WENATCHEE, WA – Columbia Marketing International (CMI) has been honored as a finalist in the 2014 PMA Impact Awards in Excellence in Packaging for its innovative single-serve cherry packaging design on its Go-Go Fresh line.

“More and more consumers are shopping convenience stores looking for fresh fruit options,” Steve Lutz, Vice President of Marketing for CMI explained. “The conventional grocery store 2 lb. cherry bags are far too large for convenience stores so fresh cherries were rarely seen in this channel despite the fact that cherries are a high demand and high impulse product. The new CMI Go-Go Fresh single serve bag really opened the convenience store channel for the first time.”

According to a press release, so far the Go-Go Fresh line of cherries has been a big hit with customers. Lutz credits much of this success to the eye-catching retro graphics that help the product draw consumers' attention, while reminding them of the countless health benefits cherries offer.

“Our consumer research showed that the displaying of nutritional information and fiber content are important purchasing factors for many consumers. We used the new packaging to call out these benefits as well as highlight that our cherries are GMO free,” Lutz said. “We look forward to an expanded roll out of the CMI single serving cherry packaging during the 2015 season.”

If this first year of success is any indication of what is to come, I'd say Lutz's optimism is well justified.

According to a press release, 56 different companies entered 67 products for consideration in the PMA Impact Awards in Excellence in Packaging. Only twenty submissions, including CMI's own, were selected as finalists.

Congratulations on the honor CMI!

CMI