Health as color

Farm and Ranch Report February 23, 2011 In our previous update we brought you some of the highlights from a deep dive study of the U.S. Potato Board’s domestic target audience represented by Linda, that 25 to 54 year-old woman with kids under 18 at home.

Kathleen Triou, USPB Vice President of Domestic Marketing, says the deep dive study helped refine how Linda thinks about health when deciding on what food to serve her family.

Triou: “Health is also very important when she chooses food for her family but she is not necessarily searching for specific health attributes or benefits. What she is trying to do is limit processed foods generally speaking. Limit sugar and fats and salts and so she looks at the dinner plate, especially from a health perspective, as is it colorful. Color is a huge health cue for Linda. And is the whole meal itself a health meal as opposed to dissecting each single element that is on the plate. She does look at it very holistically.”

Triou says Linda uses colored potatoes but like most consumers she buys by type not variety and there is opportunity there.

Triou: “They see brown potatoes, which are russets. The see the yellow and the whites and generally what we are seeing is that out Linda target audience uses two to three types of potatoes pretty routinely, but we have at least seven so there is a lot of room to grow in terms of her potato repertoire and her confidence across the entire category.”

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.