1999 News Archive
BEEF COMMUNICATIONS ARE GOING HIGH TECH
DENVER (November 30, 1999) -- People across the globe are discovering they don't need to leave their homes to expand their lives. By using a computer and accessing the World Wide Web, they can have the world at their fingertips.
Through their checkoff program, beef producers have created ways to reach many audiences with information about beef and the beef industry. These audiences include nutrition professionals, educators and students, restaurant and grocery store managers, cattlemen and women -- and consumers who just want to know how to purchase, prepare or serve beef.
The beef industry's flagship web site, www.beef.org, is demonstrating the value of having a web site dedicated to beef. User sessions on the site have increased 96 percent in the past twelve months, with about 52,000 people coming to the site each month. That's about 1,700 people a day looking at an average of seven pages each time.
"It's important that we use every means possible to reach people with information about beef," says Don Wagner, a livestock auction market operator from Corydon, Iowa, and chair of the beef industry's Information Committee. "That means keeping up with current technology and having interesting, up-to-date web sites that people can visit while they're sitting in front of their computers."
Kids on the Web
An example of how successfully audiences can be targeted with beef information is a Web site for kids called www.burgertown.org. This site reached kids more than 297,000 times from Oct. 11, 1998 to Oct. 3, 1999. That's almost 6,000 kids every week. Pages viewed totaled nearly 16,000 a week.
"We're thrilled that the industry is able to reach students through their computers," according to Trudy Carey, a beef producer from Brandon, Fla., and chair of the industry's Education Subcommittee. "Our research shows that students are spending about three minutes at the web site, which is excellent for this audience. Plus, we're getting a lot of participation from students and interest in our products."
Carey says a student recipe contest conducted on the web site is an example of that participation. About 250 recipes are received as part of a monthly contest.
"This is the only checkoff-funded program reaching kids directly," says Carey. "It's possible because of the economical advantages of using the internet."
Another web site, www.beefnutrition.org, was introduced in October 1998 to better inform health and nutrition professionals about the latest news on beef and provide tools to show how beef fits in a healthful diet. Recent research, statistics, consumer education materials and other types of health information are provided at the site, as well as an online "shopping cart" offering materials available from the beef industry.
User sessions on the nutrition web site have increased 35 percent in the six months since it was introduced. About 6,300 users visited the site in October (about 200 a day), and they look at an average of 3.25 pages during each session.
A Site for Restaurant Operators
Beef marketers need information about beef, and many of them visit the main beef Web site to get it. Now, they will be able to obtain specific information that will help them improve their beef selling ability.
A web site called www.beeffoodservice.com has just been introduced to help restaurant managers with beef menu ideas, serving suggestions and new ways of including more beef in their operations. Another site for retail meat department managers is also under construction.
"Business people are increasingly using the internet to find the information they need," according to Paul Genho, a beef producer from Kingsville, Tex., and chair of the beef industry's Consumer Marketing Group. "By promoting these Web sites to the right individuals, we can have a tremendous impact on how beef products are marketed and sold."
Beef producers, too, are looking for information about their industry. Through a site established by the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, for instance, they can find out how their checkoff dollars are being used. The site, www.beefboard.org, also contains facts about the process this beef producer-directed organization uses to invest those dollars.
All of the sites are, or will be, linked to the general www.beef.org web site to make it easier for web users -- either those browsing or those looking for specific information. But targeting information is important, according to Genho. "Our basic site has about 6,000 pages," he says. "If we can make it easier for people to find what they need without much effort, we're better off."