How would you like to be the CMO of avocados? I recently sat down with Alvaro Luque, president of Avocados From Mexico, a non-profit company established about a year ago to promote avocados in the U.S. According to Luque, “When I started talking to [the board] the first thing that I said was exactly that, my role is president of the company but the reality is I’m a CMO because the role that I have is concentrated in marketing, trade marketing, digital.” His budget is funded primarily by a 2.5 cents-per-pound assessment levied on all avocados imported into the U.S. With over a billion pounds imported every year that creates a significant pool of money to do some innovative marketing.
But Luque is not out to market like other food product organizations. “Most of the produce companies are trying to market the same way. They are talking about the great land where they grow their products, the blue skies, the perfect fruit, the family tradition behind the trees, all very nice. They have fantastic examples of great campaigns, but it’s a bit more of the same.”
“We’re trying to change that dynamic and to talk to a consumer as CPGs talk — trying to create more emotions around our brand and our product than just talking about the benefits of a food. We know we have huge benefits of the food, but we want to be sure that we create that emotional connection.”
“So instead of just looking at what produce companies are doing, we want to see what Kraft is doing, what
So who are the competitors for Mexican avocados? “Instead of competing with the other avocado importers we need to help them sell more. I need to compete with hearts of palms. I need to compete with tomatoes, because every time that you put a slice of tomato in a sandwich you’re probably not putting on a slice of avocado. That’s the kind of thinking” shared Luque. His strategy of focusing on category growth makes sense to me since three out four avocados come from Mexico.
This year for the first time Avocados From Mexico will advertise during the Super Bowl. I was curious how Luque made the decision to commit to such a big investment. His answer: “It’s perfect for us. Every single region that grows avocados has only one bloom so they usually have a consistent supply of the market for four or five months. For reasons that I cannot explain to you very well, God decided that the only place in the world to have four blooms is Mexico. So it’s the only place on earth where avocados grow continuously on the tree. That gives us a huge advantage since I have product throughout the year. No one else can do it. So when it comes to winter season all the other regions are out and 100% of the market right now is Mexican. Super Bowl week is the Number 1 week of sales of avocados in the U.S. and it’s basically mine.
“The other big insight is that we have a huge advantage that only beverages like beer could have. That is, we’re going to show an ad knowing that a high percentage of the people who are going to watch the ad are going to have our product in front of them. It’s not a car, it’s not insurance. We know that the Number 1 or Number 2 snack during the Super Bowl is going to be guacamole and we know that it’s going to be almost 100% from us. So it’s a great opportunity to show our brand right in front of our product.
“That’s why I presented the idea to the board in March. Most of the guys said they were thinking about this for a long time but no one had, as you were saying, the cojones to do that. So they said ‘we support you, go ahead.’ And very good for us because we’re going to be the first ever fresh produce brand to advertise during the Super Bowl. So we’re making history and that’s very important for the produce industry, because we want more produce products, more healthy products, to be advertised during these kind of events.”
