive differentiation and reinforce an image of high quality.”
“This makes us look better to consumers. People feel like this is more gourmet, which is higher quality.”
“Everybody agrees that we hang our hats on the quality of our perimeters such as the deli, produce and meat departments.”
“Sampling and POS merchandising materials are essential to product trial.”
“It's all about sampling: We just need to get it into the mouths of the consumers.”
“We always try to talk to consumers, to explain it a little more, but channel strips and recipe cards … really help.”
In addition to the consumer data and anecdotal feedback, resulting sales data spoke to the success of the pilot study. Homeland experienced significant sales growth of nearly $34,000 during the 14 weeks, with some stores selling as many as 863 pounds of Red River Ranch units throughout the pilot.
Accordingly, Homeland could expect continued sales growth based on its shopper survey responses during the study. A large majority of respondents said they'd add at least one beef meal per week or per month if the Red River Ranch product line were available. What's more, among the 63 percent of consumers who shop at Homeland for fewer than half of their grocery shopping occasions, 56 percent said that Homeland's Red River Ranch products would make them more likely to shop there.
As indicated by the results of NCBA's pilot study with Homeland and HAC Inc., the way has been paved for other retailers to incorporate BAM, which will help them reach coveted demographics and increase sales through the addition of new cuts to their meat cases and use of the supporting merchandising tools.
USA Rice Federation
As the global advocate for all segments of the rice industry, the Arlington, Va.-based USA Rice Federation conducts programs to build awareness and usage of U.S.-grown rice, which accounts for more than 85 percent of the rice consumed in America, and which is grown and harvested by farmers in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas.
The United States produces an abundance of short-, medium- and long-grain rice, as well as organic and specialty rices such as jasmine, basmati, arborio, red aromatic and black japonica. The U.S. rice industry’s “Grown in the USA” logo is included on packages of 100 percent domestically grown rice.
For two decades, the USA Rice Federation has promoted September as National Rice Month (NRM). The celebration of American-grown rice began through an official presidential proclamation by George H.W. Bush in 1991 and involves the category's entire distribution chain, including growers, retailers, foodservice operations, nutrition professionals and consumers. The USA Rice Federation uses NRM to raise product and category awareness, instill pride in its members, and refresh its marketing messages to reflect current industry trends like health and sustainability.
The 2010 NRM celebration was a profitable campaign for rice product manufacturers and retailers alike. According to Nielsen Scantrak sales data, rice pound sales in the United States increased 5 percent from August to September 2010, while unit sales increased 7 percent. In addition, branded rice product manufacturers saw an average sales increase of 16 percent as a result of participating in the September promotion. USA Rice also joins forces annually with mainstream, ethnic and warehouse club retailers, which reported sales increases of between 10 percent and 150 percent during the 2010 promotion.
Underscoring the strong relationships the USA Rice Federation has developed were retailers across the country were the compelling results of its 2010 NRM annual retail display contest, which resulted in nearly 4,000 displays in grocery stores across 29 states. Through trade advertising, press releases and its website, USA Rice encouraged retailers in mainstream, ethnic and warehouse club grocery channels to extend their NRM promotions beyond the rice aisle to include end aisle displays and interdepartmental tie-ins via a variety of related support tools such as customized merchandising materials, premiums and giveaways, recipe brochures, and rice recipe photography, among others.
Working with retailers to promote American-grown rice through highly successful sampling demonstrations, USA Rice participated in a demonstration at Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco that drew 150,000 consumers to sample rice and resulted in the sale of 5,000 pounds during the two-hour event. During a weeklong demo event at San Antonio-based H-E-B, meanwhile, samples were distributed to 88,000 consumers, good for a 10 percent spike in rice sales.
A successful partnership with Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson to demonstrate beef and rice recipes in 300 Walmart stores, which featured prominent signage on recipe demonstration cards emblazoned with messages to encourage customers to buy U.S.-grown rice, represented yet another success story for the federation.
When the results of its 2010 NRM annual retail display contest were tallied, the USA Rice Federation bestowed its Retailer of the Year award on Mauldin, S.C.-based Bi-Lo, whose rice sales increased 9 percent as a result of a hugely successful promotion across 207 stores that featured 31 brands of American rice on temporary price reductions. Bi-Lo advertised NRM in its weekly circular, distributed to a whopping 16 million households during September.
To boost interest and participation in NRM activities, USA Rice focused on the critical issues most important to retailers: sales opportunity (margin and volume), consumer interest in rice, tie-ins with other categories, manufacturer support, and turnkey program materials. With these elements in mind, the retailer kit included premiums and point-of-sale materials, on-trend recipe cards for consumers, and back-of-house prep tools supported by print and electronic advertising in trade publications and consumer engagement.
Having distributed 1,500 media kits and video press releases to news outlets all over the country, USA Rice sponsored a scholarship contest for high school students whose families were directly involved in the rice industry. A luncheon on Capitol Hill also sought to educate congressional members and staff about the importance of the U.S. rice industry in terms of economic value and public health.
