promotion
Chrysanthemum beer and striking presentation make pot mums hip
Breeders of pot chrysanthemums have for a long time aimed to optimise the task of the grower. By concentrating on ‘families’ of varieties the crop has been raised to a new level. Now it’s time to make a new step forward, says Elien Pieters, of Gediflora. Marketing and promotion – traditionally not the job of the grower – are getting more attention. Here there is still much scope for innovation.
The number of pot chrysanthemum breeders is straightforward: 11 nurseries in total in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and the US. Gediflora, of Oostnieuwkerke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, is market leader with about 60%. Two years ago Elien Pieters took over the nursery from her father. Actually at that point she wasn’t very interested in chrysanthemums; she had studied business sciences. But after one month she was excited.
She saw plenty of opportunities in sales and marketing. Her input brought the nursery into a new phase, just like when her father took over from his father. He brought breeding to a high international level. Breeding remains the core business but promotion and marketing will also get more attention in future.
Keep the green fingers
The nursery has 14 ha of open field (including the selection field) and 3 ha of greenhouses. It employs 31 full-time workers and in the peak season (rooting of cuttings) an additional 40 seasonal workers. Worldwide it sells 70 million cuttings (including licenses), of which 40 million are in Europe. The Netherlands is the largest market for cuttings, followed by Belgium and Germany in joint second place and France in third.
“Our nursery comprises three divisions,” says Pieters. “The R&D-department is involved with classical crossings and selection, breeding of mutations and carrying out projects with institutes. The second area is the propagation. We have partners in Brazil and Africa who produce the cuttings. The cutting are checked here in Belgium and then shipped to the client, rooted or unrooted. The third area is our own production. We do this purely to maintain our green fingers and to get feedback from retail. We then pass this information onto our customers. We make sure that our production does not cross paths with that of our clients.”
Breeding in families
Targeted breeding is difficult in chrysanthemums because the crop is hexaploid. In the past, the emphasis was on extending the season. Now that this has been achieved the emphasis today is on creating families. Other characteristics remain important for breeding she says. “We want the plant to have a nice ball shape without having to be disbudded, so no labour; also resistance to diseases, such as rust, is selected for at an early stage. Sometimes nice varieties are rejected for this reason. Furthermore, the flexibility of the canopy is an important feature. It has to slide well into the sleeve and then unfold again well when at the consumer. In addition we work with varieties that require none or very little growth inhibitor.”
Breeding in ‘families’ has clearly lifted the crop to a higher level. A family is actually a variety that is available in different colours. For example, the Jasoda-family is worldwide number one and is available in colours dark orange, pink, yellow, mauve, red and white. “Producing families gives our clients the highest return. Because they are the same variety you can apply the same treatment to the different colours: the same time for shading; the same kind of inhibition; the same planning. However, there is a disadvantage to growing in families: you can’t suddenly change the colour,” she says.
Very strong genetics
Clear trends are visible in the consumer market: Pink tints are the favourite at the beginning of the season (August), autumn colours at the end (November). But breeding is a long-term affair so it’s difficult to respond quickly to consumer trends. “In the long run breeders have to follow their own line. But during the introduction of new varieties you can purposefully place the fashionable colours in the market. Actually you should be able to fulfil all the trends from your breeding program,” says Pieters. In addition, the leading Belgian breeder wants to reach more market segments by producing different varieties, such as large flowers, new colours and diverse flower types.
In the past, yellow, with 60% of the sales was the main colour. That is now 40%. In traditional catholic countries, such as Spain, white-flowered plants still play an important role in the cemetery at the beginning of November. “Tradition is okay, but we can’t live purely on tradition,” she says. “We have a comfortable starting position with very strong genetics; the challenge now is the marketing."
Belgian beer
This begs the fundamental question whether or not it is the role of the breeder to promote and position the end product in the market. In order to create ideas she meets with, among others, the retailers. This led to the promotion line, Buddies: special varieties that are wrapped in a matching-coloured sleeve, which also gives tips on care and use. A booklet is included to highlight the plant’s role in creating atmosphere both on a patio as well as inside. “The aim is to use these promotional materials as part of the partnership between our clients and their customers,” she explains.
Belgian Mum No. 1 was developed as a promotional eye catcher for selected customers: This is unfiltered Belgian beer that contains an extract of chrysanthemum flower petals. “For the retail market we especially created a duo-presentation: the MumBeer and a glass in stylish black packaging plus a pot chrysanthemum in a black sleeve.”
