Promotional campaign launched for Abate Fetel pears

8 Apr 2016

Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, the marketer of South African apples and pears, and supplier of Abate Fetel pears, is investing in a varietal-specific promotion to drive consumer awareness of Abate Fetel and sales at retail level in April 2016.

Promotional campaign launched for Abate Fetel pears

With television spots on DStv, ETV, SABC 1, 2 and 3 in two bursts, its television commercial will have a sting encouraging engagement via SMS, which, in turn, drives the competition mechanics. Tru-Cape’s marketing director, Conrad Fick, explained: We’re delivering our Takeaways from Nature message to consumers to increase foot traffic into stores with a text message that dovetails with the in-store tastings in 34 outlets around the country and using Facebook for this promotion as an engagement tool.

A challenge for Tru-Cape, which sells Abate Fetel into selected grocers, is to tailor-make a promotional campaign that will be relevant not only for the stores’ target markets, but also to avoid consumer confusion around the promotion.

Take a selfie

“We’re inviting Tru-Cape customers to visit one of the 34 participating outlets, the details of which are on the Tru-Cape.com site, and to take a selfie at the tasting station and hashtag #AbateFetel, #storename. To enter, they must upload the picture onto the Tru-Cape Facebook page and #TruSnack. One winner, chosen at random, will be an iPad Air 2 with a Tru-Cape branded cover, richer,” Fick explained.

According to Fick, the second arm of the promotion is to engage with people who can’t get to the tasting stations. “We’re capitalising on the trend of photographing your food and sharing it to your social media networks by inviting customers to purchase Abate Fetel pears and refer to Tru-Cape.com for recipe inspiration. Snap a picture and upload it along with the recipe to the Tru-Cape Facebook page with the hashtags #AbateFetel and #TruDish. One winner will also be selected, at random, to win an iPad Air 2 with a Tru-Cape branded cover.” According to Fick, Tru-Cape invested below-the-line in information and recipe leaflets inserted into bags as well as point-of-purchase materials to complement in-store tastings.

Tru-Cape’s MD, Roelf Pienaar, said that with each season that Abate Fetel is marketed, more and more consumers get to experience this versatile pear, which, unlike most other pears that need to be ripened at home, is good to eat fresh and crisp and is delicious as it ripens and the white flesh becomes juicy. “People also seem to like that Abate Fetel is Italy’s favourite pear and one of the most ancient - it was cultivated by a French Monk, Abbe Fetel, in 1866.”