Apr 30, 2020

Blueberry industry ensuring supply, helping drive demand 

The blueberry industry realizes that food processors, packers, distributors and retailers are all experiencing significant challenges as you fulfill your essential mission to feed America.

During the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the food supply chain has been called upon to preserve access to a safe supply of healthy foods and beverages for 320 million Americans.  We realize the significant resources required to protect the health of essential workers, maintain reliable access to labor and address trucking and logistics issues have created considerable challenges to maintaining an efficient operation.

During this challenging time, blueberry growers, packers and marketers are committed to supporting our food supply and retail partners with timely deliveries, sufficient supply and marketing support for blueberries – including investments in digital shopping incentive programs that make sure blueberries are on the shopping list and are put in the shopping cart online or in the store.

The industry’s Blueberry Method national marketing campaign, targeted at blueberry shoppers, launched on April 15 to ensure that the benefits of blueberries are top of mind with consumers. As a good source of the antioxidant vitamin C, blueberries are the delicious, comforting, healthy snack and meal ingredient your consumers are looking for and want to buy as they feed and care for their families.

Given the relevance of blueberries, we have increased and focused our marketing spend during the period of April 15 through May 31. Consumer apps Ibotta and Shopkick will deliver digital shopping incentives. Blueberry ads will also be served up specifically to your shoppers to drive impulse and repeat purchases.

But that’s not all; the industry promotes blueberries year-round, with an extra emphasis during this unprecedented time and during periods of peak supply. This ongoing drum-beat of support involves:

• Conducting media relations, including a chef segment on “Good Morning America.”
• Activating influential registered dietitians to reinforce the many blueberry health benefits, as well as sharing fun snacking ideas and recipes that can be made individually or together as a family.
• Launching new video ads, as part of The Blueberry Method, that promote blueberries in a fun and whimsical way.
• Driving blueberry demand through shoppable recipes, paid search and social media.
• Running ads across popular recipe and lifestyle websites including Scary Mommy, PopSugar and more.
• Supporting produce promoting campaigns from Produce for Better Health and Produce Marketing Association.

The blueberry growing and marketing community is committed to investing resources to support retailers with sufficient supply of fresh and frozen blueberries, and help move product in the retail channel through marketing incentives that drive demand and convert consumer purchases. The industry is also committed to supporting retailers’ customer understanding with access to blueberry consumer insights, sales movement data and marketing intelligence.

The Blueberry Method Industry Toolkit is available here, and includes a collection of brand assets and resources for marketers, growers and other stakeholders to use to grow the value of blueberries.

Contact us at [email protected] for additional information and details on the Blueberry Method campaign, digital incentive programs, turnkey materials and shopper insights to help promote blueberries in your store.

– Kasey Cronquist, President, U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council