The California Happy Cows | Analysis

The California Happy Cows have impacted the consumers all over the globe. Producers aim to produce great products that come from California cows that live in the highland of California. The highlands are ideally suited to the diverse conditions found in the state of California, it requires little management and care to the animals on the farm, due to the climate and temperatures. The happy cows are known on TV for their slogan, “Great Cheese Comes From Happy Cows, Happy Cows Come From California,” or in Spanish “El Buen Queso Viene de Vacas Contentas, Las Veca Viven en California.” “This campaign allows the cows to tell the story about the products since they are the main producers of the product” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 3).

The “Happy Cows” campaign was developed for the California Milk Advisory Board to promote Real California Cheese from integrated marketing communications perspective. The California Milk Advisory Board was used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the growth options for California’s dairy industry. “The CMBA, Agriculture, represents all California dairy farmers by developing and executing generic promotional programs for the state’s dairy products, including cheese” (The Real California Cheese Seal). The Stanford Research Institute analysis concluded that cheese was the industry segment that offered the greatest profit and growth potential for California dairy farmers. “California is a net importer of cheese as out-of-state manufacturers supplied 80 percent of the natural U.S. produced cheese consumed in the state and nearly all of the processed cheese” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 1). I believe that this campaign has been so successful because it has a very broad audience. It is aimed at male, female, adults, kids, and different race. Their advertising is a new strategic direction that helps create a distinct and compelling identity that would be the focal point of integrated market communication program. They have special packaging and labels for their entire product, which help promote their product all around the globe. They want consumers to know that their product is being produced in California, by real California cows.

The role and importance of the Real California Cheese certification used in the positioning and “IMC program elements are to seal the product as a guarantee that could be used to identify natural cheese made in California from California milk” (The Real California Cheese Seal). I think labeling your product will allow consumers to identify it quick and being able to read the label and see where it was produced may help too. The California image is a rising sun and rolling plains, on a golden, cheddar cheese-colored background. The seal assures consumers that the cheese they are purchasing is natural and is made in California, and from the California milk cows.

The role of advertising in establishing the Real California Cheese brand personality is made up of several ads where RCC uses television and radio advertising, as well as newspaper, magazine and outdoor executions. The campaigns were also supported by extensive consumer and trade promotion activity. The advertising focused on the fact that the RCC brand is better because it comes from contented cows. “All of the advertisements conclude with an image of cows grazing in a beautiful California pasture and the campaign theme “Great Cheese comes from Happy Cows. Happy Cows come from California”. The ads have also been translated into Spanish for Hispanic audiences” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 3). The constraints the advertising agency had to work around in developing the campaign are that they had to create a new image and advertise their product in order to make their products sell more than the competitors.

California’s dairy cows live happy all year long, even when California’s temperature climate gets a bit chilly. Regardless to the weather the farmers of California ensure that the cows remain comfortable and productive every day. Farmers serve the cows with nutrients, a dry shelter, and warm bedding to relax in. Proper nutrients include farmer having veterinarians and nutritionists ensuring that the cows are healthy, happy, and producing good quality goods and materials. Farmers continue to practice in health, housing, nutrients, milking and transportation their cows. Farmers work hard to make products and material to provide the consumers with high quality and manufactured goods.

A pro to “RCC’s advertising approach is that 53 percent of all California cheese moved through retail outlets”. “This included 39 percent through chain or independent warehouses, nine percent through direct-store delivery, and five percent through non-grocery outlets such as delicatessens. The remaining 47 percent moved through foodservice outlets and food manufacturing operations” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 4). Over the two decades the plan has been in place, all channels have seen significant growth, although foodservices and food manufacturing sales have increased the fastest. The primary goal is to reinforce the quality image and identify it though advertising. The things that can hurt a product are competition and a bad economy. Consumers spend less when sales are down due to not a lot of profit coming in; they will consume their wants and needs in order of what is the most important. Some cons to RCC’s advertising are they don’t know the outcome of the company wills the advertising, they don’t know if they will benefit from it. Advertising can help and hurt a business. It can help because it can get your name out there but it can hurt because after awhile the advertising is old and consumers stop listening to what is being advertised.

