Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/60127
HEALTH FOOD From pie to The tart cherry industry is things. You might just have been left out. A lot of the action to I change the tart cherry image is taking place on social media, like Facebook and Twitter, and on celebrity-laden daytime television foodie talk shows. Tart cherry growers, three-quarters of them clustered in Michigan, have always known that a slight boost in consumption could make a big change in demand for their product, and they could easily produce more. Tart cherry consumption was less than a pound per person last year, coming from annual production of about 250 million pounds. f you hear the words, "tart cherries," and a nice oozy red, lattice-topped cherry pie springs to your mind, you're going to really disappoint some people. The tart cherry industry has spent five years, and nearly $2 million a year, trying to make you think of other gradually transforming its image. by Richard Lehnert New, healthy products include dried cherries and tart cherry juice. They hired the services of Weber Shandwick, a highly Compare that to apples, where annual consumption is nearly 50 pounds a person. Tart cherry consumption had been trending down— largely because it was tied so closely to cherry pie, which people eat less of every year. Six years ago, the tart cherry industry—led by Phil Korson at Cherry Marketing Institute and a group of ded- icated growers—decided to loosen their tie to pie and try a new tack. Superfruit The new idea was to reinvent tart cherries as a healthy food—a superfruit—and to rely on new tactics to get there. The superfruit idea was created in 2004, and it's a marketing term, not a regulatory or scientific one. Blue- berries and cranberries were the first to capitalize. The tart cherry industry wanted to be included. regarded public-relations company, to develop a public- relations campaign that went beyond the old approach of placing recipes in print media. Funds were limited, so rather than relying on paid advertising, they decided to use the newly emerging social media, like Facebook and Twitter, and rely on free publicity and person-to-person communication to create a new image in the minds of people—especially younger people, to whom both health and social media are important. They would focus on "The question was, how new products like cherry juice and dried cherries or products containing dried cherries. Funding comes from assessments on growers. Growers had been paying a half-cent a pound for many years for research and promotion, but that was doubled for this new effort. About half was col- lected under the federal marketing order, by the Cherry Industry Administrative Board, and the Michigan Cherry Committee and other organizations in other tart cherry-producing states contribute the other half. During the Cherry Marketing Institute's annual meet- do we get invited to the superfruit party?" —Cathy Calhoun ing at the Northwest Michigan Orchard and Vineyard Show in January, three of Weber Shandwick's key creative people described the "evolution of tart cherry position- ing" that started in 2006 and continues to this day. Michael Wehman, Cathy Calhoun, and Janet Helm made the presentations. Evolutionary process Early on, Calhoun said, it was clear that people liked tart cherries—better, perhaps, than cranberries, blueber- ries, or pomegranates, which had already gained reputa- tions as superfruits. "The question was, how do we get invited to the superfruit party?" she said. And, the chal- lenge was to do it without the big budget that Ocean Spray lavishes on cranberries. Wehman described the gradual process. The year 2007 was "relaunch year," he said, and cherries were treated as if they were a brand-new commodity. Each year there- after, a new element has been added, building year to year. He described the process as "clear and measured in evolution, focused on strategic growth." In 2007, when the campaign began, the key word was simply "cherries" and the goal was to create the idea that they were also a "superfruit," one of those very healthy fruits that contain high levels of antioxidants. In 2008, the slogan was "Eat red. Choose cherries," stressing that the redness comes from anthocyanins, and these are heart- healthy antioxidants. 38 APRIL 1, 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com choosecherries.com