Packaging: The Retail Gateway to the Consumer

For a moment, take your fresh produce marketing hat off completely and put on the hat of a typical consumer in America.  Imagine it’s a Tuesday, late in the afternoon.  You walk into a grocery store hunting ingredients for tonight’s dinner.  You may not know exactly what you’re looking for, but you’re in a hurry and seeking something that is quick, mindless, nutritious and delicious.

As a health and budget conscious consumer, you’re looking for a food miracle that doesn’t include your regular stand-by processed, meal-in-a-box.

Now, put back on your marketing hat and consider how your packaged products are working to grab her attention and solve her dinner dilemma.

The fact is that our packaging serves as our retail gateway to the consumer.  Most of the time, our messaging on-pack is our first touch point with a person and our opportunity to inspire, connect and convert them into an advocate for and regular consumer of our products.  If we know that a consumer’s pain points are primarily regarding education and inspiration about our fresh products, the fact is, we can and we should help.

How can we help?

By providing consumers with more than just a branded label on our fresh produce packaging.  Today, labeling technology is available to not only help our products jump off of the store shelves with beautiful imagery of plated dishes and peelable recipe inspiration, there are also new labels available using holographic and high-definition technologies that can bring your products to life in a 2 inch by 2 inch space.

Companies like Yerecic Label* understand the fresh produce marketer’s need to connect, inspire and convert today’s busy consumer.  How do they know?  They’ve been the incumbent labeling company for fresh meat, poultry and pork packers for decades and have literally changed the way that fresh packed proteins are merchandised to appeal to and speak directly to today’s consumer.

Through years of experience and investments in R&D to better understand what the consumer is seeking at the point of sale, Yerecic Label has developed various labeling strategies that help to connect, inspire and motivate a purchase.  What’s more, Yerecic Label has worked with PMA to develop apackaging study that helps fresh produce marketers when addressing the consumer from a packaging perspective.

In New Orleans, PMA will announce this year’s winners of the PMA Impact Awards, which recognizes trendsetters that create and deliver bold new concepts for produce and floral packaging.  As you begin to think about your marketing budget and spending for 2014, consider your packaging strategy and how your product can be part of the consumer’s daily dinner planning solution at retail.  The team at Yerecic Label is focused on helping fresh produce companies strategize in this regard and they will have a booth at Fresh Summit. Stop by their booth, review findings from their recent research conducted in August 2013 and take a step forward on your consumer marketing efforts for 2014.

Source: The Core (http://goo.gl/ItoqIY)