Linus Pauling famously said, "The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas." And, if we may paraphrase Mr. Pauling, the best way to sell a lot of potatoes is to have a lot of recipe ideas.
We know from USPB research consumers like serving potatoes to their families, but often feel they are stuck in a "potato rut"-using the same three to four methods of preparing potatoes over and over again. When we ask consumers what would motivate them to serve potatoes more often, the No. 1 response we receive time and again is, "Give me a new idea for preparing them."
We also know potatoes are a highly planned purchase-according to the latest USPB shopper study, 91 percent of fresh potato purchases were intended before a consumer ever walked into the store. If we link these two facts together, we can confidently state one of the most effective ways for increasing the frequency of putting potatoes on a shopping list is giving consumers more ideas for using potatoes while still at home.
In addition to the USPB's print ads, online ads and consumer PR campaign-which will collectively deliver over 600 million impressions this year to the highest-potential target consumers-the USPB provides another great tool for increasing potato category sales that you can point right at your retail customer's shoppers.
Every Tuesday, the USPB emails a rut-busting innovative preparation idea to thousands of consumers who have signed up to receive the Potato Recipe of the Week.
Until now, consumers had to visit the USPB's consumer website, www.PotatoGoodness.com, to be able to sign up and start receiving the Potato Recipe of the Week. But now your retail customers can offer this simple, effective sales-generator to visitors to their own websites by requesting a "sign-up widget" from the USPB. The widget is a small piece of code that, when embedded in their site, allows consumers to sign up without ever leaving their website in order to begin receiving these weekly emails directly from the USPB. And as quick as that, thousands of their shoppers will start getting a delicious new idea for serving potatoes every week, sparking greater potato consumption at home and getting more potatoes on shopping lists and into shopping carts.
Contact the USPB's Retail Program Consultant, Don Ladhoff at don.ladhoff@uspotatoes.com to learn more.