Anchor Food Professionals, Fonterra’s food service business, has launched a new marketing campaign – Green to Gold – to educate international audiences that not all butters are created equal and that white butter is certainly not ‘king’.
The campaign emerged from a meeting with one of Fonterra’s largest customers in the Korean market. The customer revealed that they were constantly having to explain the difference between yellow butter and white butter to Korean markets.
Fonterra’s Korean team discovered that white butter sourced internationally was believed to be a premium product with the same nutritional value as any other butter and sourced from grass-fed cows.
“Korean consumers were under the impression that all cows were grass-fed regardless of the country of origin. They didn’t realise that yellow butter comes from the milk of pasture-fed cows, resulting in nutrient rich New Zealand milk” says Fonterra Korea Country Manager, Sam Kim.
It was apparent Anchor Food Professionals needed to tell the story of the grass-fed difference.
“Our farmers do such an amazing job producing high quality milk that Fonterra’s brands like Anchor Food Professionals can turn into premium products for export. Sharing our unique story with the world and promoting the benefits of pasturebased milk products is essential. The more value our international markets place on our products, the higher return we can provide our Co-op farmers,” says Anchor Food Professionals Global Brand Manager Amelia Jory.
The Green to Gold difference
The golden yellow colour in New Zealand butter comes from beta-carotene, a nutrient found in pasture-rich diets, which Kiwi cows enjoy.
“The New Zealand way of dairy farming is so different to our international counterparts. It is such a privilege being from New Zealand and to know that nutrient-dense grass eaten by our cows results in nutritious milk, which then make it into our butters and creams,” Amelia says.
“Our cows have the benefits of the grass, and the fresh air and paddocks that they spend on average 97% of their time on. It’s a very calm and peaceful way of managing our stock. Our approach to producing butter and milk products has nutritional, environmental, and animal wellbeing benefits that our customers and consumers enjoy. It’s a great story and we’re proud to be telling it internationally,” Amelia says.
The Green to Gold marketing campaign shares the New Zealand pasture-based story through various ways including business-to-business marketing and direct-to-customer promotions – all of which allow the customer to learn more about why Anchor golden butter is the gorgeous colour that it is.
“It can take a long time to educate consumers and correct misconceptions. So, we decided to emphasise the colour difference as anyone can recognise this instinctively. We expect this campaign will help to re-position New Zealand butter as value-added premium product. We’ve received very positive feedback from key customers about this campaign already,” says Sam.
Stickers with QR codes have also been placed on Anchor butter packaging within stores that allow customers to see the journey of that particular product – from its origins on farm to store – using Fonterra’s Traceability program.
“Fonterra’s transparent, sustainable approach to this campaign has been really well received in the targeted markets of Asia and the Middle East. The initial digital marketing campaign has already set record benchmarks for Anchor Food Professional’s campaigns,” Amelia says.
“There are a lot of Fonterra markets that are very excited to execute the Green to Gold campaign in their own areas; and it’s not just butter that we can speak to about our Green to Gold difference. Our nutritious milk has an impact on so many milk products so our story is going to be told far and wide. Watch this space.”