From left: Zespri chairman Peter McBride, Japan marketing manager Kanako Inomata with her award and president global sales & marketing Dan Mathieson. KIWIFRUIT SUPERWOMAN You’re selling into your number one market where sales of fruit have been dropping in the past 10 years and consumers are saturated by 18,000 television commercials annually. You’re wanting to sell more kiwifruit against all the trends and make your brand even more recognised…so how would you go about it? www.foodtechnology.co.nz 23 For Zespri’s head of marketing in Japan Kanako Inomata, the answer was novel – and it’s won her the inaugural New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry innovation trophy for 2017. Zespri general manager global marketing Jiunn Shih says Inomata challenged convention and introduced a marketing approach that made Zespri kiwifruit the hero in consumers’ minds. “For many years, our marketing relied on using well-known celebrities to promote the product,” Shih says. “Through her work in consumer research and insights, Kanako recognised while this had positive short-term impact, it failed to build the Zespri brand toward its potential, with consumers remembering the celebrity more than the product they’re promoting.” Working with celebrities can also be costly, while marketing budgets have limits, Shih says. Responding to consumer insights, Inomata came up with an entirely new approach – two mascots called the ‘Kiwifruit Brothers’ which have won awards, proved enormously popular with consumers and helped increase brand awareness and resonance for Zespri in Japan. Innovation requires more than a good idea however. Inomata’s next challenge was to get Zespri’s sales partners involved by using 13,000 sets of mascots for instore displays across Japan. It was supported with an integrated animation-based television commercial, plus communication through digital media, fruit sampling and packaging, to establish the loveable mascots as enduring, iconic characters. “The execution of the programme has been excellent, supported by new ways of understanding consumer insights that we are now sharing with other Zespri markets,” Shih says. “Through breaking a long-standing marketing approach, Kanako has found a way to engage with younger consumers in Japan and open up significant new potential to grow Zespri sales.” Japan is regarded as a mature market and has been Zespri’s longstanding number one market globally. However, Zespri was able to grow sales by 30% in this important market between 2015 and 2017, and has plans to further increase sales by 25% over the next five years. This shows that innovative marketing approaches based on consumer insights can unlock further growth potential. The New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry innovation trophy, set up in 2015 by former Kiwifruit New Zealand chairman Sir Brian Elwood, recognises outstanding innovation achievements and this is the first year it has been presented. The trophy was judged by Zespri chairman Peter McBride, industry regulator Kiwifruit New Zealand chair Kirsty McDonald and NZ Kiwifruit Growers president Doug Brown. McBride says whether the innovation involves science and technology, investment models, marketing or other initiatives, the application of new ideas underpins the longterm viability of the industry. “We are delighted to recognise Kanako for her excellent contribution which can create enduring value.”
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