In celebration of National Avocado Day, dip a chip into your guacamole, smear your avocado toast and raise an avocado smoothie glass in honor of our favorite fruit! At What’s Your Avocado? Marketing & Public Relations, we wholeheartedly embrace this festive day honoring the epitome of yummy green goodness. But it’s not just the flavor or the health benefits that drive our avocado passion. Here in What’s Your Avocado? Land, the avocado has a deeper meaning. It’s all about authenticity in marketing.

 

What fuels our enthusiasm for this now trendiest of foods is the What’s Your Avocado? Marketing Concept. It’s the marketing premise that every person, every product, every company has something about them that’s special. We call that unique, special element your Avocado. When we work with our clients to help them to define their Avocado, and express that in the marketplace through marketing, branding, advertising, web design, and digital platforms, they stand a better chance of being successful because they’re operating and marketing from a place of authenticity. People do business with companies with well-defined core values that add meaning, or tell a story they can relate to. Connection with customers begins with a brand story. And a brand story begins when you understand your Avocado.

 

The Origin of the What’s Your Avocado? Marketing Concept

 

It all started about a decade ago, during a time when I was at a crossroads in my life. Contemplating my next steps, I had a dream that would forever change my focus and direction.

In the dream, I was talking to a business friend who was heavily invested in agriculture. He raised cattle, he owned citrus groves, he grew turf for golf courses. And in the dream, he was telling me that the bottom had fallen on prices for the cattle, for oranges, even for golf grass. But then he stopped lamenting and leaned in close, as if to tell me a secret. He had a twinkle in his eye. A whisper in his voice. He said that on a lark, some years ago, he had planted a grove of avocados. It was really just something he did for fun, without any expectation of profit. In the dream, he said that all of a sudden, avocados were selling for record prices, 10 times more than they ever had before. “The avocado,” he said, “the thing I’d completely overlooked, this is the thing that’s going to save me.”

And I woke up. I sat bolt upright in bed. I wondered, should I call my friend and tell him to plant some avocados? But I paused. Something held me back.

 

 

Later in the day, I was on the phone with my mother. I remember this quite distinctly, that I was standing at my kitchen sink. I was looking out the window at an orange tree heavy with sweet fruit. (I lived in Florida at the time.) And I was telling her about the dream.

As I wondered aloud if I should call my friend and tell him about the avocados, the “Ah-ha!” moment arrived. It hit me hard. I caught my breath.

I realized that the thing that would save me, the thing I’d overlooked, the avocado, wasn’t for him. It was for me. At that moment, all of the questions I’d had about my life, my goals, my mission, became clear. I realized my passion for marketing was where I should place my focus. I understood my Avocado. And I decided to share it with the world.

How to Apply the What’s Your Avocado? Marketing Concept to Your Business

 

A few years later, in September 2012, I launched What’s Your Avocado? Marketing  & Public Relations. My goal was to translate the realization I gained from the dream into an actionable concept to help others define their core beliefs, goals, and purpose. Along with my team, I do this in three basic steps.

 

Step 1: Define Your Avocado

 

Every person, every product, every business truly does have something about them that’s special. Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes you have to dig for it. To begin the process, I give all of our clients the What’s Your Avocado? Workbook. (Follow this link to download a free copy.) This workbook contains a set of questions to help you to brainstorm about your company, your goals, and your product benefits, but also your reasons for undertaking this endeavor and why your customers should care.

It’s best to spend some time with the workbook. Avoid one word or short answers. Write out long paragraphs, really explore what it is that drives you to do this work or sell this product above all others. 

Sometimes it’s not the product or company at all, but your own personal history that gives you a unique perspective to bring to a certain service, ignites the desire to do a certain kind of work or manufacture a certain product. Or maybe there’s a history associated with the property or community in which the business operates. You’ll start to see a pattern emerge. Follow it. In that process, you’ll uncover your Avocado.

 

Step 2: Develop Your Brand

 

Once we know what makes your vision for a product, service, or company unique, we build a brand around that vision. We create a brand story that explains the passion, the history, or the unique personal perspective that only you can bring to this line of work. 

Tell that story.

We write out the story for our clients. The brand story becomes the messaging from which all other marketing stems. It’s used as the About Us on their websites, the story they tell their customers as to why their company is worth doing business with, and it’s shared with staff members to help them understand the core of what makes this company or product great.

Step 3. Create Materials to Support the Brand Story

 

Once you’ve identified your Avocado and created the brand story, the next step is to develop the logo and other materials that visually convey the brand. The brand’s visual identity, the actual colors you choose for the logo and overall brand strategy, must tell a story. 

Every choice should support your brand story. Visuals play an equal role in telling that story. Your brand should visually convey, if not what you do, then how you want your customers to feel about it. It’s critical to consider your target audience, your ideal customer, and what would appeal to them. It’s not enough that you like the brand. It has to make sense to your customer.

Your logo, your brand colors, your website, brochures, business cards, apparel, fleet vehicles, signage, and promotional items should all reflect and adhere to your brand standards and support the brand story.

Want to learn more? Download the What’s Your Avocado? Workbook and experiment with the process. Or, for a deeper dive, order your copy of the book How to Live Your Passion & Fulfill Your Dreams, which discusses more ways to get in touch with your Avocado. It also features interviews with successful people who share their Avocado stories.

If you’d like help in defining your Avocado, developing your brand story, or branding your business, feel free to contact me at https://whatsyouravocado.com/contact/.