eat brighter! Making Positive Impact on Produce Sales

One year after the launch of eat brighter!, an initiative created to change the game of marketing in the fresh produce industry and inspire children and their families to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, the founding partners have agreed to extend the program through 2018.

Sesame Workshop, the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and Produce Marketing Association (PMA) said the extension of eat brighter! is a result of the program’s success in the U.S. and Canada, including positive metrics and increased participation across the industry.

The Newark, Del.-based PMA’s Research Center has been tracking the movement’s early adopters, which have been in market for approximately six months and which are seeing impressive results to date. Indeed, the participants are reporting positive sales lifts of 1-2 percent on eat brighter! branded items.

“We’re all anticipating the impact on sales through the eat brighter! movement and early results [of] a 1 percent to 2 percent increase in sales thus far sends a positive signal that we will continue to track over time,” according to Cathy Burns, PMA president.

Since the first impact survey in 2014, an additional 30 companies have since reported that they’re supplying product in market. Nearly 60 companies, representing 130-plus commodities, have signed onto the movement with more than 30,000 retail stores accepting eat brighter! branded product.

“The ability to put a character and figure so well-known among shoppers for a minimal fee has allowed us to increase our sales volume and merchandising capabilities with several retail outlets," according to the feedback of one supplier, who noted that retail customers participating in the program "are anxious to continue building their collection of eat brighter! items and other customers are anxious to take eat brighter! labeled product and monitor its ability to increase engagement and sales.”

The movement’s success has also led to the expansion of the program in Mexico, allowing produce marketers, retailers, school foodservice and promotional organizations who sell product there to participate. The announcement was made at the PMA Fresh Connections: Mexico Conference and Expo.

As the program evolves, a variety of tools have been developed by PMA and Paragon Design, the design agency contracted to work with participants in the early stages of integration, to help companies onboard easily. The updates include:

• New, user-friendly website
• Step-by-step tutorial, and
• Updated toolkit features guidelines for packaging and point-of-sale, including digital ads, press releases, sell sheets, webpages, retail circulars, coloring and activity sheets, and assets for Plaza Sésamo for the consumer market in Mexico.

More information about eat brighter! can be found here.