EDMONTON – New advertising will promote the nutrition-packed wallop contained in every bite of beef.
Getting out the message that Canadian beef is a naturally nutrient-rich meat will be a key strategy, said Glenn Brand, chief executive officer of the Beef Information Centre (BIC).
“We want to position beef and its role in a healthy diet,” Brand told the Alberta Beef Producers meeting earlier this month.
BIC, the marketing arm of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, tested seven brand concepts, including livestock’s role in a healthy environment, but it was beef’s role in a nutritious diet that made women buy meat at the grocery store, said Brand.
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“In the end of the day the environment didn’t make women buy more meat. What did was that it was naturally nutrient rich,” said Brand.
The organization has launched a multi-year campaign on the benefits of eating lean, healthy meat to capture light meat users in Ontario. The first phase of the campaign will discuss the benefits of lean beef as a nutritious meat choice. The second phase will focus on beef as a natural source of nutrients.
Brand said the campaign is focused on a single province because of the centre’s limited budget. The centre thought it would make the biggest breakthrough by increasing beef consumption in those who already eat meat but who don’t consume a lot.
The final phase will be to evaluate whether the light users of beef ate more after the ads have run.
Brand said the centre is also creating a plan to help cushion the blow of country-of-origin labelling that is expected to come into effect in the United States in September 2008. Under the COOL requirement, beef, pork and lamb must have labels stating where the animal was born, raised and processed.
While there are still no rules, the organization is concerned Canadian beef will be hard hit if U.S. retailers choose to buy only American beef.
“The implications of COOL are fairly significant.”
While Canadian beef has a good reputation in the U.S., American consumers generally prefer to buy domestic beef, he said.
Most large retailers will source only U.S. product, but small and medium retailers will be forced to include some Canadian beef to fill orders. Brand said the centre has done small pilot projects testing Canadian labels on the beef. There is also a potential market for Canadian beef among Hispanic and Korean consumers in the U.S., who have no loyalty to American beef.
COOL requirements will not affect the large food service industry. Brand said the centre hopes to direct more beef toward retail outlets that don’t require the product to be labelled.