NRM 2010 was a very successful campaign in terms of consumer awareness. Through in-store displays; integrated TV; radio, magazine and newspaper advertisements; retail promotion; and Web-based initiatives, NRM messaging reached 300 million consumers. In addition to retailer NRM messaging, an NRM 20thanniversary video was distributed to thousands of media outlets nationwide and posted to the USA Rice Federation website and YouTube.
USA Rice also encouraged consumers to participate in NRM by sharing rice recipe ideas for a chance to win its Bowl Us Over contest. Hundreds of consumers heeded the call by providing recipes that used simple ingredients and flavors to create delicious rice dishes. Three top winners were selected for cash prizes, and seven runners-up received rice cookers.
Mindful of its central goal to keep U.S.-grown rice top of mind among consumers, retailers and the food-service industry, USA Rice and its NRM program are making a positive economic impact with a staple category that's not only nutrient-rich and budget-friendly, but also proudly grown in the United States.
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) is a Madison-based dairy farmer-funded education, promotion and research organization with the objective of building demand for Wisconsin milk. Most of the milk produced by WMMB farmers — about 90 percent — goes into cheese production, hence its focus on promoting the more than 600 varieties, types and styles of award-winning cheese made in the famed Dairy State.
Developed in close collaboration with retail grocery partners, WMMB's creative, innovative, impactful promotions are supported by an array of educational materials, retail incentives and consumer outreach. The organization also provides retail support for other Wisconsin-produced dairy products in its immediate local marketplace.
Guided by a central focus to provide educational tools for store-level personnel to impart the knowledge and skills needed to interface with shoppers, WMMB's retail training is tailored to the needs of individual retailers, including various levels of training and on-site tours to Wisconsin cheese manufacturers.
Retailers can also tap WMMB for advanced cheese training that includes cheesemaking at a Wisconsin cheese plant with licensed Wisconsin master cheesemakers. The intensive training program brings retail buyers and merchandisers to Wisconsin so they can meet some of the 1,200 licensed Wisconsin cheesemakers and better understand the actual cheesemaking process.
Between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, WMMB conducted 42 cheese tours for 630 store and chain associates. Led by two full-time staff trainers — including a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who not only participates in retailer tours, but also conducts on-site visits to retailers — WMMB has offered more than 75 seminars for retailers since January 2010.
Additionally, WMMB offers retailers a full array of merchandising materials for every promotional occasion on the calendar and more than 15 turnkey promotion themes, with 178 customizable variations that help retailers promote and sell more cheese. Cognizant of retailers' varying needs and busy schedules, WMMB's promotions are ready to go when they arrive at the stores.
With a unique regional marketing manager organizational structure that's composed of nine managers located around the United States with responsibility for the stores in their immediate regions, WMMB works directly with retailers to plan and implement promotions. Having executed 125 retail chain-wide promotions in 2006, WMMB has since dramatically accelerated its retail activities to some 1,400 promotions executed during the most recent 18-month period through May 2011.
In an effort to operate as efficiently as possible, WMMB also offers on-demand print capabilities to provide only the merchandising materials retailers want to use, thus keeping unwanted materials out of landfills and saving money, which in turn enables the organization to offer programs and services to more supermarkets around the country.
Further underscoring its proactive retailer outreach, WMMB additionally provides a merchandising catalog and planning guide retailers can use to plan an entire year's worth of polished, professional, personalized consumer promotions that are not only able to be tailored to the particular retailer's brand, but that can also then be further enhanced with POS of other merchandising materials. Best of all, many of the themed promotional materials have been developed with input from retailers themselves.
Working closely with Wisconsin cheesemakers to help provide product demo support for retailers, WMMB over the past 18 months committed $1.29 million toward the development and implementation of more than 21,500 product demos in virtually every state in the country.
In addition, WMMB uses recipes as a promotional tool to help consumers maximize Wisconsin cheese usage applications, which in turn helps its retail partners boost sales of related items needed to complete those recipes.
Recipe delivery is accomplished in a number of ways, including WMMB-generated streaming videos that retailers can embed on their own websites. A featured video program automatically updates each week to keep retailers' websites fresh and consumers coming back for more.
As for its consumer outreach efforts, WMMB developed a series of microsites — small, highly focused websites that promote a single food item or theme — that are then cross-promoted at retail with images and recipes. Among WMMB's most successful microsites is CheeseCupid.com, a cheese-and-beverage pairing site that not only serves the traditional functions of a website, but also offers a downloadable app to allow consumers to access it in-store. Thus far, more than 10,000 customers around the country have done just that, and WMMB continues to cross-promote the site via counter cards and themed promotional tie-ins.
WMMB has also seen success with its CheeseandBurgerSociety.com and GrilledCheeseAcademy.com microsites, each of which plays heavily on its most popular themed retail promotions.
Further, WMMB heavily promotes Wisconsin cheese through consumer print and online advertising, while concentrating on efforts to drive traffic to EatWisconsinCheese.com, where customers can quickly locate where to find particular Wisconsin cheese brands and varieties.
WMMB gets its many important consumer messages out through an array of social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter and its own blogs, while making retail buyers aware of its related activities and new products via a quarterly What's New From Wisconsin bulletin sent to a highly qualified list of 6,000 retail buyers, 60 percent of whom affirmed test-driving and authorizing Wisconsin products as a result of the information included in the bulletin.
