China
May 1, 2009
 When
you think of brands, the names Sony, Toyota or Intel may come to
mind. But what about branding a tomato?
A tomato is a tomato…right? For Seminis in China, this used to
be the case.
“At Seminis in China, we used to do most of our business by bulk
sales with little marketing, product differentiation or value
selling,” Phee Wah Koh, Seminis China lead, said. “We are
changing that approach in 2009. The launch of Oudun™, our
long-shelf-life (LSL) pink tomato, represents a change of
strategy for Seminis China where a brand will lead a marketing
campaign.”
Change in Focus a Matter of Destiny?
“Selling by the bulk approach was efficient for our small,
disciplined organization,” Koh said. “But the control of the
products was in the hands of the distributors. They could easily
switch to another supply source at any time.
“By switching to Seminis brands, we now control our destiny.
This change allows us to create value at the grower level by
educating them on the benefits of our products compared to our
competitors. The growers, realizing this value, become loyal to
the Seminis brand. Again, this allows us to control our destiny
by choosing our distribution channel, rather than becoming
totally dependent on distributors to sell our products.”
Challenges
The freedom of choosing distributors also becomes one of the
challenges for Seminis China.
“This change impacts the interest of the seed distribution
channel,” Jinkai Jiao, marketing executive for Seminis China,
said. “This impact on the distribution channel is because we now
have control on how, where, and at what price the product will
flow in the market place as opposed to how it used to be. We
feel that we can overcome this challenge though by continually
working with our distribution channel--for some products in the
beginning of the life cycle. We would work with them
individually in the creation of marketing programs. This effort
would help them realize additional dollars by helping us with
product awareness with our growers.”
Features and Benefits
Every marketing program needs to deliver a list of features and
benefits (FAB) for the brand. The branding of Oudun is no
different.
“Oudun is the first pink tomato variety in China that has the
ripening inhibitor gene which gives fresh produce a much longer
shelf life than a normal pink tomato,” Jiao said. “Oudun also
has a very good fruit set and fruit quality. The benefits
associated with these features are additional income for growers
from extra yield, as well as a premium unit price for their
higher fruit quality and shelf life.”
What Does the Future Hold for Oudun?
“There is a large potential market for this variety,” Jiao said.
“There is no comparable product in the market today. Seminis is
the only company who has it. We anticipate Oudun becoming the
No. 1 product for Seminis by 2014 and reaching $9 million in
sales.”
“I think the key to the future success of Oudun is that everyone
on our team realizes the great potential of this product and
brand,” Koh said. “Everyone is pulling their weight and working
together to make sure Oudun is our collective priority, and
focused to make this a success.”
Oudun and Oudun OK! are proprietary trademarks of
Seminis Vegetable Seeds, Inc.
By M. Burger |
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