The great hurdle for a marketer of anything is getting your customer to try something new.
In the fresh produce world, this is what leads to incremental sales and hopefully, greater consumption.
A recent survey shows that in 2020, more than half of consumers “often or occasionally” buy fresh produce items that they haven’t tried before.
That’s good news, but just who are they?
Moxxy Marketing BB #:341508 commissioned Shopper Insights 2020: Consumer Trends, Shopping Behaviors and Marketing Opportunities, which is a survey of 2,000 American produce consumers conducted and analyzed by Category Partners. In a partnership with Blue Book Services, Moxxy plans to present these findings over the next several months.
The survey shows 43 percent of respondents said they occasionally buy a different fruit or vegetable, and 11 percent
often try something new.
On the other side, 38 percent said they mostly buy the same fruits and vegetables they know they like, and 8 percent said they only buy fruits and vegetables they know they like.
The survey screened respondents to representative quotas of U.S. region, age, household income, gender (60 percent female/40 percent male), city type, ethnicity, and adults and children in the household.
Demographically, these are traits that correlate with being more likely to buy produce they’ve never bought before:
-Live in large city;
-Age 44 and younger;
-Household income more than $150K;
-Have children in the home;
-Heavy produce buyer; and
-Often prepare meals using new ingredients.
The traits correlated to being less likely to by new produce items:
-Live in the Midwest;
-Live in rural area;
-Age 65 and over;
-Household income under $50k;
-No children live in the home;
-Light produce buyer; and
-Rarely cook.
“These are exciting statistics for retailers and produce marketers,” said Karen Nardozza, President & CEO of Moxxy Marketing.
“In a country of 330 million people, 11 percent of shoppers indicating they often try a new fruit or vegetable represents an enormous opportunity for successful product launches and increased sales,” she said.
“If we combine those who often try new items with the 43 percent who occasionally try something new, we have a massive target audience willing to try new items —54 percent of shoppers.”
There are ways for produce marketers to leverage this opportunity.
“Later in the survey, we asked how shoppers learn about new produce items and become inspired to try them,” Nardozza said.
“If we focus marketing efforts on those motivators and give both display space and promotional attention to new items in-store and online, trial will increase and so will sales.”
