Consumers, Smartphones and potatoes

Farm and Ranch Report August 24, 2011 Next time you are in a grocery store, stop and look around, and see if any shoppers are scanning barcodes with their Smartphones. According to U.S. Potato Board member Molly Connors of Basin Gold in Washington state research shows millions of consumers are.

Connors: “In June of 2011 there‘s about 14 ½ million consumers that scanned QR codes with their Smartphones.”

No wonder the Potato Board is promoting the use at point of sale of Quick Response, or QR codes, which are readable by Smartphones.

Connors: “If the Smartphone user is able to scan the QR code we are trying to send them to our website that is promoting our seven potato type videos with food personality Katie Cavuto Boyle. And she‘s got these seven videos that are 90 to 120 seconds that kind of discuss the attributes of the seven most common potato types and explains what makes each of those unique and tries some different recipe ideas and shortage procedures and all that fun stuff.”

And research shows;

Connors: “The more information the shopper has on the different types of potatoes, or the different recipe ideas, the more likely they are to have an impulse purchase.”

And Connors says that’s what the Potato Board is about, building demand for potatoes.

Connors: “And these QR codes are a quick and easy way to get the information to the consumer.”

That’s the U.S. Potato Update. Brought to you by the United States Potato Board, maximizing return on grower investment. I’m Bob Hoff for Northwest Aginfo Net.