Understanding the importance of communicating about fruits and vegetables

We live in the age of storytelling, which is applicable to every economic aspect, including food. This includes fruit and vegetables, where communication strategies analyse the market, competitors, and the product to best reach target audiences. We live in the age of storytelling, which can be applied to any economic sector, including the food sector and therefore fruit and vegetables, by means of communication strategies that analyse the market, the competitors, the product, in order to best intercept the target audiences.

Emanuela Cavazzini of Brand-Cross, an independent Italian content production and creation company, explains: "In Italy (but not only there) we have a wealth of excellent fruit and vegetables that should be communicated in the best possible way. There is so much history behind it that most consumers are not aware of, but would like to know. The effectiveness of communication can also be measured by the ability to highlight certain characteristics of the product in order to appeal to broader and often unknown audiences to the company itself. Our daily work is to understand the needs, perspectives, strengths, but also the uncertainties and sometimes reluctance of the client company to communicate. We do this in a lean and flexible way, aware of the inevitability of the personal relationship with the client."

Emanuela Cavazzini and Roberto Bosatra, founders of Brand-Cross.

Brand-Cross has a number of case histories in its catalogue, and has important brands in a variety of commodity sectors, including the agribusiness sector. "While there is a great deal of expertise and effectiveness in growing fruit and vegetables, the sector is still weak on the communications front, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge and awareness of the potential of strategic communications, which is often perceived as unnecessary in fruit and vegetables. In fact, it is one of the industries that, more than others, has historically communicated primarily through promotions, without building on the value of the brand, the people and the category as a whole. The growth of youth (and female) entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector is giving the market a new impetus, generating dynamism and greater attention to innovation, modernity, as well as the application of artificial intelligence. The generational change therefore allows us a wider and more accessible field of action."

Strawberry Matera commercial produced by Brand-Cross.

Transforming the uniqueness of a company, regardless of its size, into a good story; finding a language, whether visual or verbal, that is appropriate for the end consumer; selecting the most appropriate channels to reach the goals and target audiences defined with the client are the greatest challenges that must be faced and that can yield significant results for a communications agency in this field.

MD commercial produced by Brand-Cross.

"We are an agency of two minds, focused on production and communication campaigns. "Our ability to tell stories comes from more than 20 years of experience in television, theater and film production. Clients choose us for our flexibility, low cost, speed of response and execution, and direct and constant contact that guarantees a fast, timely and personal response. The strategic priorities to focus on in order to have an effective communication in this sector are to make the end consumer understand the value of the product (or the company) through the story that happens behind the scenes, but also the importance of highlighting the work and the quality that is often hidden or tainted by misinformation about the sector, in addition to the ability to reach different targets with wide distribution throughout the country, depending on the product."

Among the services offered by Brand-Cross to fruit and vegetable companies willing to invest in a communication campaign are:

Analysis of the market and the competition, both in terms of market positioning and communication;

The development of an integrated communication and media strategy that responds to the company's needs (brand awareness, reputation, product launch, etc.);

The translation of the shared strategy into the creative content and its realization/production;

Its distribution on the communication channels that have been identified.

Although much progress has been made in recent years, many operators in the sector still believe that communication can be replaced by more traditional activities, often planned on offline platforms. Every fruit and vegetable company can and must communicate, depending on its needs and economic resources.

Balocco commercial created by Brand-Cross.

"There is a false myth that we need to dispel," says the manager, "which is that marketing strategies or other communications are expensive. It all depends on what and how you want to communicate in order to achieve the ROI (Return on Investment) that companies are looking for. Instead of viewing marketing and communications costs as a mere expense, they should be equated with a real investment, one that aims to improve sales or commercial presence. By changing the perspective in this way, the approach becomes easier."

Brand-Cross was founded in 2015 by Roberto Bosatra and Emanuela Cavazzini, industry professionals with more than 25 years of experience in communication and production. The idea of bringing together two production sectors, one that includes television, theatre and film productions, and the other that includes the production of commercials, corporate video and branded content, has proved to be an immediate success.

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