The results were decidedly mixed when Chicken of the Sea International recently completed a market research project. A hefty percentage of consumers still remembered the company's "Ask Any Mermaid You Happen to See" jingle. But a surprising number didn't know how to whip up a simple tuna salad.
So when Chicken of the Sea returns to TV screens in January after an eight-year absence, the company's ads will highlight its familiar mermaid and song. And the San Diego-based company will fill print ads and in-store displays with recipes for everything from venerable tuna salad to quirky newcomers like tuna with granola and tuna with oranges and cashew nuts.
Chicken of the Sea, the third-largest tuna brand sold through grocery stores, isn't the only tuna company returning to the airwaves to fish for better sales. Faced with an industrywide slump, Bumble Bee Seafoods, the No. 2 brand and also San Diego-based, is back on TV after more than a decade. And market leader H.J. Heinz Co.'s Star-Kist brand, with more than 40% of the market, has returned to the tube after a lengthy absence.
Tuna sales have declined in four of the last six years, according to Nielsen Scantrack, slumping to $1.1 billion in 1997.
Observers blame the sales slide on a failure to counter strong advertising for competing foods such as pork, beef and chicken.
The industry has also failed to ignite consumer interest with new recipes--and to introduce new cooks to old favorites like tuna salad. The result: Even though 90% of American households stock tuna, most consumers view it as a once-in-a-while meal.
But all of the major tuna producers have strong weapons in their arsenals as they rekindle advertising. Each of the three companies owns stylized mascots--a bumblebee, a mermaid and Charlie, Sun-Kist's perpetually sorry tuna--that are likely to connect with brand-conscious shoppers.
Using those familiar logos "sounds like a good strategy," said Terry Witkowski, a marketing professor at Cal State Long Beach. "Many consumers are price-sensitive, but they do buy things with aesthetic appeal, and you know that these familiar commercials will catch the eye of baby boomers."
*
But observers say the industry will face an uphill fight in weaning consumers from coupons and price discounts that tuna canners have used during a lengthy price war. Although prices have begun drifting higher in recent months, cost-cutting by the industry makes it possible for retailers to sell a 6-ounce can of tuna for about 70 cents--less than shoppers paid a decade ago.
