CWC Drives Sales in Japan Through Gut Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has given greater-than-ever attention to health, in particular immunity enhancement. Currently, there is no direct link between walnut intake and immunity enhancement; however, for over 30 years, the California Walnut Commission (CWC) has supported health-related research examining the effect of walnut consumption. Studies suggest that walnuts may be a good choice for gut health because of their prebiotic properties.1   

With Japanese knowledge of and desire for positive gut health, the CWC used it as a strategic focus to reinvigorate sales of California walnuts in the retail sector, which currently utilizes 33% of all walnuts in the country. To effectively grab retailers’ attention to this new health messaging and make an impact at the retail level to appeal to consumers, the CWC conducted an in-store promotion in October 2020. The campaign, which included a retail display contest with eye-catching point-of-sale materials, aimed to increase purchase frequency, year-round purchases, and health attribute awareness. In addition, the contest encouraged volume displays as well as cross-merchandising with what is generally known, in Japan, to help immune system enhancement, e.g., honey, yogurt, and other fermented food items.  

The promotion was advertised through Diamond Retail, resulting in participation from 79 stores. The stores demonstrated enthusiasm with impactful and creative displays to communicate the “gut health” appeal to consumers with positive results. For example, the volume category winner of the retail display contest reported sales increased by 2,426% year-over-year. Another winner (a highly regarded regional chain) reported a 98% year-over-year increase. Through this campaign, the CWC confirmed “gut health” messaging resonated with consumers and brought excitement to retailers to feature California walnuts front and center.

Due to the campaign’s success, and with the help of MAP funding, the CWC repeated and expanded the campaign during June and July 2021. To strengthen the program, the CWC added aggressive consumer outreach using mixed-media advertising, including Twitter and Instagram. A campaign landing page was developed to thoroughly educate consumers about the health attributes of California walnuts related to gut health. During the campaign period, it received 27,375 unique page views. Banner and streaming online ads were placed to target potential consumers, mainly in their 30s, who are relatively new California walnut users. These ads successfully achieved 75 million impressions. The outreach via Twitter and Instagram obtained approximately 320,000 impressions with a 27% engagement rate. This far exceeded both Twitter and Instagram’s 2021 average engagement rates of 0.05% and 0.83%, respectively.2

The CWC also held an online public relations event entitled “Let’s Learn about Gut Health with Walnuts,” with a “gut health” medical professional, Dr. Akiko Kobayashi, and Ms. Hitomi Kaji, a popular model known as a “gut health guru.” The program was designed for Ms. Kaji to learn more about the health benefits of California walnuts from the medical professional. Both Dr. Kobayashi and Ms. Kaji also tasted “gut health” recipes using California walnuts. This live online event was viewed by five Instagram influencers, who in turn disseminated the information to over 70,000 followers. The video was also released on IGTV and YouTube and viewed 1,200 times. In addition, the press release featuring the event successfully generated 85 articles with more than 440 million impressions. Due to the previous year’s successful sales results, the 2021 promotion included 507 participating stores – a 642% increase from the 79 stores in 2020. Despite COVID restrictions, participating retailers reported year-over-year sales increases ranging from 80% to 390%.

With two consecutive years of intense “gut health” messaging, the CWC educated consumers on a valuable reason to consume walnuts and demonstrated the value of walnut promotions to retailers to substantially increase sales. The CWC will continue to communicate the health, taste, and versatility of California walnuts while adjusting the tactics as consumers gradually move to a post-pandemic lifestyle.

Shipments to Japan for crop year 2020/21 increased by 15%, reaching 43,252 ISE MT. As of March 2022, year-to-date shipments are up by 32% (32,425 ISE MT).