In the last of a three-part series, allied industry sources urge packers, processors and retailers to focus more on the consumer
by Barbara J. Mosacchio
Consumers of the 1990s are evolving into value-driven purchasers of goods. However, they view the price-value relationship of products much differently from consumers of the past.
Today's consumers are willing to pay more money for products to satisfy their culinary desires. Purchases by baby boomers, in particular, are driven by experience and indulgence. In addition, change continues to shape consumer behavior as more consumers refuse to forsake food for fitness.
Major values from the 1950s relating to the supermarket scene seemed to all but disappear by the late 1980s.
The recent re-emergence of full-service meat cases, along with continuing expansion of service-oriented retail and foodservice segments in supermarkets, are driving factors behind the present-day renaissance of 1950s values.
At the retail grocery store level, customer service departments are taking a more active and visible role in satisfying consumer demands.
Newsletters with updates on nutrition and health, recipe ideas and interpretations of food-related information are becoming more commonplace. Personnel in the meat area are trained to answer consumer questions and respond to special needs.
This is particularly evident in emerging alternative retail formats that tout healthier foods. For example, Whole Foods Market, a Chicago-based gourmet grocery store, publishes a Shopper's Guide for its customers.
"[Whole Foods Market] features seafood, meat and poultry that is free of growth hormones or stimulants, antibiotics, sodium nitrate, or other chemicals," according to the guide.
The guide also features statements from managers describing products carried in their departments; a message urging customers to share thoughts, ideas and questions with its managers; and a statement on the store's product quality standards.
Fresh Fields, another Chicago-based alternative retail grocery store, publishes a six-page newsletter for its customers, which includes a statement that the store's meats are obtained from animals raised hormone-free; a full page of recipes for the grill; and a guide on properly operating and cleaning a grill.
Both Fresh Fields and Whole Foods Market include information about Coleman Natural Meats Inc. in their brochures. Both sell Coleman beef.
More help at retail
Many retailers tell Meat Marketing & Technology they would like more meat suppliers to provide their stores with brochures on their company, quality statements on their products and general meat fact sheets.
"The industry needs to do a better job of helping us reassure consumers," notes Jim Zimmer, market manager for Milwaukee-based Cub Foods. "I'd like to see more facts and brochures."
Retailers point out that meat companies can enhance their image and help increase meat sales by:
-- Educating consumers on the value of meat in a well-balanced diet.
-- Creating an experience by giving consumers the highest-quality product for the price.
-- Reassuring consumers that they take great care in producing safe, high-quality products, and that they stand behind their meat products.
Meat packers and processors, as well as retailers, need to orient themselves more to consumers, sources add.
"It's really time for all of us to get back to the way it used to be and focus on our consumers," says Dennis Harter, market manager for Dallas-based Tom Thumb.
Retailers also urge processors to fight to gain consumer confidence-much like the produce, poultry and auto industries have done-by focusing marketing efforts around trust and quality.
Barbara J. Mosacchio, president of Chicago-based Veritas Research and Consulting, conducted the research and analysis for this article. Veritas specializes in qualitative research, trend analysis and market plan development for retail food and foodservice industries.