President & CEO of BC Fresh, a group of 32 farms in Delta, BC and the Lower Mainland of the Vancouver, BC area, presents challenges of meeting consumer demands, shrinking farmland, rising costs of land, fuel and other inputs to farming in the food chain.
Talking Points: Who we Are: Short history of BCfresh Used to be Called Lower Mainland Vegetable Distributors 32 Farm Families Largest grower and supplier of Root Vegetables in BC Etc…
Understanding the trends and desires of the consumer helps us to target our marketing and messaging. BCfresh changed it name to highlight the two key benefits to consumers - Local And Fresh Hence ‘BC’ ‘Fresh’ We started by first getting our grower’s and their families in front of the camera. Our message: We changed our image from product based images to putting a face and story to the term ‘local’. Using a consistent message with clean fresh images, we highlight our Local growers, putting a face and family behind the term ‘local’ All of these images are some of the families that make up BCfresh.
As growers we have lots of land, some of this land is by major highways (i.e #99 etc) so we began to leverage this resource and place signage at our various grower’s locations. Trucks: again, we have tons of product, and because we were already using trucks to ship our products, we thought these trucks travel all over Western North America, lets put our messaging on them to reinforce our brand. (local grower families and the BCfresh logo)
Our marketing changes began with understanding the industry and where we saw consumers moving to in their purchasing habits. Once we understood the trends we then altered our marketing strategy to reflect how BCfresh can meet these growing needs. Trends: Eating Local Books like the ‘100 Mile Diet’ Quality of produce (Consumers demanding quality) Produce picked at their peak of freshness = Taste and Great Appearance Local Economy (Consumers aware of local economy impact) Every Dollar earned by BC growers generates $6 to $7 in income for other British Columbians Consumers are reading packaging more and more Understanding where food comes from and how it is processed Maple Leaf Farms and Peanut Corp. Of America
Our marketing changes began with understanding the industry and where we saw consumers moving to in their purchasing habits. Once we understood the trends we then altered our marketing strategy to reflect how BCfresh can meet these growing needs. Trends: Eating Local Books like the ‘100 Mile Diet’ Quality of produce (Consumers demanding quality) Produce picked at their peak of freshness = Taste and Great Appearance Local Economy (Consumers aware of local economy impact) Every Dollar earned by BC growers generates $6 to $7 in income for other British Columbians Consumers are reading packaging more and more Understanding where food comes from and how it is processed Maple Leaf Farms and Peanut Corp. Of America
Our marketing changes began with understanding the industry and where we saw consumers moving to in their purchasing habits. Once we understood the trends we then altered our marketing strategy to reflect how BCfresh can meet these growing needs. Trends: Eating Local Books like the ‘100 Mile Diet’ Quality of produce (Consumers demanding quality) Produce picked at their peak of freshness = Taste and Great Appearance Local Economy (Consumers aware of local economy impact) Every Dollar earned by BC growers generates $6 to $7 in income for other British Columbians Consumers are reading packaging more and more Understanding where food comes from and how it is processed Maple Leaf Farms and Peanut Corp. Of America
Our marketing changes began with understanding the industry and where we saw consumers moving to in their purchasing habits. Once we understood the trends we then altered our marketing strategy to reflect how BCfresh can meet these growing needs. Trends: Eating Local Books like the ‘100 Mile Diet’ Quality of produce (Consumers demanding quality) Produce picked at their peak of freshness = Taste and Great Appearance Local Economy (Consumers aware of local economy impact) Every Dollar earned by BC growers generates $6 to $7 in income for other British Columbians Consumers are reading packaging more and more Understanding where food comes from and how it is processed Maple Leaf Farms and Peanut Corp. Of America
Our marketing changes began with understanding the industry and where we saw consumers moving to in their purchasing habits. Once we understood the trends we then altered our marketing strategy to reflect how BCfresh can meet these growing needs. Trends: Eating Local Books like the ‘100 Mile Diet’ Quality of produce (Consumers demanding quality) Produce picked at their peak of freshness = Taste and Great Appearance Local Economy (Consumers aware of local economy impact) Every Dollar earned by BC growers generates $6 to $7 in income for other British Columbians Consumers are reading packaging more and more Understanding where food comes from and how it is processed Maple Leaf Farms and Peanut Corp. Of America