Australian Avocados Marketing Update 10/11/17

About the marketing program

See the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

In-store demonstrations

As part of Hort Innovation’s levy-funded marketing activity for the industry, Australian Avocados has recently undertaken in-store demonstrations in 100 Woolworths stores nationwide. In-store sampling is a highly popular direct marketing tactic that has many benefits, including proven conversion to sales, improved brand loyalty and brand recognition.

Rather than just talking about how great a product tastes, sampling literally puts it in their mouth, with the product then speaking for itself. Introducing a new way of using avocados for many Australians via smoothies fits with the everyday gourmet pillar of the marketing strategy, and helps offer a solution to consumers who don’t know what to do with “the other half”.

There were two Thursday – Saturday sampling periods, from 21-23 October, and 26-28 October. Each session ran for four hours, and involved sampling avocado smoothies and handing out recipe cards. The objective of the in-store demonstrations was to showcase the ease of use and versatility of avocados to consumers via a high traffic retailer at point-of-purchase, with the locations picked based on foot traffic and performance of stores, with a focus on busy metro stores.

During the 100 sessions, there was a total of 13,921 interactions with customers, and 8,918 samples handed out. This equals on average 89 samples handed out to consumers per session. Consumers loved the smoothies, shown by both by their comments, and the number of avocados sold at the store during the demonstration. In all, 10,178 avocados were sold during the sampling period, equating to more than 102 per four-hour session, an amazing conversion rate of 118 percent when you look at the number of samples handed out, with the assumption that one avocado sold = one sale. The promotional staff also used the demonstrations as an opportunity to ask shoppers questions about their attitudes to avocados, and helped educate shoppers on how to pick the perfect avocado based on when they wanted to consume it.

Feedback on the smoothie was overwhelmingly positive, with comments including:

  • “It tastes so good! I usually have my avocados on toast, never thought of making a smoothie”
  • “I love that creamy texture the avocado adds to the smoothie”.

 

    

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 10 November 2017.

Author: Hort Innovation
Date Published: 10/11/2017