At the Global Grape Convention 2024, Alvaro Luque, CEO of Avocados From Mexico, shared the company’s success story with members of the table grape industry from Chile and Peru, detailing how avocados became a staple in U.S. households.

Luque spoke about the challenges of promoting in the United States, not only the third-largest market in the world in terms of population, but also the largest economy on the planet, and most importantly,  "by far the largest advertising market that exists on the entire planet."

"When we think of a consumer, he is not only going for out categories, he is not coming to the point of sale to look for grapes and nothing else, therefore he has to make different decisions at the point of sale," Luque explained.

"If we don't work on marketing and generating consumer demand, we will always be at a disadvantage compared to other food products," he added.

The ones that got it right

Speaking on the history of Avocados From Mexico, Luque explained that when they started the company in 2013, "We wanted to try to do something different with the product and try to generate a different marketing demand than what had been done in fruits and vegetables in the United States."

When the company started it had a lot of problems from a marketing standpoint, because there was no recognized brand in the United States, almost nobody knew Avocados From Mexico, and it didn't have any digital investment.

According to Luque, one of the main obstacles was that the U.S. retail customer category is not accustomed to handling produce marketing, therefore often the main problem and barrier to generating more marketing at the point of sale is the produce buyer himself. 

Even though at the beginning they represented 65% of the avocado market from Mexico in the U.S., which gave them a good starting muscle as a company, there was a serious marketing problem: only 20% of the entire market preferred avocados from Mexico.

A quick jump to the big stage

In 2014, Avocados From Mexico started to consolidate, and by 2015 it became historically the first fresh produce fruit and vegetable company in partnership with Mexico to advertise on the Super Bowl in the United States. Luque says that "definitely changed our history."

"In 2016 we were already competing at the level of the best marketing events in the United States. In 2017 we are already putting Education chatbot technology in the fruit and vegetable market, making a strategic alliance with Walmart for consumer education, which we maintain to this day," he said. 

From then on, things skyrocketed quickly. By 2018 Avocados From Mexico was the number one digital brand in the Super Bowl, and in 2019 they built their first avocado lab in the United States, as well as a culinary center.

"In addition, we have our Avocado University, as the only certified avocado education program in the world," Luque said. "By 2020 we had launched our restaurant in Dallas, Texas and by 2021 we had a fresh produce concept in major stadiums in the United States."

By 2023 the company had participated in eight Super Bowls and has generated over 62 billion brand impressions in eight years.

On top of that, in 2020 it received recognition as one of the top 100 companies for innovators in the world and the following year it became one of the 50 most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company. 

Keys to success

Luque told the audience that to achieve success, the first is the issue of vision, understanding where they come from, where they are, what kind of company they are, and why they exist. He added that the most important thing is to understand the path they want to follow in the future.

"If we have strong roots with consumers, we will not only be able to grow in volume, but we will also be able to sustain the value of the category over time and compete with all those other brands that are not fruit and vegetable brands," Luque said. 

When the Mexican Association of Avocado Producers and Exporters (APEAM) was born in 1997, they decided to put money into creating a promotional market in the United States. Four years later the U.S. state obliged importers to put certain cents per pound sold in marketing programs and for avocados, 2.5 cents per pound would go to that program.

"We created a brand and at the same time generated demand in the market and we said, if we have a brand, we are going to create that link with the consumer and we are going to sustain the value of the category over time," he explained. 

He said their most important characteristic was health because if people learn that avocado has good fats is good for cholesterol and is good for the heart more consumers will buy products. 

Marketing techniques

AFM took on the responsibility of teaching consumers how to choose, buy, and consume avocados because many people do not know how to pick an avocado, how it must feel to buy it, or how to ripen it. 

"We start using recipes, which are very important in the food world, such as salads, guacamole, sandwiches, and tacos - burritos, we concentrate on these products," Luque explained. "Another important point is to have a work process and be very disciplined about it, so we put a lot of emphasis on strategy and then work on making it as disruptive and innovative as possible."

Since the commercial in the Super Bowl was launched, the brand was showcased in all sorts of media, which helped AFM to put the brand on the market.

"Another lesson is that we can win in the digital world because size does not matter in digital, if we are smart and we know how to develop the channel we can do it," he said.

He said this investment opened doors for AFM to understand the power of digital, the power of how innovation and technology can be a very important player for fruits and vegetables.