Consumers worldwide are demanding and contradictory, a British analyst told the World Meat Congress, but marketers must still understand the radical differences that exist in various markets.
“Even within countries that are culturally very similar, very, very close together, there are extraordinary differences,” Richard Brown said in a speech to the congress June 15.
“Every market has different, very unique consumption cultures, different things about which consumers are incredibly sensitive and there are different organizations which have the credibility to satisfy consumers,” he said.
The type of meat products eaten in the 25 members of the European Union varies radically from country to country, Brown said. For instance, the Spanish eat a lot of slicing pork sausage, but the British eat almost none.
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The overall demand for different species of meat also varies. Spain has a per capita consumption of pork of about 40 kilograms per year, which is about double the United Kingdom’s.
Consumers also vary by country on whom they trust to give them safe meat, Brown said.
In the United States and Canada, consumers trust government officials to tell them whether food is safe and trust the big packer-processors to produce safe food products. But in Britain, Brown said, government officials have almost no credibility with the consumer.
Consumers rely on the big supermarket chains to provide safe, quality food. In Britain it is common for the highest-priced meat products in the supermarket to carry the supermarket chain’s name and label.
Brown said consumers all over the world are embracing meat products designed for convenience and which go beyond the raw commodity. The packer-processors in North America are most advanced in these products.
“The whole of the rest of the world is looking at the development of these branded products in response to consumer needs with huge interest, wondering if processors in other parts of the world can generate brands as well,” said Brown.
Regardless of the end product, consumers around the world demand two things in every meat product: safety and value.
“Those are absolute prerequisites,” said Brown.
But each market has its own sensitivities about other elements, such as animal welfare and genetically modified ingredients.
Consumers in all markets also appear to have contradictory opinions on what they demand, Brown said.
“One of the things which puzzles us meat people a lot is that there seems to be a continual conflict between what an individual demands as a citizen and what they actually do as a consumer,” said Brown.
People say they demand specialized, refined, premium products, but “when we go shopping as a consumer, we very often focus on the lowest price.”
Brown said intelligent meat processors and retailers need to see consumer demands, even if contradictory, as opportunities for new markets.
