JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Canola’s got a big profile on the Prairies, but that isn’t true in the major markets of America and that has to change.
That’s the conclusion reached by a lot of farmers at the Canola Council of Canada’s annual convention in the New York City area.
“The message I got was marketing, marketing, marketing,” said Hanley, Sask., farmer Darin Egert.
“It can be done by the individual farmer or the multinational corporation, but all of us have to work on marketing.”
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The canola council convention eschewed the usual focus on supply and demand estimates, transportation issues and industry sector updates to concentrate on the U.S.-based food industry and how to get more Americans using canola.
Farmers and officials of grain companies, crushers and processors heard that canola has failed to make itself the No. 1 oil in consumers’ minds, and its producers can’t afford to assume the oil’s “healthy” reputation will simply go on winning over new buyers.
“Back in the ’80s, canola could get a huge hit from just sort of being generally healthy. It would get huge media,” said Steven Shaw, an award-winning food critic who spoke as part of a food journalists’ panel.
“You won’t get that today. The marketing has to be more sophisticated, subtle, targeted, authentic.”
It’s not that health is not a big issue today. A number of experts said that healthy eating concerns are top-of-mind for many consumers. But they don’t want a generic message.
The food press and television networks aren’t going to run stories on the same old theme of “canola is good for you,” the experts said.
“Canola oil isn’t a story,” said Christianna Reinhardt, a producer with the Food Network. If the canola industry wants to tempt the taste buds of the media, there has to be something new and unique.
“The sixth generation farmer who … is part of the industry, that’s something we can sink our teeth into,” said Reinhardt.
Both Reinhardt and Shaw chastised the industry for not promoting strongly enough its exciting developments, such as a Vermont potato chip manufacturer that uses only canola oil for frying the chips and a specialty, artisan canola oil produced by a small Alberta company.
“I didn’t know about that,” said Shaw about the artisan oil.
“Why didn’t I know about that? Where were you guys when I needed that story pitch? I could sell that story.”
The food experts cautioned the canola industry against assuming the press could be sold a generic story about canola. Each media outlet has its own audience and will demand a unique story idea before it gives room to canola oil.
“If you try to take your international branding strategy and shove it down Gourmet (magazine)’s throat, it will not see the light of day,” said Shaw.
“You need to understand Gourmet’s audience. The pitch, the message, needs to be developed specifically for that high-end marketing audience.”
Linda West Eckhardt, an award-winning cookbook writer and chef, said some messages would turn off certain publications, even though they would work elsewhere.
Claiming that canola is healthy won’t entice the editors of a chef’s magazine.
“They don’t want to hear that,” said Eckhardt.
“They want to hear about (how canola oil can lead to) a better way to eat.”
She suggested canola promoters focus on telling individuals’ stories about canola, rather than stories about canola itself.
“You could find high profile chefs who use your product and they like it, and why do they like it?” said Eckhardt.
Advertising campaigns are fine for short-term awareness, but getting media coverage is “making long-term, clever, subtle investments in shaping the way people think, and that’s a lot harder work than just by an ad,” said Shaw.
The canola council ran a promotional campaign in the U.S. in recent years and that helped canola’s profile, said Wayne Bacon of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission.
He thinks farmers can’t sit back and assume the big companies will take care of the marketing. Their interests may not be the same as those of producers.
