Marketing Puts Elevated Focus on Trade Customers

The California Avocado Commission Marketing team has created a game plan for 2024 designed to elevate efficiency and effectiveness in 2024. Due to economic conditions and budget cuts versus 2023, no stone was left unturned as the team strived to optimize investment and drive successful results. To achieve the Commission’s reduced financial investment goals, the Marketing team made reductions in virtually all activities and initiatives including consumer advertising, website development, content creation, etc. The one area CAC was conscientious about not reducing was trade investment into the direct customer base. However, not all trade investment is created equal, and the team divided trade investment into two buckets, trade customer support and industry support. 

Trade customer support is defined as investment that has a direct impact on those accounts who directly market and sell California avocados to consumers. Activities include supporting their marketing efforts with in-store promotions, social and digital advertising, sampling, menu mention and promotions. 

Industry support is defined as investment in communicating seasonal availability and the value of California avocados to our trade customers. Activities include trade advertising and PR, events and trade sponsorships. 

The industry support portion of CAC’s budget was severely reduced. Due to the lower crop volume expected this season, it is not necessary to pull new customers into the California Avocados brand. In addition, the CAC Retail and Foodservice teams, as well as AMRIC handlers, are fully engaged in ongoing communications with current customers. This allows reduced spending without losing connectivity and engagement with those customers who are critical supporters of the brand. 

Trade customer support was untouched by budget cuts and actually was elevated in several areas. So, customer awareness of California avocado availability and value should be as strong as ever. With these financial adjustments, almost 60% of the total annual budget is now invested into trade overall, with approximately 85% of that being deployed in supporting the California Avocados brand via trade customers.