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MARKETING - August 2004
The marketing awareness program was initially known as “Kentucky Fresh.” Shortly after the launch, ads and logos began showing up in groceries and restaurants, on newspaper, radio and television ads, and on jars and packages of processed foods that used Kentucky products. Now the name of the campaign has been changed to “Kentucky Proud,” allowing for expansion of the program into promotion of not only local produce, but also for value-added products created in the state ranging from country hams and wooden rocking chairs to fresh-cut Christmas trees and poinsettias. The original idea behind “Kentucky Fresh” was to help consumers who were interested in supporting Kentucky agriculture identify state-grown fruits and vegetables and the retailers who sell them. The program was designed to build effectively on hard lessons learned from other similar but less successful programs KDA and other state agencies had used in the past. To distinguish Kentucky products from others competing for product awareness on the shelf, the state’s initial promotion efforts used a new logo, which featured a cardinal - the state bird - and the words “Kentucky Fresh.” Aided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the initial branding campaign in the summer of 2002 was backed by a $150,000 statewide advertising campaign featuring the logo along with the tag line, “Taste Kentucky Fresh. Nothing else is close.” During the initial launch of the campaign, then-State Agriculture Commissioner Billy Ray Smith said the new effort was “only the first step, but this is the most important step,” for Kentucky as it attempted to promote its agricultural products the way neighboring states had done for years. The department had previously promoted advertising campaigns to support Kentucky products, often in cooperation with various commodity boards. But Smith said that approach had ultimately confused consumers with a variety of symbols and slogans. The Kroger Company jumped onboard early to promote the branding programs in its 94 Kentucky stores. So did the nation’s No. 1 retailer, Wal-Mart, in its 41 Supercenters located around the state. Representatives at both chains say they’re committed to stocking their shelves with local produce during Kentucky’s growing season as long as it meets their stringent quality standards. Using local produce is consistent with Wal-Mart’s corporate policy and marketing concepts, said Michael Salisbury, a London-based regional produce buyer for the company. Wal-Mart also worked with local growers prior to the launch of the Kentucky Fresh campaign, though their purchase of Kentucky-grown products has soared the past two years under Salisbury’s internal direction and participation. One of the local producers responsible for a large part of the increase in local sales to Wal-Mart stores is Wayne Shumate, owner of WindStone Farms. Shumate, also chairman and CEO of Kentucky Textiles Inc. in Paris, co-owns the farm with Billy Gatton Jones. A couple of years ago, when the 12 acres of blackberries he was raising there began producing more fruit than his local buyers could sell, he decided to start making jam from the fruit. “I had all these extra berries,” said Shumate, “so I called my friend Charlie Barton in West Liberty, who was producing sorghum molasses already, and I asked him, ‘Can you make jam from my blackberries?’” He then began making the jam and branding it under the WindStone Farms label. That left him less exposed to the seasonal ups and downs of the fresh-produce market. Gradually, all of Shumate’s berries began going to full-time jam production. Today, the farm has plans to grow from the current 17 acres to 24 under full production and the operation annually harvests 3,000 to 4,000 pounds per acre. The blackberry jam has grown from a shelf presence in just a few local grocery stores in central Kentucky to more than 200 locations in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. Plans call for adding about 190 stores in Southern Ohio and Indiana this year. Superstores like Kroger and Meijer also carry the jam. Content with his jam’s success, Shumate wasn’t necessarily looking to tackle the challenges of the fresh fruit market again. But then in 2002, Wal-Mart’s Salisbury and the KDA came calling again and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: a guaranteed regional market with a predictable demand large enough to handle approximately 50,000 pounds or so of berries each year. Although his primary market at the time had already switched fully to jam production, also selling fresh berries meant nearly twice the gross revenue. “It was a great opportunity for us to move in and sell fresh berries,” Shumate said. “Now from the fresh berries I’ll be able to build the WindStone Farms name to sell the jam.” Shumate, who served on the initial Kentucky Fresh Consumer Advisory Committee, said the program is about local investment in agriculture. “The point of Kentucky Fresh and Kentucky Proud is to show Kentuckians that a product is made here. I believe Kentuckians will buy these products if they know it’s a Kentucky product.” In 2003, the program’s sophomore year, the Kentucky Fresh campaign came out with another series of statewide TV commercials that reminded consumers of the wide variety of fresh, quality products that are made all over the state. Wal-Mart and Kroger both returned for a second year of the expanding branding effort. Both grocery giants accounted for tens of thousands of pounds of additional produce sales for Kentucky farmers in the first season of the promotions. Additionally, Kroger purchases of Kentucky catfish are now spawning a boom for catfish farmers in the Purchase Area Aquaculture Cooperative. Kroger sells PAAC products in its stores in most of Kentucky, Central Tennessee and Southern Illinois. The nation’s largest food supplier to restaurants, the Sysco Corporation, announced in June 2003 that it would buy produce from the West Kentucky Growers Cooperative near Owensboro. KDA marketing staff brought Sysco and the cooperative together to launch the pilot program, which eventually resulted in the cooperative selling squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, potatoes and sweet corn to Sysco. Kentucky restaurants and specialty markets such as Doll’s Market, Burger’s Market, and Lilly’s in Louisville have also been long-time supporters of homegrown products. Rob Ramsey, who owns five restaurants and is chair of the Consumer Advisory Committee that oversaw the development of the Kentucky Fresh campaign, has used locally grown vegetables in his business for 10 years. “In cutting out the middle man, I’m able to get fresher produce a bit more cheaply and pay the grower a bit more than they might otherwise get,” he said. A related program, the KDA’s Kentucky Restaurant Rewards program, offers advertising rebates to encourage caterers, restaurant owners, and chefs to use Kentucky-grown products. According to the KDA, Kentucky imports more than 70 percent of the food that its residents consume. Many adherents of the KDA marketing campaigns believe it’s possible to double the state’s share of its own food basket through product awareness campaigns and marketing programs such as Kentucky Proud. They point with certainty to consumer surveys citing “freshness” as the No. 1 consumer concern when selecting produce for purchases when asked in KDA-sponsored surveys. As such, Kentucky-based stores and farmers are hoping to continue to capitalize on their obvious farm-to-table time advantage over producers from outside the state. |
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Copyright 1996-2004, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2004, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Two years after the Kentucky Department of Agriculture kicked off its first unified effort to promote the sale of Kentucky-grown produce within the state, producer participants and KDA marketers are beginning to reap the fruits of their labors both in and outside the Commonwealth.
“The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is extremely proud of the many efforts of Kentucky growers and retailers who are supporting the Kentucky Proud program,” said Richie Farmer, the current state agriculture commissioner, who inherited the program from Smith this year. “We have merged the Kentucky Fresh and Kentucky Proud programs into one program, which will reduce paperwork and focus on one name, one brand and one logo. Kentucky Proud will promote such varied agribusiness enterprises as horticulture, produce, aquaculture, meat products, bourbon, wine, and horses, to name only a few.”
Working with KDA officials and others, Salisbury and Wal-Mart have built a network of nearly 40 independent Kentucky growers, ranging from the fresh blackberries and jams of WindStone Farms in Bourbon County to fresh melons harvested from a Mennonite farm in Casey County where horses still pull the wagons.