The AMI/FMI Meat Marketing Conference taught attendees the importance of understanding the wants and needs of consumers
by Larry Aylward, managing editor
The 1994 AMI/FMI Meat Marketing Conference, held in April in Minneapolis and billed as "Today's Meat Marketer: A Rising Star," wasn't a "business as usual" event. There was an added amount of fun involved.
Along with presentations expanding a gamut of industry issues, attendees were advised to attempt to read the minds of their customers. In fact, conference organizers invited mind reader Ross Johnson to invoke a message-with a dose of humor and astonishment-that challenged participants "to forget old paradigms and renew their thinking" in preparation for the educational sessions.
Getting to know you
Carol Scroggins, president of The Consumer Voice, an Oklahoma City-based marketing consulting firm, acted as moderator of a panel of industry experts that focused on "Reading the Mind of the Consumer." Scroggins pointed out consumers' likes and dislikes involved in the meat-buying experience.
Dislikes include a supermarket's meat department itself, Scroggins noted. "It's cold and uninviting," she added. "There's no theater (in the meat department)."
It's crucial that meat department employees are able to understand and answer the wants and needs of consumers, Scroggins said.
"There's a need to warm up meat departments with friendly, knowledgeable sales people," she insisted.
Lloyd Sigel, president and CEO of St. Paul, Minn.-based Lloyd's Food Products, well-known for its Lloyd's Barbeque Ribs, recommended retailers use a "simple tool" for reading their customers' minds. Lloyd's periodically inserts postage-paid response cards in its packages that ask consumers to answer questions about product.
"We have found that with as few as 30 responses we can see if we have a problem," Sigel said. "We ask people to identify what things are pertinent to them when they are purchasing our barbeque ribs."
The survey process is inexpensive and can be tabulated without hiring a consultant, Sigel pointed out.
Joe Swedberg, director of marketing for Austin, Minn.-based Hormel Foods Corp., said his company opts for a more technical approach to read the minds of its customers. Hormel utilizes a program called Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing.
Swedberg claimed there are many consumers who are willing to participate in telephone surveys. He said Hormel uses the system for awareness studies, especially when advertising in particular markets. The process can also be used for image, usage and attitude studies.
Hormel works with its marketing research department to conduct studies and determine objectives, Swedberg said. Interviewees are determined by a random sampling of telephone numbers, and their answers are recorded on a computer system.
"It's a slick and inexpensive way to get direction," Swedberg noted.
Mike Witt, corporate director of meat operations for Stillwater, Minn.-based CUB Foods, said the retailer lets consumers speak their minds through advertising.
CUB Foods conducts simple in-store surveys, and patrons are rewarded with coupons for participating.
"Our ads talk about what consumers ask for in the surveys," Witt pointed out, adding that participants also rate stores and meat quality.
"We found that our customers wanted fresh quality, well-trimmed meats," Witt said.
A full-page ad stated: "At CUB, we cut everything but the quality, and we guarantee it."
More than marketing
Although billed as a marketing conference, Total Quality Management and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point programs were discussed.
In his presentation, "The Entrepre-neur in the Meat Department," David Crocker, president of Crocker Assoc-iates, an executive consulting firm, pointed out that TQM is about "process, people and customers."
Customer needs consist of purchasers wanting to feel respected, understood, welcomed and valued. "Customers judge the quality of service by the quality of their interactions with the people who provide the service," Crocker noted.
TQM is an important issue in the pork industry, according to David Meeker, vice president of research and education for the National Pork Producers Council. Meeker said NPPC has been planning future strategies for two years.
"We want to be recognized as a food producer, not a hog producer," Meeker said, adding that NPPC is conducting extensive research in hog genetics to correct product inconsistencies.
Meeker pointed out the concern among consumers, processors and meat packers is pork's excessive fat content. He said NPPC wants to form a pork chain consortium to attack and correct problems.