Raised in the U.S.A.: the Catfish Institute addresses fishy issue with strategic marketing campaign. (Best of show: public relations).

The American farm-raised catfish industry -- the country's first and greatest aquaculture success story -- was invaded by a foreign fish fraud. After The Catfish Institute (TCI), Belzoni, Miss., spent 15 years building a market in the United States, Vietnamese importers effectively applied the colloquial name "catfish" to their similar variety, called basa. More favorable production costs overseas created a lower price for the imported fish, which rapidly displaced sales of the domestic fish at a rate representing 20 percent of the U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish fillet market. Furthermore, U.S. catfish industry leaders feared the different taste and texture of the imported product would disappoint American consumers.

To stop the erosion and reclaim market share, TCI teamed with Fleishman-Hillard's food and agribusiness experts to differentiate U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish from the foreign competition.

"The Catfish Institute has done a great job of building a market for catfish in the United States," said Henry Gantz, TCI president. "Consumers now expect the high-quality, consistently mild-tasting fish supplied by the industry. We're concerned that consumers could turn away from catfish entirely if they had a bad experience with Vietnamese basa."

It was time to shift TCI's communications emphasis from promoting catfish to emphasizing U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish.

SCHOOL OF KNOWLEDGE