Yam – the Food of Champions

When Usain Bolt dazzled the world with three gold medals and three world records at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the Jamaican women stamped their authority on the sprints, the world heard that good old Jamaican yam was a staple in the diet of these champions.

Immediately I recognised the opportunity to brand and market yam as the ‘food of champions.’ Marketing is my profession, and good marketers think way outside the box to position their products and clients, and seize opportunities that would appear most unlikely to the regular person. The challenge is to persuade the right people to listen, or at least recognise the opportunities.

Jamaica did move on this opportunity over the years to increase its yam production, but there was no specific branding of yams to tie in with the Bolt image.

Trelawny, where Usain Bolt was born and raised in Jamaica, is the largest producer of yams in the country. In 2022, Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Pearnel Charles declared “Everybody wants a piece of what made Usain Bolt run so fast. It is a gem in our hands. It is a diamond we have to utilize to benefit the country.”

That assertion remains a major factor behind Jamaica’s annual export demand for yams, as the average annual export is 34 million kilograms with an estimated earnings of US$36 million. Interestingly, yam is ‘linked’ to Bolt’s success, but not branded as a contributor to his success.

If Bolt were an American, skilled marketers would long ago have exponentially launched an effective promotional campaign to increase the production of yams and grant incentives to farmers who produce the crop. The yam would be branded as the ‘food of champions’ much in the same way that the USA used the faces of American Olympic gold medalists on Wheaties boxes, and the yam would have been attractively packaged to increase sales.

Top chefs in the country would be invited to develop exciting dishes that would captivate the interest of school children, mobilize the local population to get on board, and tantalize the taste buds of visitors in hotels and restaurants across the country. And the venture would be promoted country-wide.

The dietary values of yam would be lauded on television programmes across the nation – yam is a good source of carbohydrates, fibre, and energy, and is part of a balanced diet. Barbados can utilize these strategies and add unique ones of our own. We boast a high number of centenarians who will confirm that yam has long been a staple in their diet – the marketer sees this as a good source of long life.

Do you remember Carmeta Fraser and her relentless efforts back in the 1980’s to encourage local agricultural production and healthy eating? I would always stock up on Carmeta’s yam flakes to take back with me when I was living overseas. This was an innovation far ahead of its time. In researching for this article, I noted that the BADMC has continued Carmeta’s legacy by producing a range of gluten-free flours and flour mixes processed from local breadfruit, cassava and sweet potato that can be found on supermarket shelves.

In 2008, when local inter-school sports sprint queen Shadir Greene of Springer Memorial School was destroying the competition, her mother waved yams in the stands, and announced that her daughter ate good ground provisions. To Barbadians, this was good theatre, but the marketers never saw the opportunity to tie that assertion to a food campaign to encourage our youngsters to eat ground provisions.

They relied on the old approach that ‘these foods are good for you’, a strategy that does not readily impact Gen Z (Generation Z aged 12-27 years old) and Gen Alpha (up to 11 years old) when faced with strong competition from the attractive fast food offerings and their exciting promotional programmes.

The Olympic Games is a good motivator for the campaign for healthy foods to link healthy living to world class performances by healthy athletes.

Marketing our Sports Stars

What about opportunities to market our sports stars and potential stars?

Marketers can get on board to develop winning strategies to educate Barbadians about the effort, dedication, and resilience that goes into the making of a sports champion. The company’s product or service can be tied to the promotion to generate new customers. Engage with coaches and school principals. Get parents and the community on board. Brainstorm with your colleagues and staff members. When you get buy-in from across the board, support for your venture is energized.

What about the companies that have outstanding sportspersons as members of their workforce? Creating an in-house ‘wall of fame’ that can celebrate their success, and recognise their accomplishments, creates value for the company. Employees will appreciate that you care, and you will connect our sportspersons to the Barbadian public.

Rather than only seeing the Olympic Games as a dynamic event that has captivated viewers worldwide, we need to activate our intellectual capacity to create a beneficial legacy that steps outside traditional thinking – that is how successful Fortune 500 companies operate. Nike broke tradition when non-athlete Rihanna was signed to promote their clothes line.

We have to embrace fresh thinking and move quickly towards ‘doing’ rather than just talking. Getting serious about sports requires innovation and implementation, and a recognition that sports is strategically tied to education, agriculture, export promotion, trade and tourism.

Freida V Nicholls, JP, OLY
Email: freida.nicholls@olympian.org