Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is a featuring a “best of” edition, visiting with the senior vice president of global marketing and research at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Jennifer Nealson, about beef promotion.
With tighter supplies and higher prices, Nealson said one of the efforts the Beef Checkoff has focused on is teaching consumers how they can stretch their dollar and do more with the beef they purchase at the grocery store.
“The strategy we are deploying now is to help people understand how you cook beef once and serve it twice, and also beginning to reduce the barriers to entry,” Nealson said. “I think when you have higher prices, people are less likely to buy because they are worried they don’t know how to cook it.”
Nealson said more content is being released to help people choose what to buy at the supermarket and prepare it properly. A big message being pushed, Nealson said, is that beef can be cooked for more than just special occasions.
“They are still getting that great taste and that nutritional value and maybe even making it stretch further, bringing the price down for them, having it for many meals,” Nealson said.
On the positive side of things, Nealson said ground beef seems to be of good value.
“Our ground beef prices are very competitive with chicken and other proteins, so even though we talk about price sensitivity, we recognize and are thankful that in the cuts, it is still very price competitive,” Nealson said. “Also, some of the higher-end cuts, the prime cuts, they are for very niche markets. There isn’t as much price sensitivity in those niche markets.”
The overarching goal, Nealson said, is that consumers are not only purchasing beef for dinner, but also for lunch, breakfast, and numerous other occasions.
From Memorial Day to Labor Day is valuable marketing time, Nealson said, as a significant amount of money is spent on promotion during summer months when people are grilling and cooking out.
“There are words that consumers associate when enjoying grilled, barbequed, and smoked beef,” Nealson said. “One is that they have positive emotional connections with fun experiences. If you think about the connection with fun and beef, we want to capitalize on that.”
Nealson said consumers also associate positive sensory experiences with beef.
“The taste, aroma, and smokey flavors- these are things people identify with beef,” Nealson said.
Of all the households that were surveyed, Nealson said 96 percent of them are planning to have beef at their social gathering.
“We almost have 100 percent of the market when it comes to summer grilling,” Nealson said. “We are sitting pretty good and want to continue to use those checkoff dollars in smart and efficient ways so we can be sure it is not the chicken breast they are grabbing when they have a summer cookout.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show, and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