The campaign can be continued indefinitely, because the consumers will change and adapt to moving forward with new and improved products. Trade shows are extremely important in the food industry, and the CMAB have created a strong presence at important trade shows. “Three primary tactics are used to accomplish these objectives including cross-promotions in store that utilize instant redeemable coupons, in-store product sampling, and self liquidating premium offers” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 5). “The CMAB objective is to have public relations program enhance the image of California cheeses with key constituent groups including consumers, culinary professionals, “food influentials,” and the trade” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 6). “As the Real California Cheese campaign enters new markets, public relations efforts are used to target fine restaurants, specialty stores, gourmet cheese shops, chefs, specialty store buyer, media personalities, radio stations and newspapers” (California Dairy Production Highlights, 6).

The role that consumer’s promotion plays in generating trial and awareness of Real California Cheese is to provide consumers with their wants and needs, in the best way they can using their products. The consumer promotion tactics reinforce or supplement other marketing elements such as advertising, trade promotion, and public relations. The consumer’s promotion program has been created and maintained top of mind awareness and generates trial and repeat purchase for all cheeses bearing the RCC seal. With the advertising and getting the product out they have been very successful and have helped support RCC. The Happy Cow Merchandise section on the website has helped advertise the RCC and consumers are buying more products and materials.

The role of public relations in the CMAB’s integrated marketing communications program has been to advertise a variety of different products and materials catching the audience’s interest. One of the CMAB’s most successful initiatives, implemented under public relations program, has been the program it created to nurture the state’s nascent artisan and farmstead cheese industries. The national and regional food media have taken great interest in these small farmer success stories and in the national and international cheese awards these producers have won. The different relation angles that were used to generate the interest of the different media have helped improve the number of consumers purchasing the product they advertise.

The role of the Real California Cheese website is consistent with the mission, personality and looks for RCC and reinforces the “Happy Cows” campaign. It reinforces and supports the other part of the integrated marketing communications program by having links on the website. The links allow the consumers to watch the TV ads and order merchandise and etc. “The website gets more than 25,000 visitors per month and is extremely popular among consumers, who have become fans of the Happy Cows campaign, as well as industry professionals who utilize the information”(Real California Cheese Facts).

The website “Real California Cows,” has facts, produces, producer information and etc. “California produces 2.11 billion pounds of cheese and producers nearly a quarter of the cheese supplied around the world. California has more than 50 cheese-makers who produce 250 different varieties and styles of cheese. California produces 100 types of spiced and flavored cheeses” (Real California Cheese Facts). “The Real California Cheese seal was adopted in 1984 as part of a strategic promotion effort for the California cheese industry” (The Real California Cheese Seal). The seal was created with heavy participation from the California Milk Advisory Board. “The Real California Cheese seal depicts the image of California with a rising sun and rolling plains on a golden, cheddar cheese-colored background”(The Real California Cheese Facts). The Real California Cheese seal has contributed to the success of the state’s cheese category, which is currently the fastest growing and also the largest of all California milk and milk product categories.

Marketing metric is what the CMAB used to evaluate their IMC program. By all measures the program expanded California cheese production and consumption has been tremendously successful. Much of this success is a result of the integrated marketing communications program developed by the CMAB and its agency partners to promote Real California Cheese. In marketing you must have a product that you can produce with the highest quality and cheapest cost, but the consumers must want to purchase the product before you start production. You must plan first and see if the outcome looks successful. Advertising helps promote your product and gives you a chance to make a profit.

In light of consumer’s trends, there are other advertising or promotion opportunities that California Cheese industry should pursue because advertising helps promote your products and materials, gets you name out there. When you advertise it starts out little for selling then goes big once your product hits the market. California Cheese is selling rapidly today in Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Fort Worth, and the U.S. markets.

The California Happy Cows have impacted the consumers all over the globe. The cows in California produce a variety of products and materials for the consumers all over the world. The happy cows are known on TV for their slogan, “Great Cheese Comes From Happy Cows, Happy Cows Come From California,” or in Spanish “El Buen Queso Viene de Vacas Contentas, Las Veca Viven en California.” This campaign allows the cows to tell the story about the products since they are the main producers of the product.