BAKERSFIELD, CA - With a short amount of time under its belt since the launch of its new brand promise, Sun World International is making good on following its consumer-first focus strategy. With a new promise to consistently guide its operations, SunWorld is using the brand promise to further leverage the uniqueness of its products, and further highlight its mission throughout every facet of the company.

Having launched “Better Farms. Better Flavor,” on Earth Day, Executive Vice President Gordon Robertson and Director of Marketing Natalie Erlendson recently joined me to peel back the curtain on the mindset behind the move, and where it’s taking the company from here. 

“This promise certainly builds off of our strong legacy, but it’s really meant to demonstrate our steadfast commitment of always being better,” Gordon shares with me. “Our brand promise is a commitment from our organization to our customers and consumers that we’ll never stop searching for the next best-tasting variety, state-of-the-art practices, or go-to market strategy.”

Extending to adorn each of the company’s communication efforts and marketing campaigns, Sun World is using the “Better Farms. Better Flavor” promise to distinctly articulate with both the buy-side sector and the end consumer just how the company is moving the needle to truly create better farms and consistently great tasting grapes. The promise covers all of the company’s marketing efforts, from in-store merchandising, to online and social media endeavors.

“Our strategy is to always have a consumer-first focus,” Natalie emphasizes. “At the end of the day, that’s who Sun World and our customers are ultimately responsible to. We started this journey to find a way to meaningfully connect consumers to our vineyeards, and to make sure we were sharing with consumers the information that they wanted most. That’s where the ‘Better Farms. Better Flavor’ promise was born.” 

Sun World utilized three methods to learn just what consumers wanted in a brand: 

• Shop Alongs: where the company tagged along with consumers to walk and talk with them throughout their typical produce shopping experience.
• Focus Groups: where consumers provided in depth and detailed information on what mattered to them most when selecting grapes.
• National Quantitative Survey: a method that validated through statistics what the company learned with the other studies.

The end result? Consumers were most interested in knowing that they will receive a consistently great eating experience from grapes, that are also grown in a responsible way. Thus comes, “Better Farms. Better Flavor.” 

“Our new brand promise upholds that we’ll always work to improve the lives of our people, and grow the best quality grapes with the most sustainable practices possible,” Gordon continues.

Sun World will be ramping up exposure of its new brand promise with an updated POS toolkit for retailers, through a presence online and with social media, and through new branded packaging designs that the company will begin to roll out upon completion of consumer testing. As the company looks to help its retail customers make grapes a preferred category amongst consumers, more innovations are sure to come. 

So, just where will this promise take Sun World next? We can’t wait to find out.

Sun World International