Align Marketing with Priorities to Optimize Outreach

Ingredient suppliers looking to optimize their sales outreach must ensure that the message they're delivering hits the points decision makers are looking to hear. Jeff Manning, chief marketing officer with the Cherry Marketing Institute (CMI) and marketing strategist behind the "Got Milk" campaign, helped CMI determine how to best position tart cherries in a crowded food ingredient market. In speaking with Jon Benninger, Virgo Publishing, in October 2010 during SupplySide West in Las Vegas, Manning discussed the genesis of CMI's new market research project and some of the surprising insights.

In particular, Manning noted CMI discovered the people making the ingredient purchasing decisions at food companies placed the greatest value on the broad, mass appeal of an ingredienttrumping even price, supply and quality in the purchasing decision. He said CMI learned tart cherries weren't considered in many cases to have broad appeal, making it necessary for upcoming marketing initiatives to first address that concern, before moving on to other selling points such as functionality or quality. While the research in this case was specific to tart cherries, Manning said the take away is universal: find out what the priorities are of your target decision makers, otherwise, you're just talking to yourself.