In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays features comments with Danette Amstein, Managing Principal of the Midian Marketing Group. Midian Marketing, the only strategic marketing, research and creative agency that focuses solely on making a difference in the meat industry. Amstein is a sixth generation Kansas farmer/rancher. She is active in the management of her family’s commercial cow herd and row crop operation.
Amstein was the kickoff speaker at the 2025 King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management’s Symposium on Excellence in Ranch Management. She shared her insights on the modern beef consumer and how the cattle industry can better connect with them. She explained that while beef quality and prices have both risen, “our consumers are paying more for our product than they ever have,” and many think it’s “too expensive.” Despite this, demand remains strong, and she urged producers to balance their own profitability with consumer satisfaction: “I like getting that check when I’m selling my weaned calves, but I also want to make sure we’re handling what the consumer needs in a way that keeps them coming back.”
Amstein painted a vivid picture of who today’s beef consumer really is—often quite different from the people who raise cattle. “They live in high rises. They spend more on coffee in a month than you would in a year… but what they think matters a whole lot to what we do,” she said. She emphasized that while consumers may not understand the ranching lifestyle—“They don’t realize that we get up in the middle of the night and check on that calf and that mama so that they get to eat that steak”—their preferences and purchasing decisions are critical to the industry’s success. “They are incredibly important and vital to our future, and I’m thankful for them.”
Amstein noted that her firm, Midian Marketing Group, has segmented today’s consumers into distinct groups, each with unique motivations and expectations. “We know consumers vote with their dollar, and they will continue to do so. So we have to meet them where they are, and we have to be able to explain what we do in a way that makes sense to them,” she said. A one-size-fits-all message won’t work: “If we try to take that big group of segmentation and talk to them all the same way, we do a good job of alienating almost everyone.” Instead, she advised tailoring messages to different types of buyers—such as the “claim seeker” or the “convenience craver”—to build better relationships and stronger demand.
She also encouraged producers to think strategically about their operations and communication. “Who are you raising cattle for? What messages are the most important to that target? What can you be doing on the ranch to make a difference in that area—and where do they want to receive those messages?” Amstein said that aligning production practices with consumer expectations doesn’t just help the industry—it supports individual ranch success, too.
Finally, Amstein celebrated how far the beef industry has come in meeting consumer expectations for quality. “I love looking at what’s happened with quality grade… we have answered the call for quality,” she said. As prime and choice beef production continues to rise while select declines, she called it “a beautiful demand story.” For Amstein, the message is clear: understanding consumers, respecting their differences, and communicating effectively are essential to ensuring the beef industry’s continued growth and profitability.
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 for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
