BANANAS may be the number one grocery item in Australia but that's no reason to ignore future growth potential.
It was a straight shot from fresh produce marketing expert, Lisa Cork, who reminded the 300 delegates at last week's 12th Australian Banana Industry Congress in Sydney, that being number one was an enviable position.
"Where do you go when you have 94 per cent penetration and you're number one?" Ms Cork said.
"Because technically, you're bulletproof.
"You might think things are looking pretty good, you've got good penetration, you've been very successful but I think the frightening thing is that the moment you think your industry will never change is when you're caught unaware that your industry has changed."
Ms Cork backed up her statement by showing several headlines from around the world showing berries were usurping bananas' position in some foreign markets.
But rather than fear what might be looming over the horizon, Ms Cork encouraged growers to change their thinking to consumer-centric rather than product-centric.
"What it says to me is that it's great to be number one - enjoy the fame, enjoy the ride because it's amazing to be in that position but let's not be closed-minded about thinking differently or finding new opportunities to understand the consumer experience with bananas at a deeper level and continually be probing and asking: Are there other opportunities available to us that we're just not aware or of haven't seen yet, with the goal of trying to stay in the number one position?" Ms Cork said.
She said a shift was occurring in food marketing away from a rational connection to more emotive connections.
That would require a shift to consider how products make the consumer feel as opposed to simply the benefits to them.
"If I stand in the shoes of the shopper, how do they see my bananas?" Ms Cork said.
One slight but important differentiation consumers' minds is the gap between health and wellness.
Wellness, according to Ms Cork, was more about concepts such as wholesome, balance, stress reduction, laughter and playfulness, rather than just improving physical health.
"Shoppers are developing a mindfulness around not only their life but around the foods they are consuming that fuel their lives," she said.
In brainstorming some practical suggestions, Ms Cork said looking at the size of bananas would be a good place to start, taking into account how consumers perceive what a "portion of banana" might be.
"Is it only just limited to children who only want to eat small bananas? Or is there an opportunity segment with an adult pack?" she said.
Segmentation of bananas was also a suggestion that could be explored to add value to the category.
She complimented the industry for the Banana Bar concept, a banana vending machine, but also questioned if the name could tell more about what the outlet could do.
"I guess my challenge to you would be to think about, as growers, that there are opportunities to move beyond the straight rational connection that holds you to commodity and think about the opportunities to build a consumer centric brand that not only talks about the rational," she said.
Where do you go when you have 94 per cent penetration and you're number one? Because technically, you're bulletproof.
- Lisa Cork
"When you move from being product centric to consumer centric, what happens is a change of thinking and in that change of thinking, there is an amazing array of new ideas and new opportunities that contribute to value growth and sales growth."
In his opening address, Banana Congress management committee chairman, Ben Franklin, said in the past financial year, growers produced just under 400,000 tonnes of fresh bananas worth some $600 million, with a total input to the economy at about $1.3 billion.
"Our industry certainly has a history of looking adversity straight in the eye and taking it head-on," Mr Franklin said.
"Let's make sure we celebrate every success, no matter how small they are. But of course this is no time to be complacent and across our country, we need to be continually vigilant against the threat exotic pest and disease incursions."