Zespri Japan

Health messaging will hold the key to Zespri’s marketing strategy in its largest and most established Asian market, Japan, this season.

Following on from the success of its “Kiwi Mother” television promotion last year, Zespri’s Japanese country manager, Ichiro Anzai, says the marketer will continue to use strong imagery to highlight the nutritional properties of kiwifruit at every point of contact with its consumers.

“Health communication continues as our key strategy to increase consumption, while we are planning new digital initiatives throughout the season,” Anzai noted.

As has become tradition, Zespri kicked off this season’s export programmes with a shipment to Japan, with the Atlantic Erica unloading around 500,000 trays of SunGold in Tokyo and Kobe during early April.

Zespri’s annual trade conference also helped to launch the season in the Asian nation, which brought together the company’s key Japanese customers to outline the encouraging prospects for the year ahead. “Last year saw sales of 18.65m trays into Japan, which we hope to increase to 19m this season,” Anzai explained.