FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2007
www.stemilt.com
Contact: Roger Pepperl
Marketing Director
Stemilt promotions recognized for marketing excellence
Stemilt’s in-house marketing group, based in Wenatchee, Wash., created the three promotions recently selected for Produce Business magazine’s Marketing Excellence Awards. Pictured with the three silver trophies are, left to right in back: Travis Chin, Customer Development, Brian Vertrees, Customer Promotions Manager, and Landon Michaelson, Graphic Designer. In front are Diane Tribble, Communications, and Amy Smith, Retail Data Analyst.
This 11-by-7 display card was one of the promotional pieces in Stemilt’s Washington stone fruit program selected for an award. The goal of the promotion was to differentiate Washington-grown peaches and nectarines from California stone fruits.
This poster features Zoe and Elmo, characters from Sesame Street, with Cripps Pink apples (also known as Pink Lady apples) for the month of February. This poster was part of the Sesame Street Apple of the Month Club promotion, which garnered one of three Marketing Excellence trophies for Stemilt.
WENATCHEE, Wash. – Three of Stemilt Growers’ promotions for the 2006-2007 season were selected as winners in Produce Business magazine’s Marketing Excellence Award contest.
The three programs chosen by the magazine were Stemilt’s 2006 Washington Stone Fruit Program, its Sesame Street Apple of the Month Club, and a Nature Conservancy Program Stemilt conducted on behalf of large, natural-foods retailer. Produce Business honored the winners in its September issue.
Stemilt Marketing Director Roger Pepperl said Stemilt’s Wenatchee-based marketing team created the concepts and imagery for the three programs. The stone fruit promotion used snow-peaked mountains and forests on posters, display cards and tote bags to help consumers differentiate Stemilt’s peaches and nectarines from stone fruits grown in California. Pepperl said California is the largest competitor for Washington-grown peaches and nectarines.
While Stemilt’s had partnered with Sesame Street’s Elmo previously on programs that promoted Stemilt’s cherries, the Sesame Street Apple of the Month Club incorporated multiple personalities from the children’s TV show for a six-month promotion at an eastern supermarket chain. January through June, Sesame Street icons, including Grover, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch represented a different Stemilt apple variety on display cards and posters.
“The retailer enjoyed this promotion because it was a good way to connect with parents and kids about all the many apples available for them to try,” Pepperl said.
Pepperl said his company’s Nature Conservancy program also was a home run with the natural foods retailer. The promotion used point-of-sale materials emphasizing how eating healthy foods and maintaining healthy places on Earth are closely connected if people are to live a healthy life.
“We saw this as such a natural relationship between our super-healthy tree fruits and the Nature Conservancy’s mission,” Pepperl said. “From January through March this year, we raised money from the sale of our apples and donated the funds to the Nature Conservancy.”
Ken Whitacre, publisher of Produce Business, said the produce industry has become the “gold standard of agricultural marketing” when it comes to marketing. He said increasing numbers of companies have engaged in promotions and alliances resulting in state-of-the-art graphics, packaging and signage.
“In the 19 years that Produce Business has conducted the Marketing Excellence Awards, never has the contest been more sophisticated,” Whitacre said. “Stemilt’s winning of three separate awards touched on all the major points in designing effective marketing campaigns.”
Stemilt received a Marketing Excellence Award from Produce Business in 2006 for its Elmo cherry promotion in 2005. Fruit and vegetable shippers, growers, commodity commissions, retailers, restaurants and foodservice distributors are among the organizations that can enter the contest.