Columbia Marketing International (CMI) has been named as a finalist for the 2014 PMA Impact Awards in Excellence in Packaging for their innovative single serving cherry package.
The Produce Marketing Association reported that, 56 companies entered 67 products for consideration. Twenty packaging submissions have been chosen by the Impact Award committee as finalists for 2014.
According to Steve Lutz, Vice President of Marketing for CMI, Go-Go Fresh sweet cherries was introduced during the 2014 season with the intent of providing packaging specifically targeting the convenience store channel. “More and more consumers are shopping convenience stores looking for fresh fruit options. The conventional grocery store 2 lb. cherry bags are far too large for convenience stores so fresh cherries were rarely seen in this channel despite the fact that cherries are a high demand and high impulse product. The new CMI Go-Go Fresh single serve bag really opened the convenience store channel for the first time.”
The Go-Go Fresh graphics displayed eye-catching retro graphics which appealed to a wide range of consumers. According to Lutz, in addition to being the first single serving cherry bag, it also features messaging that is important to convenience store shoppers.
“Our consumer research showed that the displaying of nutritional information and fibre content are important purchasing factors for many consumers. We used the new packaging to call out these benefits as well as highlight that our cherries are GMO free.”
“We look forward to an expanded roll out of the CMI single serving cherry packaging during the 2015 season,” said Lutz.