Unexplored territory
The duo-presentation is a striking way to create a positive and surprising feeling towards the pot chrysanthemum. But it is relatively unexplored territory, says Pieters. “We still have a long way to go regarding the promotion of the end product. It is very labour intensive; it costs a lot of money and you don’t see any direct return. It’s about keeping alive the enthusiasm for the product. And there is still much to do in terms of experience. But it is very nice to create new inspiring concepts."
Summary
Key criteria for breeders of pot chrysanthemums are: extending the season; disease resistance; flexibility of the canopy; and building up ‘families’. The latter has raised the crop to a higher level. With the appointment of Elien Pieters to the board of a Belgian breeder company, more attention is being paid to marketing and promotion.
Text: Tijs Kierkels. Photos: Wilma Slegers
‘Tasty Tom is mentioned in the same breath as Chiquita and Zespri’
Tasty Tom has been around for twenty years, during which period this flavourful fruit has grown into a renowned brand and a standard of taste among all tomatoes. However, Tasty Tom did not grow into a success overnight, acknowledges Ton Janssen, aka ‘Mister Tasty Tom’. If you want your fresh produce brand to be and stay a success, you have to walk a tight line. We underestimated the amount of time and effort this would take.’
Twenty years ago, the Germans called Dutch-grown tomatoes ‘Wasserbomben’, or water bombs. Their image has improved tremendously, partly thanks to Tasty Tom. How did you manage this turnaround?
‘Perseverance is particularly important, and adamantly refusing to do any concessions to taste. We started growing the unique Tasty Tom variety developed by Enza Zaden under a licence in 1995. We had tested several other new varieties, but ultimately chose this one on account of its great taste. Although the next few years saw the introduction of several new varieties that scored higher in terms of production and ease of cultivation, we would have had to make concessions to taste and we decided to stick to our Tasty Tom. To be honest: the idea of switching was quite tempting at times! Still, we never lost our focus on taste; this was and is the key to a successful product. Consumers were wildly enthusiastic about Tasty Tom right from the start. This is mainly due to the variety’s sweetness: Tasty Tom has a Brix value of at least 6.0, which can rise to even 8.0 in summer! Consumers buying Tasty Tom can be guaranteed of a good-tasting tomato! With other tomato varieties, this can be like playing Russian roulette: what you buy one week won’t taste nearly as good the next, or vice versa. That’s disastrous to your reputation.’
Still, for consumers to appreciate the taste of a product, they must be able to try it first. Is promotion a determining factor for success?
‘Absolutely! Promotion is one of our key focus areas, and has been from the very beginning. It took quite a bit of persuading to draw the attention of the retail industry and consumers to Tasty Tom. I took the lead in this by visiting countless trade fairs, making television appearances, mounting Europe’s biggest billboard onto our greenhouse, tasting demonstrations - you name it! I did everything I possibly could. I even walked around in a tomato suit several times!
'Tasty Tom taught me a new side of myself that had, until then, remained concealed.'
All these promotional activities served as a tremendous eye-opener for me personally: I noticed that I genuinely enjoyed spreading the word about Tasty Tom. Tasty Tom taught me a new side of myself that had, until then, remained concealed. As growers, we built up the Tasty Tom brand through concerted effort, making use of each person’s unique and individual talents. You simply cannot tackle a task like that on your own!
At first, we thought that once we had launched the brand we would be able to take it easy. Well, we were quite wrong in that! If you are representing a brand you need to continue building on that; you never have time to lean back. To remain a constant on consumer shopping lists we still need - after twenty years - to actively focus on promotion and we still make every effort to come up with new and surprising promotional campaigns and stunts. Or we introduce different packaging, or a new logo. With Tasty Tom it’s just like any other brand: inertia is tantamount to decline.’
What were the highlights you experienced in the past two decades?
‘There were several. What continues to astound me is how many people take the time to send us an email to let us know how much they like the taste of our Tasty Tom tomatoes.
The most bizarre experience was, without a doubt, the Tasty Tom promotional campaign we held at the Game-com Trade Exhibition in Cologne: a trade fair for computer games that was visited only by the younger generation. There was incredibly loud music playing and we thought: “What on earth are we doing here?” Still, our stand had more visitors than any other: those boys and girls ate every single tomato we brought!
'Looking back, we probably should have introduced the snack tomato earlier.'
