Challenge

As companies try to make easier profits, deceptive place of production labeling on food has almost tripled in the last five years. This has made Japanese consumers increasingly concerned about the safety of their food. Reliable information on what food to buy was needed. HUG Mart is a store that only sells safe food from contracted farmers. But its farmers’ integrity and scrupulous attention to food safety was difficult to convey. HUG mart needed a way to convey them surely to consumers.

Solution

We invented a fresh and unique promotional tool called “Talkable Vegetables.” Touching the vegetables triggers an electric reaction, and they “talk.” They talk about their grower’s passion, what makes them special, recommended recipes and more. We adopted directional speakers to bring the touched vegetable’s voice directly to the consumer’s ears. This enabled them to learn how safe the vegetable is directly from the farmer.

Results

Sales increased about 250% thanks to the vegetables’ trustworthy sales talk. Talkable Vegetables was widely cited in the media, and the vegetables’ voices reached not only HUG Mart customers, but many others all over Japan. Because of its advanced approach, Talkable Vegetables was selected as an official work by the Sapporo International Art Festival, and was a must-see at South By Southwest® Conference & Festivals in Texas, USA. Using vegetables as a new medium, Talkable Vegetables successfully delivered farmers’ integrity and passion directly to consumers.