By René Hardwick, National Onion Association Director of Public and Industry Relations
In the next six months, some of you may see new labels circulating in some Midwest grocery stores. They’re bright and eye-catching, fun and engaging and all about onions. They’re Nature’s Ninja labels.
You may recall that in the last year, the National Onion Association (NOA) launched its Nature’s Ninja campaign. Nature’s Ninja is a new way of looking at our product. We want consumers to know the onion has skills. Serious skills. Serious ninja skills. Can you name many other vegetables out there that are as protected from food-borne illnesses, yet also help people fight common degenerative ailments such as heart disease and diabetes? It’s abundant. It’s versatile. It brings flavor to any dish. It’s a natural cleanser. It’s a natural tool for the do-it-yourselfer. And, it’s sustainable. Did we say it had skills?
We created our fun character, the onion ninja, to play to a new audience – an audience of existing and potential onion eaters in the millennial and Generation Z populations. We’ve plastered our fun little onion ninja on social media – where these groups are – and our website. Now is the perfect time for our members to run with it.
We got our first taker in Paradigm Fresh out of Fort Morgan, Colorado. Owner John Harris adopted Nature’s Ninja for his labels after attending the NOA’s summer conference in Madison, Wisconsin. For him, it wasn’t just about finding something new, it was about going with something in which he believed.
Harris has been attending the NOA conventions since he was a boy. Now, as an adult, he wants to help out the industry that raised him. He said he bought into the Nature’s Ninja concept for its fresh approach, and he believes it “is one of the best marketing ideas and more so marketing opportunity to allow its membership to capitalize on that has been available in 20 years.”
He immediately set to work with his supplier to create the Nature’s Ninja labels. Once they fit his needs, he ordered 2 million of them. They should last him six months.
“The presentation (Nature’s Ninja Playbook) on the NOA website is really well put together; it’s a great message, and it has some excellent recipes, all things that a consumer would be interested in and appreciate,” Harris said. “My plan for the time being is to start with the labels and then possibly progress from there with our other types of packaging. The labels are the most consumer forward opportunity without question.”
Of course, he waited until he needed to order more labels for his Colorado packing organization, which is what any sound packer would do.
Now we need to get others on board. Many of our onion growers or packers across the country have their own individual brands, which we wouldn’t dare mess with.
Nature’s Ninja is ubiquitous. It is the onion. It’s not a sweet, it’s not a tearless, it’s not a Vidalia or a Walla Walla or a Sweetie Sweet. It’s just the onion – bringing with it a message all onion growers should champion. These are products that are safe, good, good for you and that should be a main part of consumers’ diets.
The labels are color-coded and available to put your company’s logo on, like Harris did with Paradigm Fresh.
Harris said he enjoyed the fact that the NOA has done the hard work for him. The characters are all created: yellow, white, red and sweet. The NOA has social media posts, talking points and the artwork for member use. The NOA also has created the Nature’s Ninja Playbook, complete with an all-encompassing brochure that spells out onion history, attributes, tips and recipes, as well as a video to share digitally.
Talk about a ready-made campaign. One of the NOA’s marching orders is to promote the consumption of onions. That number has stayed relatively flat in the last few years, with the exception of 2017, which saw a jump to 22 pounds per person. That number is back down to 20 for 2018. If we all get on board, Nature’s Ninja can help drive that number up.
Will you be next?
