The Delia effect worked wonders for the cranberry, but can generic promotions do the same for other fruits and vegetables?
By our calculations, fruit and veg growers have pledged nearly £10m this year to generic promotions to boost consumer awareness of the range of products available and to drive home the quality message.
It may be a drop in the ocean when you consider the advertising budgets of the Coca-Colas, McDonald’s and Cadburys of this world, but when you take into account the tight margins on which most fresh produce suppliers operate, then it is certainly not a sum to be sneezed at.
Tactics employed by the people in charge of the campaigns range from convincing magazines to run articles and recipes that include their produce, hoping to repeat the success that cranberries experienced when Delia Smith included them in her recipes, all the way up to prime-time television advertising.
But do these campaigns work? Probably the biggest spender at the moment is Foods From Spain, which has committed £6m to promoting a variety of Spanish fruit and veg over the next three years. It is running a series of adverts in consumer magazines, newspaper supplements and business-to-business journals, including The Grocer, focusing on a range of seasonal produce such as Picota cherries.
María José Sevilla, director of Foods From Spain, says the maturity and competitiveness of the UK market makes promotional activity important for any supplier.
She adds: “Spain supplies 30% of the UK’s fresh produce, and we want to keep it that way.”
Meanwhile, such is the faith of South African avocado growers in the power of generic advertising that they want the world’s growers - including those from Mexico, Spain and Israel - to pool their resources and mount a year-round drive for the fruit.
At present, South Africa’s avocado growers promote only their own crop, and that only during the summer.
But, says Derek Donkin, general manager of the South African Avocado Growers’ Association, a more sustained promotion throughout the
year would benefit everybody. The philosophy of a generic promotion is not to grow your own piece of the pie; it’s to grow the size of the whole pie.”
South Africa’s generic promotions have transformed the fortunes of avocado growers, says Donkin.
“The avocado had a name for being a fattening fruit, with many believing it was to be avoided. But that perception has now changed, largely due to the PR message we have been putting out.”
Also splashing the cash are the growers of Jersey Royal new potatoes, who have spent £1.2m this year on a TV and press ad campaign. The man behind the advertising is David Desbrow, the MD of New Perceptions Advertising, which has created ads for Jersey Royals for 25 years.
He says: “The advertising is about announcing the arrival of Jersey Royals and reminding people that this is a great potato. It also makes the supermarkets sit up and notice, and this helps the exporters get distribution.
“When they are making their presentations to retailers, they can say, ‘We are advertising; we need to get these potatoes on your shelves’.”
But if the supermarkets are impressed by such promotions they don’t let it show too much. Tony Sullivan, Sainsbury’s category manager for vegetables, says: “If other people are promoting products then it is a good thing. However, we wouldn’t go out of our way to say growers must promote their produce.”
His counterpart at Budgens, Danny Grover, is less equivocal. “I see little evidence of where generic promotions bring benefits. Customer purchases are still driven by bargains. Our suppliers work hard to put together value-based promotions, and these have a tremendous impact.”
By our calculations, fruit and veg growers have pledged nearly £10m this year to generic promotions to boost consumer awareness of the range of products available and to drive home the quality message.
It may be a drop in the ocean when you consider the advertising budgets of the Coca-Colas, McDonald’s and Cadburys of this world, but when you take into account the tight margins on which most fresh produce suppliers operate, then it is certainly not a sum to be sneezed at.
Tactics employed by the people in charge of the campaigns range from convincing magazines to run articles and recipes that include their produce, hoping to repeat the success that cranberries experienced when Delia Smith included them in her recipes, all the way up to prime-time television advertising.
But do these campaigns work? Probably the biggest spender at the moment is Foods From Spain, which has committed £6m to promoting a variety of Spanish fruit and veg over the next three years. It is running a series of adverts in consumer magazines, newspaper supplements and business-to-business journals, including The Grocer, focusing on a range of seasonal produce such as Picota cherries.
María José Sevilla, director of Foods From Spain, says the maturity and competitiveness of the UK market makes promotional activity important for any supplier.
She adds: “Spain supplies 30% of the UK’s fresh produce, and we want to keep it that way.”
Meanwhile, such is the faith of South African avocado growers in the power of generic advertising that they want the world’s growers - including those from Mexico, Spain and Israel - to pool their resources and mount a year-round drive for the fruit.
At present, South Africa’s avocado growers promote only their own crop, and that only during the summer.
But, says Derek Donkin, general manager of the South African Avocado Growers’ Association, a more sustained promotion throughout the
year would benefit everybody. The philosophy of a generic promotion is not to grow your own piece of the pie; it’s to grow the size of the whole pie.”
South Africa’s generic promotions have transformed the fortunes of avocado growers, says Donkin.
“The avocado had a name for being a fattening fruit, with many believing it was to be avoided. But that perception has now changed, largely due to the PR message we have been putting out.”
Also splashing the cash are the growers of Jersey Royal new potatoes, who have spent £1.2m this year on a TV and press ad campaign. The man behind the advertising is David Desbrow, the MD of New Perceptions Advertising, which has created ads for Jersey Royals for 25 years.
He says: “The advertising is about announcing the arrival of Jersey Royals and reminding people that this is a great potato. It also makes the supermarkets sit up and notice, and this helps the exporters get distribution.
“When they are making their presentations to retailers, they can say, ‘We are advertising; we need to get these potatoes on your shelves’.”
But if the supermarkets are impressed by such promotions they don’t let it show too much. Tony Sullivan, Sainsbury’s category manager for vegetables, says: “If other people are promoting products then it is a good thing. However, we wouldn’t go out of our way to say growers must promote their produce.”
His counterpart at Budgens, Danny Grover, is less equivocal. “I see little evidence of where generic promotions bring benefits. Customer purchases are still driven by bargains. Our suppliers work hard to put together value-based promotions, and these have a tremendous impact.”
No comments yet