Feb 25 2008

New Hand Grown in California Logo Unveiled

Irvine, Calif. (February 25, 2008) –The California Avocado Commission (CAC) introduced its new California Grower Campaign at its annual grower meetings in Oxnard and Temecula the last week of January. The campaign touts the benefits of California avocados through the stories of real growers to encourage consumers to insist on California avocados.

Since its inception 30 years ago, CAC’s marketing efforts have created awareness and helped increase consumption of avocados. According to the annual avocado tracking study conducted by Cooper Roberts Research, Inc, San Francisco, CA., consumer purchases in markets where CAC has advertised has risen from an average of 36 avocados annually per household in 1994 to an average of 82 avocados in 2007. The Commission’s marketing strategy plans to build upon this growth using knowledge of consumer behaviors and attitudes, including shoppers’ desire to know where the food they consume is produced and who is producing it.

Jan DeLyser, CAC’s vice president of marketing, said the study found that 54 percent of avocado buyers feel it is important that the avocados they buy are grown in the United States. “That statistic is meaningful, but the fact that it represents a 25% increase from the prior year shows a significant change in the consumer mindset,” explained DeLyser. “We combined research with knowledge of shopper interest in locally grown produce, the emerging handcrafted and artisan movements, and consumer concern about carbon footprints to shape a marketing campaign highly relevant to today’s primary avocado shoppers. CAC sums it up in four words: ‘Hand Grown in California.’”

The Cooper Roberts study provided insight into what “Hand Grown in California” means to consumers. According to the research the phrase represents key attributes such as: grown in California, hand grown or planted, hand picked, grown by people, not by machines, and grown with care.

Featuring California avocado growers as the stars of the show, their personal stories will be told to convey key benefits of California avocados, highlighting care of the crop from planting to harvest by hand, their proximity to market, and love of the land in the Golden State. Ads will feature pictures and interviews with real growers, not actors, and will include the newly-unveiled Hand Grown in California logo.

“In addition to a continued strong presence in CAC’s core markets with radio, outdoor and print media, for the first time the California Avocado Commission will advertise nationally on the Food Network. This year’s media campaign will also feature integrated marketing targeted to both the trade and consumers, including extensive public relations outreach, online marketing, internet advertising banners and extensive print media ads carrying the Hand Grown in California message from coast to coast,” said DeLyser.

CAC plans to focus its marketing efforts in the April to September period when California avocados are at their peak of availability, providing consumers excellent eating quality.

About the California Avocado Commission
Created in 1978, the California Avocado Commission strives to increase demand for California avocados through advertising, promotion and public relations, and engages in related industry activities that benefit the state's 6,000 avocado growers. The California Avocado Commission serves as the official information source for California avocados and the California avocado industry.