Vendors use cross-promotion to boost sales

Excerpts from The Packer article of 4/28/08
by Jim Offner

Tropical-fruit retailers are looking to some well-established ploys to help consumers get some exposure to to products that may not be very familiar to them.

Tropical fruits lend themselves to some creative cross-merchandising ideas, marketing agents say.

"Salsa is one product that can provide a marketing link," said Mary Ostlund, marketing director, Brooks Tropicals.

"I think one of the most exciting areas is salsa, because it's no longer just for tomatoes," Ostlund said. "It's really opened the field for a lot of tropicals."

"That's because salsas can use an array of tropical ingredients," Ostlund said. "Salsa is all about combining fresh ingredients and letting them marinate together. The tropicals' taste that you can add to a salsa is exciting. Tropical fruits particularly can really add some texture to salsa. We're seeing a lot of people using papayas and mangoes in that way."

Ostlund said she was putting together a collection of how-to materials for salsa recipes that make use of tropical ingredients.

"The salsa category has really opened up and we're finding, for cross-promotions, it's really an easy display to put together," she said. "You can even use produce like kumquats but definitely papayas and mangoes."