Yentzen Consulting, a leading sales and marketing consultancy firm, is launching a new division that will conduct global surveys and studies on image perception in the agricultural industry.

The Chile-based company is the parent organization of the news sites FreshFruitPortal.com, PortalFruticola.com and ChinaFruitPortal.com, which cover fruit and vegetable industry news.

“The initiative arose from clients’ desire to understand how their brand or product is perceived in key markets. We have worked in this area over the last few years and the results have always been fascinating,” says Gustavo Yentzen, managing director of Yentzen Consulting.

“So far we have developed projects in the major blueberry-growing countries in Latin America, as well as an importer and retailer image perception study of avocados and cherries in China.”

Yentzen says that there is a significant need for this type of information in the industry, explaining that it can be an essential tool in helping companies understand how to expand in global markets.

By better understanding how they are perceived in other countries, companies will be much better positioned to implement the most effective marketing and communications strategies to ensure future growth.

“In the study of Latin American blueberry-growing countries, we found that perceptions of the industry’s future prospects and opinions about what the most pressing challenges are varied greatly from country to country, regardless of how close the countries are geographically,” Yentzen says.

“This highlights that a one-size-fits-all approach cannot be used for marketing on the global stage, and that strategies must be tailored to the specific characteristics of individual markets.”

The initiative has been made possible thanks to a great team of professionals who will work in the new division, as well as the global reach and depth of the three news ‘portals’ and also Yentzen Consulting's wide network of contacts in the industry.

The portals are collectively read in 187 countries in three of the most widely spoken languages – English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

Yentzen explained that the information will be collected through a variety of methods.

“The reach of the portals will play a crucial role in gathering information both on how brands or products from supplying countries are perceived by importing countries or supermarket chains, and also on how importers are perceived by growers and exporters in the Southern Hemisphere,” Yentzen says.

“Our team has vast experience in developing opinion studies and surveys, in-depth interviews and focus groups, all of which will be used to paint a full picture about how a brand or product is truly perceived around the world.”

For more information please contact gyentzen@yc.cl.