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 September 2006 CHEMTURA CORPORATION, MIDDLEBURY, CT by Mike Dupre, Mkt Mgr, Trees, Fruits & Vines The importance of fresh produce has grown dramatically in the U.S. in the past couple of decades. In fact, the variety of produce items carried by U.S. retailers more than doubled in the past ten years to an average of well over 300 items in the produce departments today. CURRENT AND NEW PRODUCTS Chemtura Corporation has long-standing experience in the tree fruit and vine areas and has been moving as rapidly as possible into the vegetable and produce markets with the addition of new products as well as label expansion of some of our most important products. Chemtura offers a broad range of products to vegetable producers including Terracolor and Procure fungicides, Firestorm and Alanap herbicides, Dimilin and Rimon insecticides, plus Comite and Acramite miticides. We've been a significant force in the tree fruit and nut areas for some time with Procure fungicide, as well as Acramite and Omite miticides, and Dimilin insecticide. New in 2006 was the federal label on Rimon brand insecticide on apples and very recently on head and stem Brassica crops to control key economic pests. Chemtura is also pursuing even more registrations for our powdery mildew fungicide, Procure, in leafy vegetables which we hope to have in 2007. And, we just recently introduced Procure 480SC, a new liquid formulation offering easy measuring and mixing. Within the past year, we added cucurbits to the Procure fungicide label and both cucurbits and fruiting vegetables to the Acramite miticide label. Most of our newest products are in the "reduced risk" category. More importantly, products will enter this market segment offering additional resistance management tools to growers. We see growing emphasis on resistance management from manufacturers, distributors and researchers. It is critical to the success of our industry that we keep as many rotational tools as possible available to our growers for managing pests. COMMUNICATING OUR MESSAGE Chemtura relies heavily upon direct contact from our sales organization. It is the face-to-face discussion that often means the difference between a grower deciding to use our product versus someone else's. In these specialty crop markets we are also able to use highly targeted, vertical print media and targeted direct marketing efforts to raise or maintain our brands' awareness to growers, as well as our distributor/dealer target audiences. Making the most of our sales force means Chemtura has to work smarter as well as rely on field experts such as consultants and extension researchers to share their experiences with our products. SEMINIS VEGETABLE SEEDS by Jennifer Wahl, Advtg Production Asst Seminis is the largest developer, grower and marketer of vegetable and fruit seeds in the world. Today, Seminis offers growers more than 3,000 seed varieties representing 25 key crops. Research is constantly underway at Seminis to create new varieties to meet the demands of growers and consumers. With decreasing resources, like acreage and water, growers need varieties that produce higher yields of fruits and vegetables. Consumers want fruits and vegetables with improved nutrition, color and greater convenience. Through research, Seminis has already discovered varieties with more consumer appeal and higher nutritional value and many varieties that are helping growers stay profitable amid new pressures in the marketplace. To promote new and existing vegetable and fruit varieties Seminis' Advertising and Communications Department designs, creates and produces advertisements for use in industry trade magazines, general circulation newspapers and grower association publications. Public relations support includes the production of national and regional newsletters, as well as distribution of press releases to the trade magazines on new products, personnel and policies. In some regions, radio, video, billboards and sponsorships are used to promote the Seminis brand. In addition to printed advertisements, the Seminis product catalog, traditionally a printed product, is now availablehas transitioned to an online product catalog. Launched in 2006, the new Seminis Web site is broken up into regional pages, each with their own comprehensive product catalog in the local language. The new Web site is available at: http://www.seminis.com. Promotion in the field includes a variety of collateral materials designed and created by the in-house team. These items include product class brochures, technical sheets, packaging, logos, posters, signs and premium specialties (shirts, pens, hats, etc.). The advertising and communications department also takes part in and coordinates Seminis participation in various events to promote Seminis as an industry leader. Members of the department regularly attend field trials throughout North America to gain hands-on experience and knowledge of the industry. "We make it a point to get out into the field as often as possible with our sales and product development people," says Bill Nash, Advtg and Comms Mgr. "I believe our hands-on product knowledge allows us to approach our creative process from a perspective that gives equal importance to the growers who produce our products and the consumers who bring the vegetables home into their kitchens." Tweet |
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