The industry battles to convince this gender that meat products are healthy, tasty and easy to prepare
by Larry Aylward, managing editor
A man may salivate over a succulent Porterhouse steak. But a woman might not touch that steak with a 10-foot fork.
"Women, more then men, are obsessed with keeping a model image, physically," claims Mitch Schechter, a New York city-based food-trend expert and writer. "Meat is an easy culprit for a woman to point to as one of the necessary factors to eliminate from her lifestyle if she is going to achieve her ideal."
Women with such attitudes are misinformed, points out Berri Burns, a registered dietitian and president of Cleveland-based Nutrition Matters.
"A lot of women eliminate meat from their diets because they have this perception that it's bad for you," Burns says.
Women are also more likely to be traders of meat and lunch meat for other foods because they are on a diet, according to "Eating in America Today," a report by the National Live Stock and Meat Board.
Many women conclude inaccurately that lean red meat is higher in cholesterol, fat, saturated fat and calories when compared to other foods, including chicken, Burns insists. "There's no big difference in the number of calories between beef and chicken. Beef's nutritional makeup is far better than other meats. You just have to watch the portions you eat."
When many women think of meat, they think of fat and cholesterol. They don't think of iron and zinc, two minerals abundant in fresh meat products. Is it common knowledge that women need more daily iron than men? Apparently not.
"I don't believe women realize they need more iron" says Linda Kowalski Jacob, vice president of Hamtramck, Mich.-based Kowalski Sausage Co. "And women who need extra zinc don't realize that it's in meat products."
"It's probably true that most women don't realize they require more iron," admits Amy Skidmore, brand manager of the foods division for Columbus, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms Inc. "People, in general, are uneducated about those things."
The recommended daily allowance of iron for women is 18 milligrams, compared with 10 milligrams for men, Burns notes. "And women believe that beef provides the same kind of iron found in vegetables. That's not true," she says. "It's the heme in the blood of meat that makes iron absorb more easily into the human body than the iron from vegetables."
Red meat is also perceived as manly by women and men. In fact, the Beef Industry Council asked consumers to describe meat products as people in a study about three years ago. The report revealed that if beef was a person, it would be a husky, rugged man that drives a pick-up truck. If chicken was a person, it would be an intelligent, health-conscious woman that drives a Volvo.
"There is nothing in a woman's socialization, from childhood onward, that makes eating red meat a good thing," Schechter claims.
Men are 8 percent more likely than women to eat beef, pork and cold cuts, according to a study by the NPD Group. Focus groups revealed that men "feel a powerful emotional connection to meat, perhaps related to their ancient role in hunting to provide for their families," the study noted.
Men are also apt to eat more fast-food hamburgers, although Miami-based Burger King recently targeted women with a television advertisement that featured a woman who desires a bigger burger. But women are more concerned with nutritional content, are more likely to eat less and are more likely to dine out less often than men, according to the National Restaurant Association.
In short, the meat industry has a tough task ahead of it in convincing women that meat products are not as unhealthy or manly as they think.
But there's more to the puzzle, says Monica Eorgoff, NLS&MB director of advertising and promotion, who admits that more women than men perceive meat to be heavy and fatty.
When the beef industry conducted business analyses in 1991 to determine why people were eating less beef, it found that most households were serving fresh beef, but on lesser occasions. The study found that moderate and heavy users of beef were serving it 11 percent less often than they did in the mid-1980s.
"But it was found that health issues were not driving the consumption losses among the new target base," the report stated. "Instead, beef's perceived lack of versatility, complicated and timely preparation techniques and old-fashioned image were the primary factors behind the usage decline."
More consumers (60 percent) indicated that lack of knowledge and familiarity with preparing different beef cuts posed more of a usage problem than health concerns (51 percent).
With that in mind, the beef industry embarked on its advertising strategy, "Beef. It's What for Dinner," with the focus on "enhancing perceptions of beef's versatility, ease of preparation and fitting into contemporary dinnertime menus." The campaign, which has been running for about three years, also focuses on beef's taste and is targeted to adults, primarily females, ages 25 to 54 with children.
It's important to showcase beef as a versatile and healthy ingredient with stir-fry and pasta dishes, salads, rice and vegetables, Eorgoff notes. The industry is doing that successfully, she claims. According to a 1994 Gallup poll, womens' attitudes toward beef are changing and it's showing at the supermarket. Beef's share of supermarket meat dollars had increased 2.9 percent from July 1994 through September 1994 when compared to the same time period the previous year, according to the 1994 NPD Consumer Meat Purchase Diary. The study claimed chicken's share of meat dollars declined 7.7 percent during the same time period.
Consumer Gail Yakubowski of Akron, Ohio, prepares dinner for a family of five and the meals consist of red meat about four times a week. Yakubowski, 30, says red meat is a versatile food and is not difficult to cook.
"I make beef stir fry and a lot of hamburgers for the kids," she says. "I use the crock pot a lot, so that makes it easy."
"The "Beef. It's What for Dinner" ad campaign is on right on track, claims Marcia Mogelonski, author of "Everybody Eats: Supermarket Consumers in the 1990s," published by American Demographics.
"The ads show that meat is healthy, and it can be prepared fast," says Mogelonski, adding that female heads of households comprise 69 percent of the primary supermarket shoppers (19 percent are males; 11 percent are both). "Fast and not fussy is important to women."
Echoing Eorgoff's claims that meat products should be marketed as versatile items, Bob Evans Farms is promoting sausage as more than a breakfast item, Skidmore notes, adding that she doesn't believe the company's products are manly. Bob Evans Farms' target audience is primarily women, who are the primary purchasers of food items in 75 percent of households, Skidmore claims.
Bob Evans Farms recently released a cookbook loaded with recipes and sold about 250,000 copies, says Skidmore.
"There was so much emphasis on fat content and cholesterol a few years ago that people shied away from a lot of meat products," Skidmore notes. "Now those people have turned the corner and are saying meat is part of a balanced diet."
Women should take that attitude, Burns points out. And the industry should promote meat as a provider of important nutrients in its marketing endeavors.
"I would educate people about the deficiencies of not eating meat," Burns adds. "That's the big issue. Women who exercise and don't eat red meat are setting themselves up for iron, zinc and vitamin B12 deficiencies."
Children can also be influenced by a parent that doesn't purchase or eat meat. Burns has treated teen-age girls with eating disorders and other illnesses such as anemia or mononucleus.
"What scares me is that young kids are getting the message that beef is bad," Burns points out.
Eorgoff says the industry is promoting the nutritious benefits of meat through various public relations programs. "We have worked with doctors and dietitians all across the country to communicate that message," Eorgoff adds. "It's just that the advertising program is most visible."
Burns claims 4 ounces to 6 ounces of lean meat is appropriate in a woman's daily diet.
"Beef is not bad," Burns says. "The industry has to be more proactive, not defensive. It shouldn't have to defend meat."