ic)i6 



eral brands or just saying "oranges." 

 A few years ago nobody ever thought 

 of saying anything but just "oranges." 

 But today many consumers are asking 

 over the "phone for "Sunliist oranges," 

 and others, when glancing over the 

 pyramids of oranges, will point and say 

 "those." The pile indicated will show 

 the word "Sunkist" on the tissue paper 

 wrappers. Many grocers will sell more 

 Sunkist oranges than they sell of three 

 other brands combined. If customers 

 select at all they select Sunkist. 



If a certain brand of apples, or apples 

 packed by a certain association, were 

 clearly identified in the public mind, 

 exactly the same thing would hapi)en in 

 the grocery stores as is happening in 

 the case of oranges. There would be 

 one known "friendly" kind, and sev- 

 eral unknown "stranger" kinds. That 

 apples are grown all over the United 

 States and oranges only in two states 

 would be an entirely irrelevant circum- 

 stance. The known kind of apple 

 would be selected. It is human nature 

 and it explains the power of adver- 

 tising. To me personally, who presents 

 an exaggerated case of familiarity with 

 the Sunkist brand, an orange tastes in- 

 finitely better if I take it out of a Sun- 

 kist wrapper. It is more than an 

 orange. It is an old friend, and recalls 

 to my mind pleasant pictures in colors 

 of sunny orange groves and palm trees 

 and missions in Southern California. 



Now, to give the reader a little per- 

 spective on the Sunkist achievement, I 

 will review very briefly the rise of the 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange. 

 Twenty years ago there was no system 

 in marketing California oranges. Buy- 

 ers would buy when they saw in their 

 limited horizon a chance to sell at a 

 profit, and when possible they con- 

 .spired against the growers to beat 

 down iirices. The growers naturally 

 had to begin co-operating locally in- 

 stead of cutting each other's prices. 

 That was the start of the co-operative 

 spirit, and it was seen to accomplish 

 such excellent results that it gradually 

 led to broader and broader organiza- 

 tion. Facing overproduction in 1895, 

 when production was 5,000 carloads, 

 the California Fruit Growers' Ex- 

 change, through organizing a national 

 selling machine and developing the 

 market, has made possible an 800 per 

 cent inci-case in crop in twenty years. 

 An important milestone was reached 

 in 19(17, when their system of selling 

 through salaried agents stationed in the 

 principal markets, appeared to have 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



.\ New Model MitcheU caUid llic .Mid-V.:ir Model. This is a six-cylinder ear 

 48 horsepower, 12, -inch wheel base. Made for either three or five passen"ers' 



A splendid car. " 



reached its limit in sales figures, 

 and overproduction again threatened. 

 Newspaper advertising to announce 

 arrivals of carloads of oranges had 

 been used to some extent at that time, 

 but every local association was still 

 selling under its individual brand name. 

 An advertising agency was consulted, 

 and the adoption of a single brand 

 name and national advertising were 

 decided on, after a test campaign in 

 one state. This campaign was to have 

 a twofold purpose. It was to create a 

 preference for Exchange oranges as 

 against competitive growers, but it was 

 also to persuade the whole nation to 

 eat more oranges than formerly, ex- 

 panding the market generally. 



Since the advertising started the 

 lowest average price per box of Ex- 

 change oranges for a season has been 

 .*1.71 and the highest price has been 

 f2.75 per box. This high price was se- 

 cured in a year when climatic disturb- 

 ances destroyed much fruit, reducing 

 shipments to 53 per cent of the pre- 

 vious year. But the market was so well 

 understood by the Exchange that it 

 secured record prices, and cash returns 

 ecpialed 79 per cent of those of the pre- 

 vious year. The advertising appropria- 

 tion has steadily increased from .f5,000 

 for the test campaign to .1'375,000 for 

 1915-1(1; and this expenditure does not 

 include premiums, which practically 

 pay for themselves. That the adver- 

 tising has accomplished the results de- 

 sired is proved by the growth of the 

 appropriation and by the aggressive 

 Ijlans of the Exchange growers. They 

 expect to double their shipments in five 

 years' time, and depend on increased 

 advertising to make consumer demand 

 keep pace with incieasing proiluction. 



How this $375,000 appropriation is 

 -spent should be of interest. .*230,000 

 was spent during the past year in ad- 



5 



ouring Car, meeting with popnlarity and well liked by users. 



vertising oranges in magazines and 

 newspapers, and $100,000 in advertising 

 lemons. The remainder was spent for 

 window display matter for retailers, 

 for circular announcements to the 

 wholesale and retail trade, for recipe 

 booklets, etc. 



The aggregate circulation of the 

 newspapers used was nearly 15,000,000, 

 and as a series of seventeen advertise- 

 ments was used in each paper there 

 was a total circulation of 104,169,000. 

 The magazines mainly used were the 

 Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home 

 Journal, Woman's World, Collier's, 

 Mothers' Magazine, People's Home 

 Journal, People's Popular Monthly, 

 Ladies' World, Christian Herald, Lit- 

 erary Digest, Youth's Companion, Good 

 Housekeeping, National Sunday Maga- 

 zine. Their aggregate cii-culation was 

 over 13,000,000 and the fifty-four adver- 

 tisements used received an aggregate 

 circulation of over fifty-two millions. 



As a special inducement to make 

 peoijle specify Sunkist and to make 

 dealers leave the tissue wrappers on 

 the oranges these wrappers have been 

 given a cash value by offering orange 

 spoons and other plated silverware in 

 return for them and a small amount of 

 cash. A more recent premium otfer has 

 consisted of an orange and lemon-juice 

 extractor of glass. 



The logical appeal for the advertising 

 to make has been most carefully anal- 

 yzed, of course. Delicious taste is con- 

 sidered the strongest appeal for maga- 

 zine advertising of oranges, but qual- 

 ity, healthfidness, culinary uses, price 

 and premiums are also emphasized. 

 For lemons the appeals rank as fol- 

 lows: Culinary, health, househod uses, 

 toilet uses. Much of the adveiMising has 

 been in colors and all lias had high 

 artistic value. 



The reciiie booklets have been widely 

 dlstribute<l in response to direcl in- 

 (|uirles, which have of course indi- 

 cated to some extent the iiulling power 

 of the advertising. These have been 

 \aluMble in increasing consumption by 

 lelling ])eople of many new and 

 allractive wtiys to serve oranges. New 

 wa> s of serving the fruit have also been 

 indicated on counter cutouts and hang- 

 ers for grocery stores. 



That the same tactics can secure 

 larger consimiptiim of apples was 

 proved by the Canadian governmeni in 

 the fall of 19M, when the European 

 war had closed a number of accus- 

 tomed outlets for the Canadian apple 

 (1(11). Growers would have lost heavily 



