Sunkist expands category management and consumer insights program

As Sunkist Growers wraps its 130th season, the Valencia, Calif.-based fresh citrus cooperative is looking ahead to the return of the California citrus season, allocating additional resources to its category management and consumer insights program by promoting Cassie Howard to senior director of category management and marketing.

In this new role, 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, according to a news release. 

“For the past five seasons, we have seen firsthand how important industry data can be to our customers,” Christian Harris, chief operating officer at Sunkist Growers, said in the release. “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.”

Related: Sunkist marks 130 years as a grower-owned cooperative

Sunkist, which has a grower base of over 1,000 members and a portfolio of both conventional and organic citrus offerings, says its access to consumer behavioral insights and category management solutions over the past few seasons have been pivotal to positioning merchandising offerings, packaging solutions and marketing 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,” Howard said. “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 California oranges and has newly commissioned category studies and consumer insights ready to tackle the season ahead, the release said.

More on this topic: Citrus