Home : Resources : Monthly Shipping Reports : 2009 December

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 December 2009 Industry News

 

 

 

The industry saw strong sales in the month of October during the Mushroom Council’s pink promotion to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the partnership with City of Hope. The latest data from FreshLook Marketing shows that for the month of October, mushrooms were up 6.7% in dollars and 12.3% in pounds, the highest mushroom movement the industry has seen in any time period.

SHIPMENT SUMMARY

Mushroom Council First Handler Reports (millions of pounds; totals may not match due to rounding).

 

COUNCIL UPDATE

• Call for nominations for regions 1 (All states except for CA & PA), 2 (PA) and 3 (CA) will be mailed on February 1, 2010.
  • The U. S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the Council, encourages all eligible producers including women, minorities and individuals with disabilities to participate in the nominations and seek nomination to serve on the Council.

• The next Council meeting will be held on February 2 & 3, 2010 in Burlingame, CA. The meeting on Tuesday, February 2^nd will go from approximately 2-8pm and on Wednesday, February 3^rd from approximately 8am to 12pm. If you are planning to attend either one or both of these days, please e-mail Cheryl@mushroomcouncil.org or call 408-432-7210 so that we can be sure to make room for you.

• The Council has been working on Truck Panels for you to put on your trucks; click here to see the artwork; click here to see the styleguide. A memo regarding the Truck Panels will be sent out in early January 2010. Details about the truck panels will be given and order sheets will be provided to give everyone an opportunity to put their order in.

• “Pink” invoices for those who participated in the City of Hope campaign were mailed out. Included in the mailing was a brief survey asking about your experience and comments on this promotion. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey and mail or fax (408-432-7213) to the Council office as soon as possible.

• Mushrooms and Health Global Initiatives Bulletin (MHGI), November 2009, Issue #8, is now available; to view this bulletin, click here.

• 2010 Power Period 1 materials and all of 2010 recipes are now available and can be found on the Council website by clicking here. If high-resolution pictures are needed, contact the Council office.

• Survey Reminder: Look out for an upcoming industry survey in your inbox after the holidays! This survey will allow you to provide anonymous feedback regarding retail tools, materials and communications, and we welcome your insights in order to readily make retail materials fit your needs. For any questions, please contact Cheryl at 408-432-7210 or Cheryl@mushroomcouncil.org.

MARKETING SUMMARY

TOTAL IMPRESSIONS/PLACEMENTS TO DATE:
       November impressions overview: 

Mushroom Share of Voice: 

 

In November, the Mushroom Council had an average of 54 percent share of voice, which is above the average of 25 percent or less of mushroom placements, according to average consumer product and commodity industry standards. Note that there are always external factors or industry forces that could change that metric.

Mushrooms in the News and Online:

• The spike in media coverage this month – the highest in a non-proactive time period since 2006 – can be attributed to increased interest in immunity, a typical topic during cold and flu season, but one that gained more steam this year as the new threat of H1N1 emerged. November media placements also included a hit from Good Housekeeping as a result of the desk side tour the Council conducted in May with Heidi Gengler, RD and Carla Hall, chef finalist from “Top Chef.” Vitamin D also proved to be a topic with staying power in the media and mushrooms were listed as a source in roughly ten placements this month.
• As stated above, the cold and flu season was a popular topic for media in November, and mushrooms were often included in these stories as foods that help maintain the immune system. Coverage was secured in both local and national outlets, including Redbook, MSNBC online and Good Housekeeping. Overall, 21.8 million impressions were generated from mushrooms’ immunity messaging alone. 

• Mushroom Council placements represented an average of 54 percent of total mushroom news in November, which exceeds the norm of 25 percent or less in a reactive period. To view all November placements, click here. 
• In November, MushroomInfo.com and MushroomChannel.com experienced 11,533 unique visitors combined, a 20 percent decrease compared to October’s total unique visitors. Visitors to the Mushroom Channel have increased slightly, while MushroomInfo.com visitors have remained steady or slightly decreased over the last three months. November is the first month since August that a major traffic-driving program hasn’t been in place (BlogHer Food in September, FNCE and City of Hope partnership in October). Twitter subscribers have continued to rise steadily and day-to-day subscription numbers to the Mushroom Channel are still higher than previous months’ averages. 
• The Council has 1,304 Twitter and Facebook followers to date. Obtaining these followers resulted in 795,538 total online exposures through November, compared to October’s total of 778,703, a three percent increase. 

 

On the Retail Front:

• An industry survey was developed to determine which tools, materials and communications are most useful to industry members. Your anonymous feedback will help us tailor materials that better fit your needs. Look for this survey in your inbox in the New Year! 

• The Council reached out to trade publications to begin providing them with relevant materials to develop Mushroom Marketing sections in upcoming January issues. Publications include The Packer and Produce Business.

• The Council is creating a case study Q&A to answer questions industry members may have about getting their retailers involved. Obtaining retailer case studies and testimonials to demonstrate the success of implementing mushroom best practices, such as promotions, provide third party endorsements that demonstrate that mushrooms are the hidden treasure of any produce department. This case study Q&A will be available on the Web site once finalized at www.mushroomcouncil.org/retail.

