The U.S. based National Pork Board is shifting the focus of its promotional message for pork away from its 23 year comparison to chicken to imaging that focuses on the positive attributes of pork.
“Pork-The Other White Meat,” one of the most recognized promotional messages in the United States ever was introduced in 1987.
Planned changes to promotion were among the topics discussed last week during World Pork Expo in Des Moines.
National Pork Board vice-president domestic marketing Ceci Snyder notes prior to 1987 product movement was going down year after year but since 1987 we’ve seen a reversal in that decline.
Way back in 1987 there was a bit of a fat phobia as we all remember in the U.S. and I’m sure in Canada as well so the idea was to compare ourselves to chicken both nutritionally as well as versatility, convenience but mostly I think what resonated with consumers was the leanness comparison.
So in that way it was very successful.
Over the years and how we are right now consumers are so familiar with the other white meat as a slogan or a brand that it’s so familiar it almost fades into the background.
It’s really not motivating any more behavior change.
I’m not saying we’ll ever walk away from it entirely.
We’ll certainly protect it.
We don’t want anyone else using that trademark but we know that we need to set ourselves apart from chicken and beef.
We know for sure we don’t want to compare ourselves to chicken as we’ve done in the past.
All of the unique things about pork, its taste, its versatility, its ability to be used in ethnic cuisines is very important so we know we’re going to focus in on that.
Exactly how the messaging works out is yet to be determined.
We’re looking for a number of inputs along the way from our packer partners, from retailers, food processors, food service operators so we don’t have that specific message worked out yet.
We do know that in the past we’ve compared ourselves too much to other meats.
We think that pork can stand on its own in its own benefits.
Snyder says the new messaging will begin to appear this month and will start to become more prominent over the next couple of months.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
