Salad Demo Days BASF Vegetable Seeds: “We shifted the medium to continue meeting our customers’ needs”

360-Degree Tour, Livestreams, and Digital Sessions

Week 39. A week that for BASF Vegetable Seeds is usually all about sharing latest innovations and discussing market and consumer trends with customers. This year though, things are different. It was difficult to receive customers live, so BASF Vegetable Seeds organized an alternative program for the Salad Demo Days. “With personalized digital meetings, a 360-degree tour, and two livestream sessions, we brought the demo days to our customers virtually,” says Arushi Badola, Global Crop Marketing Salads.

By organizing the digital events, BASF Vegetable Seeds has shown its customer centricity. “We didn't stop, we shifted the medium. Most customers couldn't come to the field, so we decided to take the field to them. Of course, it doesn't replace physical meetings, but we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to connect with our customers,” says Badola.

Visitors and Digital Sessions
Visitors from the Netherlands did get the opportunity to visit BASF Vegetable Seeds’ facility at ‘s Gravenzande in week 39 – a week during which the major Dutch growers, processors, retailers, and plant cultivators were present. The week featured digital sessions, live from the field and the greenhouse. Badola explains, “This way, our specialists were able to enter into conversation with international growers, processors, and plant cultivators and were able to help them with their business needs.”

360-Degree Tour
BASF Vegetable Seeds has developed a 360-degree tour to give customers an even more realistic experience. “This will give customers a more engaging experience and will help them to visualize our product range. The sales specialists guided customers through the tour digitally and explained our products. Additional videos and descriptions gave participants a clear impression of the varieties available,” says Badola.

Livestreams
Two livestream sessions were organized on Monday, September 28th. The first was focused on outdoor soil production, the second on developments in hydroponic. “In both sessions, we focused on the added value for the whole chain rather than on individual varieties. We highlighted the benefits for each player in the chain,” says Badola. The livestreams are available via YouTube

Session 1: Soil Production
This session was all about connecting consumer insights and market trends with Nunhems Lettuce specialties. The concept details were shared live from the field by Stefan Hermans, Account Manager for Salads, The Netherlands. Concepts in focus were Taste, Convenience, Chef's Lettuce, and Technology. Hermans explains, “We presented our range of mellow tasting varieties and discussed how taste evokes an additional consumer experience. Furthermore, we talked about the fact that consumers increasingly value convenience and how Little Gem, Mini Romaine, and Teen Leaf fit in this category. The other highlight was our Chef’s Lettuce, a solution for the food service. There, we showed the best leaves for burgers and sandwiches. Finally, we talked about a high-density mechanical harvest solution for iceberg and romaine, saving labor through genetics and technology.”

Session 2: Hydroponic

This session was organized with content on efficiency in greenhouse processes for growers, processors, and retailers. The session looked at topics such as food safety, convenience, efficiency, and automation. BASF Vegetable Seeds also showed off some of its product range. “We presented Teen Leaf, which is all about convenience and cost effectiveness, and Trio Lettuce, which  brings efficiency to harvesting and is ideal for consumers who love variation in their kitchen,” explains Badola. In addition, Peter Does, Product Specialist for Hydroponic Lettuce, demonstrated the products and talked about the different systems of hydroponic live from ‘s Gravenzande.

Preferred Partner

Through these digital demo days, BASF Vegetable Seeds has signaled its intention to be the preferred partner in the chain. “Not only for growers, but for the whole value chain. Our goal is and remains to bring innovative solutions to our customers.”