rp Reacts: Bold New Produce Branding

Fun, bold produce branding has been trending the past couple years—turning the fruit and veggie aisle into a vibrant showcase of splashy logos and colors and engaging marketing campaigns. With a consumer brand, farms and produce companies can participate in more shopper marketing, press opportunities, and partnerships. And the brands give consumers reassurance of the produce's quality as produce move more and more onto e-comm platforms.

‍

But do consumers have an appetite for new branding in the produce aisle or is this trend on-track to expire soon? Here are our team thoughts:
‍

‍

Price and Freshness > Branding

‍
Produce these days has become lifeless. The best packaging for produce, IMO, is the one it comes in naturally. The next thing is how it tastes. Recently, I've been let down by some green beans, several tomatoes, strawberries, and the list goes on—don't get me started on the benign jalapeños in my local grocery store. A wise mentor once said to me, "Good advertising can make a bad product fail faster." If the brand isn't putting the life back into our fruits and veggies, I'm not interested.

- Nathan Fleming, Director of Strategy

As a confirmed tomato-smeller and melon-thumper, this kind of branding won't affect me at the point of sale. That said, it's nice to see produce fighting back against the visual appeal of junk food, and it could certainly help these brands attract eyeballs. Ecommerce is definitely where these brands will shine. The branding stands out—and the packaging invites consumers to imagine their apples carefully snuggled into the bag instead of tossed into a cart by a grubby-handed delivery person.

- Karla Jackson, Marketing Practice Creative Director
‍

‍

‍
Produce is a category of food where I'm not really looking for packaging or branding at all. I'm walking into the store and I'm inspecting what I'm about to buy for freshness and price, so it doesn't matter what the branding or packaging looks like. In fact, I might assume that a fancy package is going to be more expensive than a more plain package and then gravitate away from the fancy one. But ultimately it's all about the freshness of the produce itself. If a bag of apples is fun and quirky, but the apples inside feel mushy, I'm not buying those apples.

- Sterling Crawford, IT Operations Manager

‍
I’m with Karla and Sterling on this one. Price and freshness are top two priorities. Something as simple as a fruit or veggie being jazzed up with new packaging feels like a smokescreen. The aesthetic is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to see the fruit with anything more than a sticker on it to be honest. And even that should just be the UPC info. Apples, peppers, bananas, onions - they’re like milk. You need it to be fresh and in the fridge. Done and done. I don’t need to be enticed by crafty branding on essentials.

On a tangential note (even though I’ve never used the service): I do like the idea behind Misfits Market. The food isn’t the brand, the purpose is the brand.

- Drew Beamer, Creative Director

‍

But This Branding Still Has Potential

‍
Innovative marketing makes a run-of-the-mill fridge staple more appealing, especially in a sea of produce at the grocery store. This makes me think of campaigns like the Incredible Edible Egg, which positioned eggs favorably after people being scared their cholesterol levels would explode. And hats off to the folks who made the demand for sad looking (and otherwise ugly) avocados soar! Consumer demand is really all smoke and mirrors, isn't it?

The way we act at point of sale is really telling. Packaging that's easy, fresh and sustainable is a win to me—especially if it's expediting my trip. Cute mini cucumbers? Check! A box from the Peach Truck when I otherwise would have purchased 2-3? You betcha. And if I am hungry, you may as well take my money. Don't get me wrong, I understand it's marketing 101. But where marketing/convenience/sustainability all merge is really key.

- Lauren Holt, Sr. Account Director

‍
I have mixed feelings about this trend, but generally speaking I like it. On the negative side, I worry that it creates unnecessary packaging waste and might drive up the cost of fresh foods resulting in less access for people. On the positive side, if the brand truly started to mean something, then it could be a wonderful way to ensure quality produce every time.

Since I buy most of my groceries through a delivery service, it puts some of that control back in my hands to ensure I get fresh, tasty fruits and veggies even if I am not there to knock on melons. The brands rolling these out need to help consumers understand what their brand stands for so that we can navigate this new world with success. I think this means it can't just stop at packaging but needs to include campaigns, messaging, etc. that tell the full story.

- Samara Anderson, VP of Sales and Marketing
‍

‍

‍