Produce For Better Health Foundation
2010 Business Plan
1st Quarter Update
April 2010
Submitted To: PBH Executive Committee
Produce For Better Health Foundation
2010 Business Plan
1st Quarter Update
The first quarter of 2010, on average, is tracking to meet 2010 business plan goals.
Overall, from a Fruits & Veggies—More Matters messaging and communications perspective, the first quarter of 2010 was strong. The fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org website continues to increase in popularity as demonstrated by the continued strong growth in monthly average visits and number of opt-in participants. Retailers, growers/shippers/processors, state, and public health partners have also continued to show strong support for the national health initiative by spreading the message through various mediums. Of particular note is the continued strong linkage to the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters website. Links to the website from industry sites has already surpassed the goal for the year. The 2010 PR and Communications plan has helped to generate 13 million media impressions, only slightly less than last year at this time but 13% of goal. Efforts currently underway in Q2 to capitalize on new research should generate more media coverage. Consumer impressions through education materials are on course to meet annual goals. The only area of concern is the low number of supermarket consumer impressions (in ads) as measured by Leemis. Several retailers are promoting more in-store and less in ads than previously. A mitigation plan is noted on pages 5-6 in the business plan.
Activities surrounding the monitoring of the National Action Plan are well underway. All available metrics to compare changes since the plan was developed in 2005 have been collected. A meeting is scheduled with the White House and their Let’s Move initiative in Q2 that may shed light on when to release the updated National Action Plan. Visits with other organizations in the health-care world have begun, with the intent to include these organizations in the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance to help implement and monitor various strategies in the plan.
From a sustainability perspective, first quarter 2010 catalog sales exceeded 1st quarter 2009 sales by $68,000 and Q1 2010 goals by $35,000. Taylor Farms, Seneca, PMA, and two other companies (who would rather remain anonymous) have increased their contribution level to $50,000/year for each of 5 years. They join Stemilt, Paramount Farms, and Syngenta at this level. A few other donors have increased their pledges in smaller amounts and these will be announced in Q2. Thanks to hard work last year going into 2010, sponsorships are 72% of goal at the end of Q1. All expenses from the dinner/auction are not in yet, but we are expecting to be near budget here as well.
Below is more detailed information regarding performance against the 2010 Business Plan.
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Goal 1: Implement comprehensive Fruits & Veggies—More Matters marketing, communications, and education effort targeted to Moms.
Objective 1: Understand moms in order to help her increase fruit/vegetable consumption among her family members.
Performance Goals:
1.1: Review the fruit and vegetable consumption of moms and her family vs. full population (NPD data) and determine a baseline.
1st Quarter Results: NPD data was collected and baseline was developed. Results are noted in the table below. A comparison of Gen X mom households vs. the rest of the population isn’t the best comparison because Gen X mom households have younger children who eat smaller servings and thus bring down the average amount per capita. A year to year comparison for Gen X mom families and a year to year comparison for the general population is more appropriate. This comparison shows modest increases in consumption across both groups since the 2006 baseline.
Average annual cups/capita in Gen X mom households (mom aged 30-44) / Average annual cups/capita in general populationFruit / Veg / Fruit / Veg
2006 / 202 / 360 / 234 / 405
2007 / 219 / 367 / 238 / 409
2008 / 222 / 372 / 243 / 414
2009 / 221 / 368 / 247 / 413
A more accurate comparison might be to compare the consumption of fruit/veggies among children in Gen X mom households vs children not in Gen X mom households. Here again, there are only modest differences.
Average annual cups/capita of children in Gen X mom households (mom aged 30-44) / Average annual cups/capita of children in general populationFruit / Veg / Fruit / Veg
Age 2-5 / Age 6-12 / Age 2-5 / Age 6-12 / Age 2-5 / Age 6-12 / Age 2-5 / Age 6-12
2006 / 241 / 215 / 193 / 272 / 235 / 218 / 190 / 275
2007 / 253 / 227 / 189 / 277 / 247 / 233 / 192 / 275
2008 / 263 / 239 / 192 / 277 / 254 / 244 / 196 / 277
2009 / 276 / 231 / 197 / 273 / 272 / 243 / 198 / 279
Of note, individuals in households with a ‘new’Gen X mom (children under the age of 6) consume 30% more fruit per capita than those households with an ‘experienced’ Gen X mom. However, these same ‘new’ Gen X mom households eat 5% fewer vegetables than ‘experienced’ Gen X mom households.
1.2: Increase mom’s intention to serve more fruits and vegetables to her family to 70% (of moms).
1st Quarter Results: 66% of moms intend to serve more fruits and vegetables to her family, less than 2009 results where 69% said they would serve their family more fruits and vegetables. However, this is one question out of several psychosocial questions. When all of psychosocial questions are considered together, we see positive trends in mothers who strongly agree with statements like “it is easy for me to include f/v” or “as a mom, it is important that I include f/v’s in my family’s meals” or “I don’t know how to prepare f/v’s in different ways.”
Ø 2007: baseline determined
Ø 2008: 7% increase from baseline (indicating positive movement toward getting her family to eat more)
Ø 2009: 3% decrease from baseline (negatively impacted by the recession, we believe)
Ø 2010: 4% increase from baseline. A rebound, but not yet what it was “pre-recession”
1.3: Increase the percentage of moms who self-reported they were “likely to purchase” a product when seeing the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters logo on the package to 41%.
1st Quarter Results: 45% of moms self-reported that they were “likely to purchase” a product when seeing the logo. In the 2009 survey, 40% reported that they were “likely to purchase” a product.
