Apio, Inc.
Ailment
Broccoligate; the incident in 1990 when President George Bush received an unsolicited truckload of broccoli at the White House in response to his public ban of the vegetable on Air Force One. Apio received world-wide attention for the stunt. The PR garnered was a dream. Twelve years later, Apio decided its EatSmart® brand of fresh vegetables needed a broader market share. Bush was in office. But this Bush wasn't picking a public beef with broccoli. Apio was going to have to work a lot harder for attention this time. It was determined that strategic partnerships would be key in this new business expansion effort. But how could Apio, whose brand was known by retailers as one company (Apio) and consumers by another (EatSmart®), pull brand synergies together in time for negotiations with potential "big fish" partners?
Prescription
- Reevaluate Online Use of Identities
- Capitalize on Product Brand Recognition
- Investigate Existing Brand Attributes as Basis for Repositioning
- Utilize Upcoming 25 Year Anniversary
- Optimize Customer Relationship Management Practices
Cure
In June of 2003 Apio announced an exclusive packaging and marketing agreement with Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. for Apio to sell and distribute a line of fresh cut produce under the DOLE® brand in the United States. Apio was looking for greater market share and a strategic partnership as a catalyst. Apio reeled in DOLE®.
- Competing nature of Apio and EatSmart® logos in online presence rectified
- Apio logo given clear space to exist in order to remain easily identifiable to wholesalers yet separated from consumer recognized brand EatSmart®
- In order to identify with and garner consumer attention, EatSmart® logo created in Flash element and most recognizable brand characteristic included nearby; product packaging
- Web site fully redesigned incorporating fresh, clean approach in order to exemplify inherent characteristics of EatSmart® brand products
- Photos of food product meticulously color corrected and optimized in order to transcend product value and freshness
- Nutritional information detailed on each product page
- Product search incorporated to ease consumer browsing
- Web site architecture designed to fully cater to consumer client base
- Items such as "sign up for email" and "refer a friend" incorporated in order to initiate a viral marketing thread
- Consumer-relevant data incorporated under "For Consumers" navigation including recipes to further spark product interest, Q&A and "Submit Comments" to alleviate heavy phone traffic
- 25th Anniversary mark created and incorporated into web site and promotional material
- Fully administrate-able HTML email marketing system created and put to use on monthly basis
- Central repository created for opt-in email marketing list
- Opt-in list doubles as a direct mail list as all user info includes mailing address
- Custom List Management Center allows on-demand access to all opt-in data