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Dehy/International

SOUP’S ON IN KOREA! COME AND GET YOUR US DEHY!!

US dehy continues to find its way into a number of new products.

In Korea, dehy is making soup more delicious, where three new products have been launched: “Irish Baked Potato Soup” by Sempio, “New Delicious Potato Soup” by SB Foods and “Mini Potato Cream Soup” by Hanil Food. 

The “Mini Potato Cream Soup” and “New Delicious Potato Soup” varieties are available at 60 Lotte Mart stores nationwide, as well as at the Lotte Mart online mall. The “Irish Baked Potato Soup” is sold in most retail outlets nationwide, as well as online. These new products join already launched soup products, increasing the entire category as well as US exports to Korea. In the first eight months of the fiscal year (July 2009 – Feb 2010), US dehy exports to Korea reached 2,039 metric tons (MT), already surpassing last year’s total of 1,995 MT (July 2008 – June 2009). 

“Mini-Potato Cream Soup”

“New Delicious Potato Soup”

“Irish Baked Potato Soup”

New Nutrition Campaign/Domestic Marketing

USPB’S “PEEL BACK THE TRUTH” ONLINE ADVERTISINGCAMPAIGN: PERFORMING ABOVE EXPECTATIONS

The United States Potato Board’s (USPB’s) “Peel Back the Truth” online advertising campaign launched April 5, 2010 with integrated advertising programs on AllRecipes.com and MyRecipes.com, the two most highly-trafficked recipe sites on the web. These programs build on the overall “Peel Back the Truth” campaign by debunking the myth potato dishes take a long time to prepare.

“The first five-weeks of the campaign have delivered very impressive results and greatly exceeded industry standards,” said Kathleen Triou, USPB Domestic Marketing Vice President. “Over 20,500 interactions with the “Quick & Healthy Potato Recipes” have taken place. This includes over 23,800 recipe views and over 3,200 recipe print-outs.”

The ads on AllRecipes.com and MyRecipes.com are also producing very high click-through rates with an average 0.38 percent. This greatly exceeds, by nearly 4 times, the advertising industry standard average of 0.1 percent.

These online ads are driving very engaged users to the above depicted landing page, a linked page to the potato goodness website—which was specially designed for this advertising test. This landing page is only accessible through the www.AllRecipes.com and www.MyRecipes.com ads which ensure our tracking statistics are driven exclusively by the ads run.

The average visitor is spending nearly three minutes on the site viewing the Quick & Healthy Potato recipes. The advertising industry average is nearly two minutes—so users are spending up to a minute longer at the new landing page.
The USPB “Peel Back the Truth” online advertising campaign runs through May 30, 2010, so these numbers will only improve as the campaign continues to build momentum. Final results on this online advertising campaign will be reported later this summer.

New Nutrition Campaign/Domestic Marketing

PEEL BACK THE TRUTH ON SUCCESSFUL NUTRITION COMMUNICATION

The FY10 “Peel Back the Truth” print advertising campaign has been successfully delivered in full. The “Potatoes…Goodness Unearthed®” nutrition platform was communicated in cooking, women’s lifestyle and parenting magazines reaching “Linda” (women 25-54 with kids 18 years and under at home) when she is looking for healthy, convenient meal ideas. Delivering over 126 million impressions, the print advertising plan included 28 insertions in 10 different publications. This allowed the USPB to reach 51% of the “Linda” target audience with the potato nutrition message more than 3 times in the past year.

New Nutrition Campaign/Domestic Marketing

CONSUMER RESEARCH; MORE EATING MORE!

Recent findings from the USPB’s annual survey of consumers’ “Attitudes & Usage (A & U) of Potatoes” demonstrate the “Potatoes…Goodness Unearthed®” nutrition campaign is contributing to improving consumer perceptions of potatoes. According to the 2010
A & U research results, health perceptions continue to slowly improve. The survey also found more respondents reported they are actively trying to “eat more baked and mashed potatoes” and fewer people say they are “making a conscious attempt to eat less potatoes overall”. 

Usage & Attitude

Research Methodology:

• Background
• The Potato Board Attitudes and Usage Study (A & U) launched in 1998
• Paper questionnaires were used until 2005, when the study transferred to an online format
• The A & U is an online quantitative survey among US female head-of-households
• All respondents are primary shoppers or at least share grocery shopping responsibility
• A total of 2,512 respondents completed the survey in 2010
• Female head-of-household, age 25-54, with kid(s) in the home represent 59% of the sample (1,486  respondents )
• Study was fielded January 7-15, 2010 by Synovate
• Analysis by Sterling-Rice Group

Nutrition Public Relations

ONGOING NUTRITION OUTREACH SCORES BIG

Former USPB Nutrition Ambassador Devin Alexander’s new cookbook, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Fattening!” not only praises the potato, but actually includes USPB key messages, verbatim, along with four potato recipes including Stylin’ Steak Fries and Quick, Crunchy Potato Chips. The book’s theme, ideas for getting a healthy dinner on the table in minutes, also speaks to USPB key messages. Inclusion of potato nutrition and healthy potato recipes in the book demonstrates the value of the influencer program and the long-term results that can be achieved as a result of these relationships.

Nutrition Public Relations

STRATEGIC NUTRITION PARTNERSHIPS TO INCREASE “LINDA’S” APPRECIATION OF POTATOES

The USPB secured an exciting FY11 sponsorship opportunity with the Meal Makeover Moms, registered dieticians Janice Newell Bissex and Liz Weiss, surrounding their upcoming book “No Whine with Dinner, 150 Healthy, Kid-Tested Recipes” (due out October 2010). The Meal Makeover Moms have been longtime potato champions and recommend potatoes in the book as an important pantry staple and include a handful of potato recipes. The sponsorship will include acknowledgement in the cookbook, logo placement on MealMakeoverMoms.com and the cookbook microsite, production of a cooking video using potatoes as a main ingredient, inclusion in the Meal Makeover Moms e-newsletter and more.

