Spain’s Fashion Group Association (AGF), which comprises 24 leading producers of the Fashion seedless watermelon, has launched its 2011 campaign with a renewed emphasis on sales growth both within Spain and in export markets.
The Spanish campaign will be backed by a major advertising strategy, featuring prominent television adverts, online and press advertising, and point-of-sale product tastings.
Outside the country, the AGF will focus on developing sales in its two principal export markets, France and Germany, through promotions in the wholesale and grocery retail channels, while it also aiming to increase awareness of the Fashion brand in Scandinavia.
The promotional push will be backed by an expected slight increase in production, with the association forecasting that volumes will reach 70,000 tonnes from last season’s 65,000 tonnes during a campaign that runs from May to October.
At a press conference to launch the 2011 campaign, held at the Gran Hotel Almería on Friday, the AGF said it was aiming to consolidate its position in the Spanish domestic market this year, particularly in the country’s largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona.
As well as direct marketing and tastings at the point-of-sale, this year’s promotional campaign will feature television, press and internet advertising featuring Almería-born Spanish television personality Juan y Medio.
Leading Spanish television chefs, including Karlos and Eva Arguiñano, and Bruno Oteiza, will also include Fashion-related recipes in their programmes during the campaign.
Outside of Spain, AGF marketing director Crisanto Ampuero told Fruitnet the association was looking to stage point-of-sale tastings and direct marketing in Germany in collaboration with national supermarket operator Rewe.
In France by contrast, he said promotional actions will largely be focused at the wholesale level, specifically at Paris’ Rungis market, although he said the AGF hoped to collaborate during the season with a French grocery retailer.
Mr Ampuero said the association also hoped to build its market position further in Scandinavia and Switzerland during the season.
At the press launch, AGF commercial coordinator José Enrique Moreno said the success that the organisation had achieved to date had been due to its ability to channel the production and expertise of 24 companies into a single brand.
Fashion watermelon production now encompasses some 1,700ha, including covered and open-air production, across Andalusia, Valencia, Aragon, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha and the Balearic Islands. Some 40 per cent of the AGF’s annual production of Fashion watermelons is exported outside Spain.
