"Do you eat avocados? How to eat? How much to eat? " It is said that this, together with "Who am I, where am I from and where am I going", has become the three ultimate problems of avocado industry.
How spicy is avocado? Business magazine CBN Weekly recently published a manuscript entitled "Avocado Invasion", which comprehensively combed the process of how avocado was "loved" by consumers in China for the first time. According to the article, in the past four years, the import of avocado in China has increased by 1.27 times.
In terms of taste, avocado does not belong to the traditional preference category of China people: it is neither fragrant nor sweet, even tasteless, and it is extremely cold. Such a wonderful thing can still catch fire. Why?
"Avocado Invasion" introduced that around the core retail links, many people are promoting the popularization of avocado, and then pushed the "behind-the-scenes pusher"-the largest fruit fresh e-commerce company in China to the stage.
Since 20 10, the annual sales of avocados in Tian Tian orchards have increased by more than four times. In 20 14, more than 2 million avocados were sold, which can span the whole China from Pamirs in the northwest to Heilongjiang and Wusuli rivers in the northeast.
From "opening up" avocados to being popular all over the country, orchards go through three steps every day.
Primary stage-direct recommendation
Eight years ago, Zhao, the co-founder of the orchard, accidentally came into contact with avocado abroad. Speaking of his experience of eating avocado for the first time, Ye Zhao, known as the "fruit headhunter", is a little obsessed: "I ate it directly, and the milk was rich and delicious, and the teeth and cheeks were fragrant."
It is precisely because of this unique experience that when avocado was introduced to China, the promotion method adopted by Tian Tian Orchard was to let consumers stutter directly.
People in China like apples and oranges. They are festive in appearance and sweet in taste. Avocado is not outstanding in appearance, tasteless and its nutritional value is unknown. Coupled with the taste buds feeling of eating directly, gee … it's a "triple blow". No wonder at that time, the orchard received the most comments from customer service, new media and other channels, such as "strange taste" and "I don't know how to eat"
"No one has done this before. The orchard can only cross the river by feeling the stones every day and find its own way. " With several employees, Zhao began to tell consumers about the origin and nutrition of avocado by translating foreign materials, and at the same time consciously searched avocado-related recipes to teach everyone how to make avocado into their favorite taste.
After these feedbacks and improvements, the sales volume of avocado in the orchard began to change slightly but continuously.
Advanced-segment people and customize promotions
In the process of reading consumer feedback, Zhao found that people pay great attention to the nutritional efficacy of avocado. "Especially for some special groups, such as the elderly, children, pregnant women, white-collar workers, vegetarians and so on. The needs of each group are different. "
For the elderly with slow metabolism, the unsaturated fatty acids contained in avocado can greatly reduce the cardiovascular burden. For pregnant women, avocado is rich in natural folic acid, cellulose, protein and vitamins, which is of great benefit to pregnant women and babies ... Every day, the orchard has made a very in-depth investigation on everyone.
On the basis of detailed scientific evidence, Tian Tian Orchard launched a special page on avocado, which deeply analyzed the nutrition of avocado and the benefits of different nutritional elements to different groups of people, and simultaneously showed this information to consumers through stores, attached pages, official website, Weibo, EDM and other channels. Considering the influence of social networks, Tian Tian Orchard has also set up many prize-winning interactive activities to help more people learn about avocado imperceptibly.
Wechat WeChat official account "Tiantian Orchard" (this micro-signal) undertakes the task of popularizing avocado knowledge. Avocado mixed with sugar, butter jam with shrimp slices and bread, avocado with salmon and avocado roast chicken eggs, 360 degrees without dead ends to develop the potential of avocado.
Zhao knows that as a "pioneer", he has to bear the cost of the education market and consumers, but "there are dozens of new fruit varieties introduced into the orchard every year, and we have experience. The understanding of avocado also makes us full of confidence in this market." It is also at this stage that the nutritional value of avocado began to be gradually recognized by more people, and consumers began to accept various ways of eating avocado, laying the foundation for the large-scale popularization of avocado.
The third stage-let consumers become "experts"
After the initial popularization was completed, the sales of avocados began to increase on a large scale, but new problems emerged: consumers kept feedback that avocados were not easy to preserve, they didn't know when to eat them, and they were "either raw or ripe".
After repeatedly visiting the producing area and communicating with the producers, Zhao finally found a method to preserve avocado at 20 13-it is different from ordinary fruits and can be kept fresh at a stable temperature, such as 0 to 1 celsius for cherries and 0 to 4 celsius for oranges.
"The temperature of avocado preservation needs to change with the season, oil degree and maturity. A little higher or lower temperature will affect the shelf life. " Zhao reached a conclusion. Tian Tian Orchard put avocado in one of its nine warehouses in Shanghai, and then adjusted the temperature of the warehouse according to the different physiological states of avocado.
These valuable experiences gained from the first hand are written into the detailed instructions in the orchard every day, and one is used by quality inspection and storage personnel to control the quality of avocado.
For consumers, Tian Tian Orchard teaches them the easiest way to become "experts"-judging the maturity of avocado from its appearance. Related methods were made into brochures and distributed to users who bought avocados, and displayed in official website, social media and other channels. Faced with online shoppers who can't easily grasp the ripeness of avocados, Tian Tian Orchard even made an "instant" attempt. Employees marked the avocados that users can eat when they bought them home in advance, and labeled them as "instant", so that customers didn't have to wait at home or ripen avocados.
Nowadays, many introductions about avocados on the market are directly derived from the early exploration results of orchards, and Zhao is somewhat helpless about this. But he is not worried, because Tian Tian Orchard, which has been studying recipes with gourmets, has been "one step ahead" and tried to integrate avocados into Chinese food: "For example, wonton wrapped in avocados has a special taste and is mixed with fragrance. If successful, it can be promoted to consumers. "