Retail Marketing/Domestic

USPB: THE STATE OF THE PRODUCE DEPARTMENT

Please join us for a free Webinar on May 25 Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/890899370 The economic downturn, emphasis on value and shifting consumer behavior had a dramatic impact on the produce department in 2009. Please join us as we present:  “2009 - The State of the Produce Department” - Review the 5-year historical trends of the produce department - Learn which vegetable and fruit categories experienced growth or suffered declines in 2009 compared to 2008 - Understand the key insights and opportunities you can apply to growing your sales in 2010 - And much more! The “State of the Produce Department” utilizes Fresh Facts retail sales data and market research to provide a comprehensive view of the past year. Title:   USPB: The State of the Produce Department Date:   Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Time:   12:30 PM - 1:30 PM CDT After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the Webinar. System Requirements PC-based Attendees: Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000 Macintosh®-based Attendees: Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

For more information, contact USPB Retail Marketing Consultant Don Ladhoff at   415-215-2448 or e-mail don.ladhoff@uspotatoes.com

Retail Marketing/Domestic

RED, WHITE AND…RUSSETS: POTATOES AND THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS

When thinking of important fresh potato selling periods, the obvious choices of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays come immediately to mind. But even after the holiday season, potato sales stay elevated throughout the winter months as consumers more frequently cook hearty, comfort dishes that call for potatoes. As the weather warms up in early May, potato sales invariably cool down a bit as consumers trade in their crock pots and oven mitts for charcoal and picnic blankets. While the summer period may not be potatoes’ strongest season, it does offer some important sales opportunities, especially with the trio of summer holidays: Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. 

While these holidays may not generate the sales of the winter holidays or Easter, they do represent an important opportunity to move additional volume. But with the above noted changes in seasonal cooking behavior, not all potatoes will benefit equally. Case in point:

Peak Sales Week by Variety During Summer 2009
(4/25/09-10/3/09)

• Red:  Week ending 7/4/2009 (Independence Day)
• White: Week ending 9/12/2009 (Labor Day)
• Russet: Week ending 5/9/2009 (Despite slow sales on Memorial Day, russets did see noticeable boosts from Independence Day and Labor Day, but these increases pale in comparison to the dramatic spikes seen around Christmas and Thanksgiving)

With their lower starch-content and ability to hold shape after cooking, white and red potatoes are often considered the optimal choice for potato salads, and their sales during the summer holidays reflect this. While elevated red and white sales don’t necessarily mean these varieties are being bought for potato salad, surges in deli sales of potato salad would seem to indicate this. The summer holidays represent three of the biggest weeks for deli potato salad sales: average weekly volume for the 52 weeks ending 2/27/10 was 1,738,907 pounds, while Memorial Day accounted for 3,339,948 pounds, Independence Day for 3,310,032, and Labor Day for 2,118,105 pounds. 

So what can you do to create more sales fireworks this Independence Day? With consumers continuing to cook more meals at home and shop for value, they may be looking to make their own potato salad more so than previous years. Remind consumers which varieties are best-suited for their favorite summer recipes with one of the USPB’s varietal stanchion signs, or even use hand-written recommendations. Looking for a recipe to incorporate on packaging, POS collateral or for in-store demonstration? Try using one of the healthy potato salad recipes the USPB offers at www.potatogoodness.com to drive your red potato sales, or suggest savory summer grilling with Russets!

Retail Marketing/Domestic

LEADER OF THE (SMALL) PACK

In the January “State of the Potato Category” article “Dealing With Demand”, it was noted smaller pack sizes could play an important role in adding sales dollars to the fresh potato category going forward. The article spoke to smaller packs’ higher prices and margins, which may keep dollars growing even if volume softens. It was noted one producer recently shrank the size of their microwaveable offering when re-launching it.  What wasn’t mentioned, however, was these pack sizes can allow for a lower and, therefore, more attractive price points at retail. Other producers have taken notice of the opportunity; recently, additional growers switched to smaller package sizes, specifically to 1.5-pounds from 2-pounds, with a large motivation being the ability to provide a product that can be sold at lower price points that can be very compelling to consumers. 

In reviewing the performance of specialty and premium items by their package size, it is interesting to see that not only have the smaller packs in these subcategories continued to grow as expected, but that 1-pound and 1.5-pound packs, in particular, have seen strong growth. While 2-pound and 3-pound packs saw dollar decreases of 2.8% and 13.6%, respectively, for the 13 weeks ending 3/27/10, 1-pound and 1.5-pound sizes each saw

dollar growth of more than 20% for the same period. And it’s not merely that they are showing growth from a small base; 1.5-pound packs accounted for 27.4% of the sales of all premium and specialty items combined for the 13 weeks ending 3/27/10. 

Price points have likely played a big role in their continued growth. The average price per pound was $1.43 for 1.5-pound packs, and $1.76 for 2-pound packs. Both sizes did have one low priced-high volume item that skewed the average price per pound a bit; looking at price on the item level, however, prices per pound tended to be quite similar. While prices per pound were similar on many items, the half-pound differential allows more of the 1.5-pound items to retail at $2.99 or below.  

Now accounting for over one-quarter of sales in specialty and premium combined, with attractive price points and 20%+ dollar growth for the first three months of 2010 versus 2009, 1.5-pound packs are making their case to become a staple of the potato category!

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