TENDING TO RELATIONSHIPS PAYS OFF FOR THE BEEF INDUSTRY

DENVER (November 30, 1999) -- Just because beef information hits a food editor’s desk, it doesn’t mean a story will run.  Beef must compete for editorial space and special section placement with every other food product, including poultry, fish and pork. 

So what makes the beef industry so successful in placing checkoff-funded beef stories?  In a word: relationships. 

“The fact that we have a good relationship with beef industry food communications staff does make a difference in beef’s coverage in our publications,” says Susan Westmoreland, food director for the Good Housekeeping Institute.  “I can call for fast, accurate information on beef cookery, meat cuts and recipe development.  This is very helpful, because I oversee all recipe development for Good Housekeeping magazine (circulation 5.1 million) and our cookbooks.”

According to Westmoreland, an August feature in the magazine called Steak on the Grill was a direct result of a checkoff-funded visit from beef industry representatives.

“The information we receive from the beef industry is some of the best we get,” says Westmoreland.  “It’s always consumer trend sensitive and packaged with a new twist.”

“The success the beef industry enjoys in positive coverage is built on relationships,” says Marlys Bielunski, director of Food Communications for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).  “Just like with our personal relationships, we work on our food professional relationships all the time.”

Carol Prager, associate food editor for Ladies Home Journal (circulation 4.5 million), says her magazine’s relationship with the beef industry has also been strong.  “We have a regular item in our magazine called ‘Off the Shelf,’ where we feature a prepared product that can make our readers’ lives easier,” Prager says.  “This month we featured a Burnett and Son microwaveable pot roast... a direct result of a visit from beef industry food communications staff.”

Last year, 138.3 million Americans were reached with positive stories about value-added beef products, such as microwaveable pot roasts or rotisserie beef.  Further, these 1999 beef checkoff-funded food communications efforts resulted in a total of about 8,000 positive beef stories or recipes being printed in publications with a circulation of 1.25 billion. 

About 70 percent of the 1999 food communications budget, managed by the NCBA at the direction of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, was aimed at building awareness of underutilized cuts, like the chuck and round.  Of that 70 percent, half was focused on new value-added beef products.

“Working with food writers is not an instant pay-off,” says Bielunski.  “For example, with new products we had to build up their confidence in the new products before they wanted to feature them.  It’s taken two years to begin seeing stories about new convenient beef products.” 

Bielunski also says it’s important to tailor messages to the audience.  “When we meet with food writers and editors, the beef industry has to be telling a story that readers want,” she says.  “We have to base the story we pitch on consumer trends, and our cookery information and recipes must be tried and researched.”

Other Editorial Efforts Benefit from Relationship Building

 In addition to one-on-one biannual visits with food writers and editors, other editorial efforts work by providing newspapers with “ready-to-run” editorial color pages.   In 1999, beef checkoff dollars created four of these pages that editors can simply “drop in” their paper.  Topics are usually seasonal, like holiday roasts or summer grilling.  These editorial pages are offered to newspapers through a national service called Family Features.

“This is another area where relationships are important,” says Bielunski.  “We often try to increase the pick-up of our color editorial pages by partnering with a complementary commodity like potatoes or branded product, such as A.1. Steak Sauce®.  Again, we must compete for precious publication space.”

Color editorial pages are offered to about 600 newspapers.  Pick-up of an average beef-focused page reaches a total circulation of about 10 to 13 million.  In terms of circulation and use, all four beef pages were in the top 20 of 110 total pages offered by Family Features last year. 

“This is significant for the beef industry because this is basically free advertising.  We only pay for the production of the pages, not the space,” says Bielunski.  “Family Features estimates the pick-up of our pages to be worth more than $3.7 million in advertising space. That’s a return on investment of 48 to 1.”

“I’m excited that our food communications efforts have this kind of return,” says Pam Bontekoe, a beef producer from Greenville, Mich., and chair of the beef industry Public Relations Subcommittee.  “We’re getting our message out to consumers about new convenient products without a great deal of cost.”

“The more levels of understanding consumers have for a product, the more comfortable they are using it,” says Good Housekeeping’s Westmoreland.  “I’ve been in this business for 20 years and the beef industry has always done a good job of showing us the whole picture – from production issues to beef cookery to new products.  Information on beef cuts we recently received will appear as a sidebar in the February 2000 edition of Good Housekeeping.” 

“Our marketing plan relies heavily on tapping those relationships we’ve worked so hard to build, says Bielunski.  “In that way we help increase a consumer’s knowledge base.  In 2000, we will continue to focus 70 percent of our budget on educating consumers about the chuck and round and new products.” 

The annual budget for beef checkoff-funded food communications efforts is approximately $1 million.  These monies are used for editorial efforts, such as one-on-one visits with writers, press releases and color pages; sponsoring events with food professionals to keep beef “top of mind”; and the development of collateral materials for consumers and food professionals, such as beef cookery brochures, recipe booklets using new prepared products and cookbooks.

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Food communicator programs are funded by the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board (Beef Board).  This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Under a contract with the Beef Board, this beef checkoff-funded effort is conducted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a trade association of America’s cattle ranchers and farmers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.  NCBA is producer-directed but consumer-focused, with offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C.