Introduction
The happy cow campaign gives the idea that the quality of cheese from California is high because the cows which produce the milk that it is made from are contented. The adverts for the cheese show cows talking about how much they enjoy being in California. The cows claim that the weather is great, the scenery beautiful and that the mild earthquakes are soothing to their feet.
The campaign is a great success. It lures people into wanting to visit the beautiful California and tasting the great cheese. It also gives people the idea that the cheese from California is superior to others and tastes better than any other cheese. Translation of the campaign into the Spanish language to better suit audiences of Hispanic origin has also contributed to its success (Greenwald1).
Various roles played
The real California cheese certification mark played a very important role in ensuring that consumers are assured of the authenticity of the cheese. The seal is found on cheese that is made in California using high quality milk from the same place. Other than cheese packaging, the seal is also found on all the advertisements, RCC materials and coupons as well as table tents and menus in restaurants. The seal made a difference in that it’s a form of quality assurance hence promoting consumption of the cheese (Greenwald 1).
Advertising played an important role in ensuring that consumers got an emotional connection with the cheese. It presents the cheese as high quality and authentic. The constraints that had to be overcome in the advertising were ensuring that the message remained strong and presenting features like the earthquakes as a positive thing.
There was also the language barrier. This was overcome by translation of the campaign into the Spanish language. This way, they were able to reach larger audiences. The personality created was pleasant, outgoing and great. The campaign was a success in that it was able to reach many consumers. It was however very expensive. It can go on indefinitely as the methods of advertising such as the internet are really up to date (Greenwald 2).
Consumer promotion played a major role in creating awareness of the products. Consumers were able to try them out leading to increased purchases. The tactics used included self liquidating offers, cross coupons that consumers could redeem as well as sampling of the products in stores.
The most successful tactic was cross promotion where the cheeses were promoted together with the products that people consume cheese with. These include tortillas, bread, meats, crackers and wine. Consumers are given cross coupons which they can redeem instantly when purchasing these items together with the cheese.
These tactics helped in supplementing advertising in that the consumers were able to sample the cheeses. They promoted trade in that products consumed with the cheeses got increased purchases. They also supplemented public relations in that cheese producers for whom advertising was too costly were able to showcase their products (Greenwald 5).
Public relations played a major role in ensuring that the consumers and other influential people in the food industry for instance culinary professionals had a good image of the cheeses.
The kind of stories generated about California cheese include ideas for recipes in food magazine and food segments of newspapers, ideas for pairing of cheese and wine, success of the cheese industry in business magazines, cheese producers that can be visited when people travel and stories about the success of the marketing plans put in place. These stories come from the public relations angles targeting the respective media that generate the stories (Greenwald 6).
In addition to giving back up to the happy cows’ campaign, the website is useful to consumers as they can make cheese orders online, see the physical location of their favorite cheese producers and do coupon downloads.
The website also has other useful information like recipes and pairing of cheese with wine, a fun section with games for children and information for professionals in the food industry. It supports the other forms of marketing by giving detailed information to the people that visit the site and making online purchases available for those who cannot access stores (Greenwald 5).
Marketing metrics
The marketing metrics used to evaluate success of the programs include the number of awards worn. Surveys were also conducted where out of four people three said they had seen the RCC seal in stores. Another metric used is increase in consumption as well as production of cheese.
The cheese bearing the RCC seal is now available in other states. I feel that they should focus on the variety of cheeses that are produced. An increase in variety could also show success. The most important metric is the increased amounts of consumption and production (Greenwald 7).
Conclusion
The California cheese industry has really done a good job when it comes to their marketing strategies. The happy cow campaign has most probably led to word of mouth advertising which is also powerful. This is whereby people who have viewed the advertisements talk about them to people who have neither seen nor heard the advertisements. They should also utilize promotions like ‘buy two, get one free’ (Greenwald 8).
Work Cited
Greenwald, Michelle. California Milk Advisory Board: Real California Cheese