Volume 3 | Issue 4 | April 2008 en español |
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Welcome to the Mango Connection - your source for news about the National Mango Board. Please forward this email to your friends in the mango industry. They can click here to sign up for their own copy of this monthly newsletter. Help us spread the word. Click on any underlined text to get more information about that item.
Don’t forget to check out the Mango Crop Forecast, which is updated whenever we receive new information from any of the top producing countries for U.S. mango imports. Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua have provided their projections to us to be included in this report. Our current forecast for the Mexican mango crop is based on an NMB forecasting model.
The consumer PR results tracker is updated monthly. This document covers our progress so far this year and we’ve already reached consumers over 75 million times with mango messages! It would have cost roughly $2.7 million to purchase this space and time as advertising. This is a very strong return on investment for the mango growers and importers who bring mangos to U.S. consumers. Each time a consumer sees mangos on TV, in newspapers, in magazines or on the web, it keeps mangos on their mind for a few minutes. All of those minutes add up to increased awareness, which can translate into increased consumption of mangos. Our work helps increase shoppers’ confidence that they know how to select and cut a mango, and it gives them ideas for new ways to use mangos in recipes. By the time we post the May results tracker, we expect to exceed the total impressions and ad equivalency that we achieved during the entire 12 months of 2007! This is an exciting development and we’ll bring you more details next month. The results tracker is a powerful tool that gives both an overview and detailed information about the results of our program. The tracker is currently 16 pages long and will continue to grow and grow throughout the year. But please know that the first three pages give a summary of all of the results. If you have only a few minutes to look at the results tracker, just check out the first 3 pages to get an overview and ROI measurements of our consumer marketing programs. Please click here to see the 2008 tracker.
Our Cinco de Mango promotion for the Cinco de Mayo holiday is a multimedia event, with great exposure for mangos on TV, on the web, in print and in grocery stores. This event is a great way for the mango industry to kick off the summer season with a big push in mango excitement. First up is our Cinco de Mango video featuring Ingrid Hoffmann, which is available on mango.org and on 225 TV station web sites for up to 3 months. Ingrid shows viewers how to cut a mango and demonstrates her yummy Cinco de Mango Black Bean Salsa recipe. Click here to see the video and the recipe. TOSTITOS® tortilla chips is also working with Ingrid and has planned extensive TV coverage of Ingrid talking about TOSTITOS® and the Cinco de Mayo holiday. We were able to work a partnership with TOSTITOS® to include them in our video in exchange for them featuring the Cinco de Mango Black Bean Salsa in their TV segments. Millions more consumers will see and hear about mangos on TV as a result of this no-cost deal. In an effort to stretch the mango industry’s investment in the Cinco de Mango celebration, retailers have been recruited to use the Cinco de Mango Black Bean Salsa recipe in their ads and on their web sites. And, the NMB has shipped out Cinco de Mango header cards with recipe tear pads to be displayed in over 1,000 stores across the country. Many retailers are planning sampling events for consumers to try the salsa recipe in their stores. Click here to see the Cinco de Mango header card and tear pad design.
Ingrid Hoffmann’s star is rising and the National Mango Board is rising along with her! The Colombian-born star of Simply Delicioso on the Food Network lives in Miami and LOVES to talk about and cook with mangos. Ingrid is delighted to be representing the National Mango Board and will be featured this year in several of our high-profile programs, including Cinco de Mango, Mango Month and Rising Mango Star Video Contest.
Over 1,100 consumers have signed up to receive regular emails with a focus on new recipes and usage ideas from the National Mango Board. These subscribers are some of our most loyal mango consumers and they are hungry for new information from us. Our April issue featured Ingrid Hoffmann’s Cinco de Mango Black Bean Salsa, plus some other ideas to kick off the summer entertaining season with mangos. Click here if you, your friends or your customers would like to sign up to receive the Let's Mango email and fill out the sign-up form on the home page of mango.org.
Your NMB marketing team represented the mango industry at the New England Produce Council Expo on April 9th, 2008. At each of the regional trade shows, we have a booth where we sample delicious mangos, distribute our materials and talk with the retailers. We also attend networking events associated with each show. These events give us the opportunity to forge deeper relationships with the retailer community. We get to talk to retailers at all levels – from the Directors of Produce all the way down to the store-level produce managers. It’s not uncommon for us to meet a produce department manager who’s never tasted a mango, doesn’t know how to cut a mango and doesn’t know how to tell if a mango is ripe. We get to educate these people so they can pass their knowledge along to their shoppers. These regional trade shows are a great opportunity for us to promote the mango industry’s agenda.
The NMB is currently in the nominations and appointment process for 6 positions with terms beginning in January, 2009. The open positions will include 3 importers in district II, 1 domestic producer and 2 foreign producers. Nominations packets were due to the NMB Monday, April 28th. For the nomination of importers and domestic producers, ballots will be sent out to industry members so that the two nominees for each position can be finalized. The next step will be for the NMB to send the packets for the two nominees for each position to the USDA Secretary of Agriculture for final appointments. Please click here for more information about the nominations process, and the list of current board members.
The National Mango Board is tentatively planning outreach meetings in Los Angeles and Nogales for late May, but dates have not yet been confirmed. Detailed information will be posted in the calendar section of mango.org.
The NMB’s next board meeting will take place the week of September 22nd in Dallas, Texas. Please check the calendar section of mango.org for more details. 
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