Despite the high quality image of maple, few brands try anything else beyond price to drive sales. In the end, we swap market share, which does little for retailers who want to grow their category size, basket size, and rings. While price promotion has its place, focusing on permanently lowering the price on a high ring sub-category like pure maple is short-term thinking.

For retailers to drive sustainable category growth, it’s important to understand the fundamental consumer dynamics that hold the category back. In the maple industry, limited usage frequency is the issue.

In the pure maple sub-category, increasing sales volume is all about creating usage occasions. Basket analysis studies and Household Panel research clearly show that pure maple is underdeveloped in most retailers. Most consumers limit their maple use to the big three (pancakes, waffles, and French toast). Unfortunately, these comfort foods are not daily - or even weekly - occasions. Accordingly, this behavior contributes to light consumption and increased seasonality.

Our habit and attitude research shows that once consumers “go beyond” the big three and use maple in new ways (oatmeal/ice cream topping, for grilling and cooking, in salad dressing etc.), consumption rises dramatically! Research also indicates that sampling with a high frequency product like oatmeal is a great way to get consumers thinking about new ways to use maple every day instead of once a month.

How to change consumption habits at retail?
More effective Demos: We encourage retailers to eliminate ineffective and expensive maple demos that feature pancakes. Instead, we recommend maple demos on grilled salmon or on grilled chicken. They cost a little more, but they work!

More effective Display: Retailers who place a row of pure maple (with recipe cards) on their oatmeal end cap promotion can dramatically increase basket size, ring, and long-term maple segment sales.

Marketing commodities – Think differently and focus on segments.
A large part of our marketing effort is oriented towards sharing creative recipe ideas with the Foodie Maple Segment. Foodies are the forgotten segment in the maple industry. They love authentic ingredients. They enjoy maple (especially Grade B)! And offer exceptional volume opportunity. To attract this audience, we go left when everyone else goes right. We post recipes with Gourmet Magazine. We work the social media scene. Some think promoting the category doesn’t pay. We disagree. A rising tide raises all ships. And that’s what we want to be known for.