New research from the Beef Information Centre indicates less is more when it comes to advertising, consumers and BSE safety information.
“When people already have a level of trust they do not need to know all the details,” said Marg Thibeault, the centre’s national communications manager.
Twenty-one focus groups were conducted in Eastern Canada based on the analysis of demographic data from BIC phone surveys over the last two years. The survey measured consumer concern about BSE recurrence.
More than 49 percent of women respondents reported concerns and the most trepidation came from eastern provinces. Discussions in this target group were aimed at finding which beef industry ads were most reassuring.
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“You do not want to go out with anything that is untested with consumers,” Thibeault said. “You can make a situation worse rather than better.”
Thibeault said most people in the group research project expressed faith in the safety of Canadian beef and nearly all of the 63 participants wanted less detail about safeguards in the ads.
Cindy McCreath, communications manager with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, was not surprised.
“I think that is a trust in our regulators, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other government agencies who have the responsibility for ensuring that food products that make it to market are safe,” McCreath said.
The CFIA has five safeguards in place, including the removal of specified risk material, import controls and cattle surveillance. Thibeault said today’s consumers look for quick reassurance in ads.
“Consumers said, ‘don’t tell me what you’re testing, (because) I don’t want to know. Just tell me that you are putting in place safeguards,’ ” Thibeault said.
Many research participants said they wanted minimal details as long as further information was available when and if their concern grew. Thibeault said a new website is designed to satisfy that request.
“Actually, it’s really a portal. I mean, you can dig deeper and deeper into that stuff and get you into places of facts and information that if you really want to know all this stuff, you can find it out.”
The Beef Information Centre does regular field research on consumer attitudes toward beef. The information is used to create advertisements and to prepare in case of new BSE cases.
“The consumer attitude is always in ebb and flow and we will always continue to test it,” said Thibeault. “We always keep our finger on the pulse of consumers.”
“In May of ’03, (consumers) were so concerned that they threw out all their meat or took it back to the store,” said Thibeault about participants in the focus groups.
She said in 2005, 42 percent of survey respondents reported they would be somewhat or very concerned about BSE recurrence, compared to 66 percent last year.
