Valencia, Calif. – While wrapping up its 130th season, the longest-standing fresh citrus cooperative in the nation is looking ahead, focusing on the highly-anticipated return of California citrus season. With a grower base of over 1,000 members and a complete portfolio of both conventional and organic citrus offerings, Sunkist solidifies its position as a citrus industry leader by allocating additional resources to its category management and consumer insights program, promoting Cassie Howard to Senior Director of Category Management and Marketing.
In this new role, Cassie Howard oversees Sunkist’s retail marketing promotions and global branding programs, driving the next evolutionary phase of category management solutions at the company and feeding real-time insights directly into strategic marketing tactics.
“For the past five seasons, we have seen first-hand how important industry data can be to our customers,” said Christian Harris, Chief Operating Officer at Sunkist Growers. “This value-added service continues to set us apart, and we’re focused on supporting our partners in real-time to make better business decisions by providing fact-based recommendations with marketing and merchandising tools that support what consumers want to see in-stores.”
Sunkist’s access to consumer behavioral insights and category management solutions over the past few seasons has been pivotal to positioning merchandising offerings, packaging solutions, and benchmarketing opportunities for partners of the cooperative.
“Every unique varietal story provides an opportunity, whether that be through our enhanced Legacy ‘Heirloom’ program or citrus-character launch and mandarin packaging revamp, consumer insights have been there to help shape our shopper-marketing initiatives,” said Cassie Howard. “With our new capabilities, we can now ask consumers directly what matters to them most when shopping at their local grocers. Our ability to collect and leverage consumer feedback into real-time recommendations allows our retail partners to stay innovative, adapt to current trends, and best reach their ever-changing consumers.”
Sunkist is gearing up for the return of its beloved California oranges and has newly commissioned category studies and consumer insights ready to tackle the season ahead. Be sure to follow Sunkist over the next few weeks as the marketing marvel shares relevant solutions and up-to-date programs to drive the category forward.
Sunkist Growers is a citrus marketing cooperative, founded in 1893, which is owned by and operated for thousands of family farmers growing citrus in California and Arizona. For more information, visit www.sunkist.com.
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