The government responded to the fruit farmers' sufferings, improving the marketing system and appropriating money to buy up some of the surplus fruit. At the same time, the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry (POAF) initiated a new approach - advertising in newspapers to promote consumption of locally-grown fruit (and milk). Later, fruit promotion even squeezed its way onto prime-time television screens.
The advertising agency dramatized the products by linking them to popular singing stars. When it advertised bananas, it said these were Miss Bao Na Na’s bananas, wooing consumer attention. To make the promotion even more attractive, it was coupled with a recipe contest. According to the ad agency, it received five to six thousand letters a month offering fruit recipes, one from a chef at Taipei's sumptuous Lai Lai Shangri-La Hotel.
The advertisements emphasized the freshness and nutrition of domestic fruit and milk.
Dr. Yu Yu-hsien, head of PDAF, concedes that the advertising was intended to encourage the general public to form habits of consumption involving locally produced fruit and milk, so that farmers' income would increase.
Hsia Han-jung, chief secretary of PDAF, says bluntly: "The main purpose of our campaign is too help farmers sell their produce during the harvest season."
In recent years, large quantities of fruit, juices and powdered milk have been imported, and the importers have placed supporting advertisements in the mass-communications media. In comparison, domestic fruit and milk have not been systematically promoted.
"Actually, we have fine fruits to compete with imported varieties," says Dr, Yu Yu-hsien, pointing to fresh pineapples, litchi nuts and bananas on a table.
A pound of litchi nuts and bananas has almost the same nutritive value as a like amount of imported apples and pears, but the prices are miles apart. Similarly, locally produced fresh mill is far more nutritious than the concocted and diluted milk products imported from abroad.
"It is PDAF's aim to advise consumers to make their choice in accordance with economic principles," says Dr. Yu, a farm economics scholar. At the same time, the PDAF also expects farmers to understand the characteristics of their produce, so they can work to improve quality, sanitation and packing to better meet consumer requirements.
For such purposes, the PDAF amassed the funds to embark on its advertising campaign. It took the step only after three months' careful study. The consequent advertising won acclaim from the general public and the media, because it demonstrated that the government's effort had been extended from production to marketing, "It hits the nail right on the head," one newspaper said.
Also important, though, in the PDAF's first effort in advertising, is that it commissioned two professional advertising agencies to do the job, instead of tinkering on it by itself.
Advertising circles were gratified because the action recognized both the importance of advertising in the functioning of the market and, also, the professionalism of the advertising agencies.
"Advertising is not a monopoly for private enterprise use," says Yen Po-chin, an advertising professor of Fu Jen Catholic University. He says that in the past, government organizations concentrated on production when they assisted a productive enterprise - such as assistance in the procurement of machinery, in the improvement of production techniques, and in improving the quality of products.
"This is not enough. The products must be sold," Professor Yen says. In the past, he comments, the government lacked the marketing concept and thus overlooked the importance of advertising in a modern marketing system. Except for some announcements, the government seldom invested in advertising.
Professor Yen admires the PDAF shift of focus from production to marketing as "progressive and practical."
Wu Chin-shen, publisher of Brain monthly, joins in: "An economic problem cannot be solved by a decree or by a news release," Wu lauds the PDAF as a government agency that has broken through the confines of old and conservative concepts in adopting its program to promote the sales of domestic agricultural produce.
Actually, this was not the first time for a government agency to engage in agricultural promotion campaigns. In the past, the government established a tourist-oriented strawberry farm. Also, the Taiwan Provincial Dairy Development Small Group, time and again, has placed advertising in newspapers and on television.
But the new agricultural officials consider the former efforts too conservative. After careful study, they decided to use for advertising a portion of the budget for carrying out the "fruit production and marketing improvement plan," and the "dairy extension publicity fund." They utilized the money to commission the advertising agencies to purposefully and systematically promote the sales of fruit and milk.
Apparently, PDAF's advertising departure from the pedantic style of government announcements has resulted in design and expression more easily acceptable by the consuming public. The selection of media also appeared more tactful and flexible. According to Professor Yen, "This is because PDAF has assigned the right job to the right men."
For the advertising agencies, this was a brand new market, so they could not afford to take it lightly. To make effective use of the PDAF budget, the two advertising agencies took great pains in planning their campaigns.
Managers of the two traveled to PDAF offices in central Taiwan from their bases in Taipei several times in order to personally exchange views with PDAF officials. They mobilized talented artists to draw up the ads.
Despite all efforts, the results of the advertising have become the object of some criticism. Experts argue defensively that it is too early to pass such judgments. Advertising can promote sales, they say, but results are not necessarily instantly remarkable.
It is reported that the two agencies have decided to measure actual results of the campaigns as time passes.
Hsia Han-jung of PDAF says that judging from initial responses from both media and consumers, "the results of the advertising campaign are so far, so good."
Although this was the first PDAF ad effort, in foreign countries advertising by trade unions, associations and other organizations supporting agricultural produce is commonplace. Take Japan, for instance. In recent years, the consumption of rice in Japan has decreased because the food preferences of the Japanese have become westernized. Consequently, the Japanese government, in cooperation with the rice supply association, raised funds for advertising to stimulate the Japanese into eating more rice. In the United States, wheat, fruit, dairy and soybean associations constantly resort to advertising to promote sales.
A leading advertiser says, "We should learn a lesson from their methods of marketing agricultural produce." In recent years, Latin American bananas have invaded the Japanese market. "Chiquita" banana has been entrusted to a noted U.S. advertising firm for a promotion campaign in Japan. "As for our banana, we have given it no name and also have placed no advertising for it. As a result, our market in Japan has almost been snatched away by Latin American producers," the advertiser says.
Yu Yu-hsien stresses that his organization's budget for advertising is limited, and that the present effort is just to set in motion the concept of advertising for marketing. He hopes that in the future, the export-import association, fruit marketing associations, provincial farmers association, and the Taipei fruit and vegetable company will chip in funds to carry on advertising activities at home and abroad.
Some advertising experts and scholars have even expressed the hope that PDAF is just the forerunner among government organizations in advancing modern advertising concepts.
Professor Yen Po-chin says that, as a matter of fact, almost all government enterprises have had advertising budgets, but that these were either slashed by legislative bodies or used for other purposes. The money has never been used properly.
This reveals a discrepancy in official concepts, he says, noting that managers should consider advertising as investment. Even public and monopoly enterprises should mobilize the force of advertising in order to promote their products and services, to provide the general public with correct knowledge for consumption decisions, and to increase revenues in the national coffers through additional sales.
A leading advertising executive notes that a few years ago, the Japanese national railroads suffered heavy losses and, therefore, commissioned an advertising company to launch a "Discover Japan" campaign. In two years, the number of passengers trebled, and business revenue doubled.
Since such success stories are numerous abroad, domestic organizations such as the Taiwan Provincial Tobacco & Wine Monopoly Bureau, Chinese Petroleum Corporation, various banking institutions, and the Taiwan Railway Administration are under increasing pressure to learn a lesson. They should not overlook the possible rewards from correct advertising investment.
The manager of a leading advertising firm proposes that the government should relegate the current propaganda-advertising on traffic safety, family planning, and energy conservation to experienced advertising agencies. If the campaigns are executed by professionals, he feels, the effects will be sharply more positive.
Nevertheless, the enlightened action by the PDAF in promoting farm produce through modern advertising is regarded by advertising circles as a giant step in changing old government concepts. They are more than prepared to march into this new market.