Imagine: A celebrity with millions of fans tells the world about her love for your product. What would that mean to your sales?
Good things, that’s for sure.
Hip hop artist Lizzo has 18.5 million followers on TikTok, so you can safely say she’s a major, major influencer.
@lizzo Another s/o to @natures_food since y’all hoes can’t read lol AAAAAAND for the “unblended smoothie” hive — it’s not bussin Janelle ? ♬ Triple S - YN Jay & Louie Ray
So, when this musician and singer first tried an iced cereal using berries and pomegranate arils in coconut water, people watched to the tune of 7.7 million views. And they imitated her with other videos — and with their purchases.
When something goes viral, it affects more than the social media world. It affects the real-life business world.
The viral “Nature’s Cereal” videos caused sales to skyrocket at The Flavor Tree Fruit Co., a produce marketer that sells the SunnyGem brand of wonderful variety pomegranates, grown in California.
“Sales literally doubled on cups of arils when that became a trend. It’s crazy,” said Maurice Cameron, president of Flavor Tree.
“That was really a major driver in pomegranate and aril sales in the last year. It was incredible. Because of TikTok, we’ve found a new demographic.”
The platform can seem like a place for bored young people to do silly (mustard on watermelon, anyone?), sometimes inadvisable (hello, milk crate challenge) things on camera. And it is that, true.
But it’s also a powerful tool.
Once Cameron’s sales team figured out why sales were rising so much, they took action.
“We communicated that to our retail partners so they could trigger combo marketing, putting berries and pomegranates together. There are a lot of tricks to spur consumption,” he said.
While there is much to be wary of with social media, it’s worth weeding out the gems.
The next baked feta tomato pasta, whipped coffee or pancake cereal could be a recipe requiring the produce you grow, pack and sell.