But the absolute high point is that Tasty Tom has grown into a genuine brand in the past twenty years and is now an established name. It’s difficult to pin this to a specific point in time, but Tasty Tom became a household word about five years ago. ‘Tasty Tom is mentioned in the same breath as brands like Chiquita and Zespri.’
Did you experience any disappointments? Or is there anything that, with the knowledge you have today, you would have done differently?
‘Looking back, we probably should have introduced the snack tomato earlier. We put a small-scale version of the PartyTom on the market ten years ago. At that point in time, snack tomatoes had already become a hype and have since grown into a bulk product. We decided to discontinue the product because we did not want to take part in the price battle. If we had been ahead of the masses in launching our product, we would have been able to deliver added value and get a better price.’
Tasty Tom is, however, not the only tomato brand around. Tommies and Honingtomaten, for example, have also become established brands. What is your opinion of these brands? To what extent are they Tasty Tom’s competitors?
‘These parties also opted for a tomato that distinguishes itself through its taste, which is something I admire whichever way you look at it. Additionally, the way both these brands were launched on the market was fantastic. A lot more money went into their launch than into that of Tasty Tom; our budgets are limited. Besides that, Tommies were launched internationally. As the growers of Tasty Tom, we once considered taking its cultivation international, but decided against it because we were uncertain if we could guarantee our consistently high level of quality. None of our association’s members wanted to move abroad. Besides that, the investment we made in lighting is now enabling us to grow tomatoes all year round.
Of course, we compete with Tommies and Honingtomaten in our niche of the market. The money consumers spend on these tomatoes won’t be spent on Tasty Tom. Still, we aim to rely above all on our own power and take pride in what we have achieved with Tasty Tom.’
What can be done to help the Dutch greenhouse horticulture industry find its way back to the top? Is the recovery plan instigated by Cees Veerman and the Rabobank the best option?
‘I have my doubts about that. We will never manage to get everyone in the same line and all growers on one and the same sales point. The differences in thinking are enough: people from the Westland region have an entirely different approach compared to people from Limburg, for example. They focus on superlatives and dare to take greater risks. That starts to hit a sore spot. I think that this is an important reason why growers and growers’ associations based in the southern part of the Netherlands don’t participate in the recovery plan.
'The problem with greenhouse horticulture is mainly the fact that too much is being produced.'
The problem with greenhouse horticulture is mainly the fact that too much is being produced. As a result, most growers are not participating in a demand market, but in a price fighters’ market. Launching a genuinely distinctive product on the market is the only way to avoid this. However, not everyone is equally well equipped to do this, and it certainly isn’t easy. Additionally, as a grower you can’t do much more than keep your costs under control as well as you possibly can. This can only be done to a certain extent anyway: you can never accurately predict the development of the global economy or the price of oil.’
Which of your colleagues do you admire the most?
‘Gosh, that’s a difficult question! Or actually, it isn’t. Rob Baan of Koppert Cress is someone I respect tremendously. He is a great advocate of promotional activities, just as I am. Rob is also a great spokesman and really puts his neck out for the sector through such activities as setting up the culinary television channel 24Kitchen. Additionally, Rob focuses on the distinguishing properties of his cress; there is something special to every one of his varieties.’
What are your plans and ambitions for the next few years to come?
‘We have lots of new plans on the drawing board: we just adopted our new five-year plan last month. I can’t go into any details, of course, but what I can tell you is that Tasty Tom will be spreading its wings!
On top of that, we will keep looking for new tomato varieties with better cultivation and production traits. However, we will only switch to a new variety if it can measure up to our current variety in terms of taste - and that’s quite a difficult act to follow!
Whether or not we will be expanding our current acreage of 62 hectares depends on market demand. It is crucial that we continue listening to the market. We have done that in the past two decades and will continue to do so in the future!’
The Tasty Tom growers’ association is currently composed of Ton Janssen from Venlo; Hans, Gerard and Eric Vereijken from Vereijken Kwekerijen in Aarle-Rixtel; Wim Peters from Someren and Roland Ghielen from Grubbenvorst. They collectively grow 62 hectares of Tasty Tom tomatoes. That’s almost 24 times the 2.6 hectares that Tasty Tom initially started out with in 1995. Tasty Tom tomatoes are sold through the ZON Fruit and Vegetable Auction to traders and retailers in selected countries. Besides distribution in the Netherlands, Tasty Tom is also popular in Germany, Scandinavia, the UK and Japan.
Text: Tuinbouwteksten.nl/Ank van Lier. Photo: Tasty Tom.