Context

Chiquita, a US/Swiss company, which has its international headquarters in Etoy in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, is the world's largest exporter of bananas and has more than 20,000 employees. Chiquita has been the archetypal brand for the banana industry as far back as 1899.

Challenge

The food sector is now also increasingly moving towards the concept of sustainability. The Chiquita brand has made efforts to convey a sense of corporate social responsibility over the past few decades through a range of different initiatives. However, the firmly established image of the multinational that had developed over the course of the 20th century stood in the way of the company being perceived by consumers as sustainable. Repositioning of the Chiquita brand was needed in order to bring together the branding of the world market leader with an image of an environmentally aware, socially responsible producer of a natural product.

Approach

Brand Affairs provided Chiquita with comprehensive support during the course of a complete redesign of its CSR strategy. We engaged and coordinated agency partners in five key European markets and successfully implemented the new strategy with the help of our established stakeholder relationships and consistent media activities across all channels.

Project

Sustainability Strategy, Stakeholder Relations, Issue Management, Media Relations

Industry

Food

Partner

Country

international

Implementation

2013–2019

Contact

BRAND AFFAIRS AG

Reto Zangerl

Result

Consumers now have a stronger tendency to associate Chiquita with sustainability and corporate social responsibility. We have been able to continuously develop this change of perception in a positive direction over the past few years.

"We would like to thank Brand Affairs for the excellent support in the conception of our sustainability strategy as well as for the flexible and cooperative support in the implementation. We can highly recommend Brand Affairs at any time."

Bettina Stier Scatamachia

Marketing Director, Chiquita