France, massive marketing campaign to promote potato consumes

The French potato sector is ready to fight with marketing. The massive promotional campaign, created by the Interprofessional National Comittee of French Potato (CNIPT), which will hit consumers on many levels, is about to begin

A three years strategy that foresees the creation of two different marketing programs: one completely devoted to potatoes and the other shared with the whole French fruit and vegetables sector. Financially supported by the French government and by Community funds, the two promotional campaigns will take place at the same time and will have a shared aim to be achieved with complementary actions.

France is the second potato producer in Western EU, coming after Germany, and EU’s biggest exporter. The 2010-2013 average potato exports marked 1,8 million tonnes, for a value of 415,5 million euros (source: CNIPT).

The new campaign called “Each potato has its own way to express itself” promotes consumes linked to the varsatility typical of these tubers and is the continuation of a previous promotional campaign developed in the 90s, through which French consumers associated different varieties to different uses in the kitchen for the first time. To reach the goal, tv commercials were made to describe in detail the three main potato families, according to their “use”: to boil, to stew, to mash or to fry. The commercials, which last forty, twenty and ten seconds, will air in February on various French TV channels. The campaign, however, will be supported also by other digital and non digital means: promotional activities on social networks and in stores are also featured. Together with this specific activity for the sector, in 2015 a joined program made by CNIPT and INTERFEL (the French Interprofessional of fruit and vegetables) will also be launched. This program, supported by the EU, aims at increasing consumes of fruit, vegetables and potatoes through in store actions and by attending public events.