Category Captain: Bananas: Del Monte Fresh

Del Monte Fresh used FreshLook Marketing syndicated data to compare a major Midwestern retailer’s banana sales performance against the category’s national, regional and by-market sales trends. A subsequent analysis showed that the retailer wasn’t performing up to the standards of any of these markets, especially against its direct competition.

To identify possible causes and opportunities, additional syndicated data was used to compare average retail prices per pound, with the finding that the retailer was priced appreciably higher than the market. Moreover, a review of Market Track FeatureVision data found that the retailer saw significantly less promotional activity for the time period compared with the competition.

Ultimately, a pricing and promotional strategy was developed to be more in line with the market, resulting in more competitive retail prices, as well as double the number of ads for the following years. Further, a Del Monte Fresh category manager conducted an ongoing analysis of the retailer’s POS data to monitor the banana program’s success and continually identify areas of opportunity. Finally, Del Monte Fresh sales merchandisers visited select stores both individually and together with the retailer’s field merchandisers to instruct store produce staff in best practices for in-store merchandising, and on the proper handling and display of bananas. During the two-year period ending with the retailer’s fiscal year 2011, Del Monte Fresh was able to help the retailer boost its banana category volume sales by more than 6 percent.