For a more detailed report click here (most recent Mushrooms Top Line report).
 For larger image, click here.

 

On the Foodservice Front:

The increased foodservice media coverage in November is the result of a number of publications running autumnal themed comfort food stories, in which mushrooms are a natural fit. This included two exclusively mushroom-themed articles.

Foodservice media outreach resulted in ten placements in November, including two feature articles all about mushrooms in Culinary Trends’ “Fungi Fever” and Chef Educator Today’s “A Tutorial on Sautéing Mushrooms.” Other November placements continued to keep mushrooms in pizza, soup, burger and ethnic cuisine stories.

Bertucci’s featured mushrooms in its 95 restaurants throughout the summer in several LTOs. With the help of training materials and videos supplied by the Council, Bertucci’s added new menu items and trained its chefs on proper mushroom 
     preparation. Formerly, Bertucci’s used sautéed mushrooms and as a result of this promotion 
     and working with the Council, it has now added roasting to its preparation repertoire.  
     Estimated total number of mushrooms purchased during the 13 weeks was 14,494 pounds of 
     white button mushrooms and 35,925 of portabellas.

• Hardee’s launched the new Portobello Mushroom Melt Thickburger in mid-November, quoting Bart Minor in its press release. The press release was picked up in nearly ten outlets, garnering 560,000 impressions. The partnership was also communicated via Twitter through both the Mushroom Channel and Hardee’s accounts, resulting in more than 12,000 Twitter impressions.

• From November 12-14, the Council attended the Worlds of Flavor Conference at the Culinary Institute of America, one of the country’s premier and trend-setting foodservice events. This year’s theme, “World Street Food and World Comfort Food,” was a natural fit for mushrooms. The Council partnered with Colavita Olive Oil to sponsor a booth at the event’s Market Place and served mushroom and olive oil sample dishes to the more than 600 foodservice professionals attending the event.    

• For an update on the status of the Council’s foodservice promotional pursuits, click here; to see new mushroom menu items for November click here.

• In 2009, a study from Technomic showed that the overall foodservice industry was down approximately 10%. Despite the reality of the economy’s hit on the category, there is some promising news with mushrooms in foodservice. Mushrooms are on more menus and more Top 200 Chain Menus than at any other time, according to 2009 Technomic and MenuMine reports. Technomic shows an increase of from 72% in 2005 to 81% in 2009, a 12.5% increase. Additionally, the number of mushroom dishes being menued is significant as well; 69% of 1,477 menus include at least one menu item with mushrooms, according to MenuMine. 

 Category Incidence for Mushrooms on Menus in 2009 (MenuMine 2009)

 

• Mushroom varieties are on the rise
• Seasonality is not an issue
• More operators say they plan to use more mushrooms in 2010
• More chains are promoting mushrooms with or without Mushroom Council support
• The versatility of mushrooms is declining as operators have preconceived notions of how they will and won’t use mushrooms
• While QSR is growing dramatically in their use of mushrooms, more often than not, the mushrooms are not fresh.
• Featuring and promotions of mushrooms is declining

 

MUSHROOM CHANNEL TIPS:

The Mushroom Channel is the mushroom industry’s blog, a direct line to consumers and online influencers alike that brings together mushroom conversations taking place online.  This is a great site to share with friends, family, colleagues and customers.

• Bookmark MushroomChannel.com (http://www.themushroomchannel.com/) on your Internet browser or computer. 
  
  
• Receive new posts in your email inbox! Just click here, enter your email address and you’ll get each post as it’s posted. 
  
  
• Forward relevant e-mails to friends, family, colleagues and customers. Click on the e-mail icon at the bottom of each post to easily share content. 
  
  
• Share your favorite blog posts on your own Facebook page. Click the Facebook icon at the bottom of any blog post for simple directions to add it to your Facebook wall. 

 

TWITTER TIPS:

The Mushroom Channel’s Twitter profile (@MushroomChannel) uses the real-time social networking service to interact with consumers by sharing health and nutrition news, program updates, questions and even recipes in 140 characters or less.

• Follow @MushroomChannel (www.Twitter.com/MushroomChannel) for the latest tweets and re-tweets of ongoing news.

• Extend the reach by re-tweeting any of the Mushroom Channel’s Twitter content.

• Post your own favorite articles and recipes featuring mushrooms.

 

FACEBOOK TIPS:

The Mushroom Channel’s Facebook page (Mushroom Channel) links old and new friends and colleagues while providing a valuable relationship-building space for the industry.

• Become a fan of the Mushroom Channel. (http://www.facebook.com/MushroomChannel)

• Encourage friends to become fans of the Mushroom Channel by selecting “Suggest to Friends” underneath the Mushroom Channel photo on the Facebook page.

• Share Mushroom Channel Facebook posts with your friends by clicking the “Share” link at the bottom of each Facebook post. You can share posts publicly on your wall or choose to send it as a Facebook email to select friends.

• Comment on or “Like” Mushroom Channel Facebook posts by using the links below each post.