· 74% of moms believe a product is ‘healthy’ when they see the logo on packaging; 55% believe the product provides a serving of fruit and/or vegetables, and 66% believe the product is nutritious.
· 38% of moms believe the logo motivates them to help their family to eat more fruits and vegetables. In 2009, 31% believed the logo was motivating. This percentage has consistently increased since 2007 (23%).
Objective 2: Reach moms (and her family) specifically through outreach efforts via the internet.
Performance Goals:
2.1: Increase the monthly average visits to the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters website by 5% (64,384).
1st Quarter Results: 68,966 monthly average visits; a 10% increase compared to this time last year.
· The following additions and enhancements were made to the website during Q1.
o Updated navigation on the home page, making it easier to move throughout the site and access popular pages and sections.
o A new, refreshed look for the home page of the site.
o A new look and name for the bi-monthly e-newsletter to opt-in participants. The new name is Fruit and Veggie Voice.
o Added a live news feed pulling in daily articles, information and research on fruits and vegetables.
o Added a page and corresponding information on PBH’s consumer contest. The contest is focused on email submissions outlining mom’s success with healthy eating, overall weight management with fruits and vegetables, and tips on how she was able to get her family to eat more fruits and vegetables. The contest kicked off in March during National Nutrition Month and will run through July with the Grand prize winner and first place winners being announced in September during National Fruits & Veggies—More Matters month.
o Added weekly About the Buzz articles focusing on the latest ‘buzz’ about fruits and vegetables.
2.2: Increase the number of opt-in participants by 8% (to 21,978).
1st Quarter Results: The total number of opt-in participants has grown to 21,291.
· A new design, look and name were given to the e-newsletter during Q1.
· Approximately 940 new participants were added during Q1.
2.3: Increase the number of site referrals by 5% (327) to determine the breadth of industry support.
1st Quarter Results: 59 new industry websites are linking to www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org and send referrals; 113% of goal.
· Examples of new website links are:
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o Auvil Fruit
o Bahama Food Services
o Central Illinois Produce
o Diamond Fruit
o Edens Juice
o Golden Greek Produce
o HMC Farms
o Kontos Fruit Co.
o Manzanita Berry Farms
o Norton Brothers Fruit Farm
o Policella Farms
o Royal Food Service
o Sunnyridge
o Victory Garden
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Objective 3: Reach moms (and her family) through retail support of the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters brand.
Performance Goals
3.1: Measure the percent of Fruits & Veggies—More Matters licensed retail members against all supermarkets (FMI = 35,394), and maintain at 75% licensed.
1st Quarter Results: 65% of all supermarkets are Fruits & Veggies—More Matters licensed retail members, representing 22,935 total stores.
· The decrease of 11% and 2,785 stores from 2009 reported data is due to several factors. First, five retailers dropped as donors and licensees late in Q4 2009/early Q1 2010: Bi-Lo, Dierberg’s, HEB, Sunset, and Ukrops and Bashas’ is currently in a lapse status, likely due to their bankruptcy. Second, A&P stores (445) were double-counted in 2009 as the supermarket chain was listed as a parent company, which is accurate, but also included in the total store count for Pathmark (a banner). This miss-count was discovered in reviewing the data and reports in preparation of this Q1 report, and the system correction has been made. Third, several supermarket chains and parent companies have closed individual store locations or closed small banner stores completely thus impacting the total number of licensed stores. Lastly, FMI adjusted the total store count resulting in an increase from 34,019 total stores to 35,394.
· Mitigation Strategy: During the first quarter, PBH hired Meredith Auerbach as a contractor to focus exclusively on working with our licensed retailers. She will not only focus on strengthening existing relationships with licensed retailers, but also on bringing back lapsed retailers and new prospects. PBH has a lot of opportunity in the ‘whole food’ segment with stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, as well as within the c-store segment with large national chains such as 7-Eleven and big regional chains such as Sheetz and WaWa on the East Coast who are offering fruits and vegetables as well as other healthy foods and snacks as main staples in their stores.
3.2: Increase the % of consumer impressions as measured by Leemis by 4% compared to the 2009 total impressions for Fruits & Veggies—More Matters of 2.74 Billion.
1st Quarter Results: 3.615 million consumer impressions as of March 31, 2010; 1% towards goal.
· The following retailers used the logo in weekly circulars during Q1.
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o Baker’s
o Coborn’s
o Donelan’s
o Foodland
o Foodtown
o Homeland
o Key Foods
o King Kullen
o Lowes
o Meijer
o Piggly Wiggly
o Price Cutter
o Redner’s
o Save Mart
o Shoprite
o Sun Fresh
o Times Supermarket
o United Supermarket
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· Mitigation Strategy – As noted previously, PBH hired Meredith Auerbach as a contractor in the first quarter to focus exclusively on working with our licensed retailers. One key element of Meredith’s role is to work with the retailers to incorporate use of the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters logo in weekly circulars to support the increase in moms recognizing the logo, as well as the reach to consumers. It is expected that Meredith’s narrowed focus will assist with increasing the total number of 2010 consumer impressions through circulars throughout the remainder of the year. Another factor that can not be mitigated in relation to this particular goal and metric is how retailers are using the logo. Throughout 2009, in particular during the 2nd half of the year, several licensed retailers stopped using the logo in their weekly circulars and switched to in-store signage and POS signage. These impressions are not tracked, nor reported by Leemis. It may be that our total impressions for Q1 are tracking with previous years, but the ‘vehicle’ or ‘medium’ has switched.
3.3: Increase the number of retail role models to 7 and those nearing role model status (champion) to 4 as measured by the retail role model criteria.