South African Golden Delicious exporters are to run a UK consumer PR campaign with a difference. The primary aim of the five-year strategy to raise the profile of their fruit is to increase the average price, not the volume of sales.
The £200,000 campaign, funded by a levy of R1.50 (14p) a box paid voluntarily by participating growers who export through Capespan and other exporters, will begin this spring. The initial aim is to achieve £1 million of advertising coverage in the first year, but the longer term aim is to raise the retail selling price of the variety to a sustainable level.
“The average price of Golden Delicious at retail in the UK is £1.15 a kilo and falling,” said Nigel Mudge, chairman of the South African Apple & Pear Producers’ Association (SAAPA). “The average price of apples is £1.50 a kilo and if we can move the price of Goldens up to that over a period of time we will have achieved our objective.
“Older varieties like Golden still have a very strong following in the UK, but they have been debranded and commoditised by the supermarkets - that’s the reality,” he said. “What we intend to do is position the South African Golden as a different apple. South African Goldens are the finest eating in the world and the sweetest too. We want consumers to seek out our apples specifically, but that will only happen if we invest in promoting them consistently, year-in and year-out. That is why we have committed to a five-year plan to influence what goes on shopping lists and media coverage about the best apples to buy.
“We supply the UK with around 2m cartons of Golden Delicious a year. It is a very consistent variety, but out of our average crop of 5m cartons, there is never going to be much more than that 2m cartons that fits into the size and quality band suitable for the UK customer. Production of Golden has reduced by an average of four per cent a year over the last four years in South Africa. At £1.50 a kilo, growers could make a profit and begin to plant more. If we are successful with our PR campaign [and generate increased consumer interest] but unsuccessful in raising the price, everyone will be seriously embarrassed,” he said.
Mudge, pictured, was in the UK this week to present the plans to a group of seven retailers and eight category managers, on behalf of eight South African exporters. The money will be invested purely in above-the-line PR, and the hope is that the interest generated by that will be supported by a higher profile for the fruit in-store.
“We have recognised that doing nothing, for us, is clear suicide,” he said. “We are not fighting against the supermarkets, we are putting a proposition to them and the trade. We’re saying, ‘here is a product and this is how we are going to support it over the next five years. We make money, you make money’.”
The campaign will be run by Riichmond Towers, the London agency that has helped to drive forward South African avocado sales in the UK during the last decade.
