Diamond Foods, Inc.

• Author: Kevin Teague
• Pages: 439-442

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1050 South Diamond Street

Stockton, California 95205-7087

USA

Telephone: (209) 467-6000

Fax: (209) 461-7309

Web site: www.diamondnuts.com

EMERALD NUTS MARKETING CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

In 2004 Diamond Foods, Inc., a company known for producing culinary nuts, created a high-quality selection of snack nuts called Emerald Nuts, which came in packaging that fit automobile cup-holders. The canister lids measured out 1.5-ounce servings. To create national brand recognition and to move away from its image as making nuts that were only for cooking, Diamond released its "Emerald Nuts Marketing Campaign" in early 2004.

The "Emerald Nuts Marketing Campaign," created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, appeared in print, Internet, and television formats. The agency created 15 television commercials that all played on the initials "E.N." The first two spots, "Encouraging Norwegians" and "Exercising Newscasters," aired in Northern California markets during the 2004 Super Bowl. "Encouraging Norwegians" showed a portly Norwegian man standing next to a bull's-eye target while someone off camera fired arrows at it. The man gave encouragement, such as "Good shot," while snacking on Emerald Nuts. The spot ended with a voice-over stating, "Encouraging Norwegians love Emerald Nuts." Diamond spent an estimated $9.9 million on advertising during the first 10 months of 2004.

The campaign's bottom-line success was measured in July 2004, when Diamond reported an annual net revenue of $350 million, which was $50 million above the previous year. In a daring move Diamond gambled almost the entirety of its advertising budget to air a 30-second spot (which diverged from the "E.N." theme) during the 2005 Super Bowl. "We can buy one spot, and we can make one ad for that one spot," Sandra McBride, Emerald's vice president of marketing, told the Boston Globe. The gamble paid off when Diamond sales grew 56.3 percent during the three months following the game. The "Emerald Nuts Marketing Campaign" also garnered a gold EFFIE in 2005.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Diamond, an established brand in California since 1912, was owned by more than 1,800 growers at the start of 2004. This farmers' cooperative, doing business as Diamond, led the world in culinary walnut production and in-shell walnuts. Diamond paid nut growers 3.5 cents a pound over the industry average, which was 1.8 cents a pound. In January 2004 the cooperative took a stab at the burgeoning snack-nut market by creating Emerald Nuts, a brand that offered nuts in exotic flavors, curvy containers, and larger sizes, with fewer peanuts in the assorted packages. The snack-nut sector only had one major player, Planters Nuts, one of the many brands owned by Kraft Foods. Besides taking advantage of a

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT Photo courtesy of Diamond Foods, Inc. Reproduced by permission. sector with only one main competitor, Emerald Nuts were intended to capitalize on the popularity of the Atkins diet, a high-protein and low-carbohydrate weight-loss plan that encouraged nut consumption. Further, the nut sector reported 12.7 percent growth in 2004. Analysts attributed this sharp rise to a heightened demand for high-protein foods and to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's announcement that nuts reduced heart disease

"What we're doing with Emerald Nuts is building a new consumer franchise over in the snack-nut aisle," McBride told the Stockton Record Previously Diamond products had been located solely in supermarkets' baking aisles. One of the greatest challenges for the "Emerald Nuts...