Fish Where the Fish Are: How Pork is Driving Demand in Multicultural Markets
Getting more pork products out in front of consumers is incredibly important. That’s why the National Pork Board has decided to “go fish where the fish are” by executing marketing plans in multicultural markets where pork is popular – but more growth can occur by focusing on driving demand amongst multicultural consumers. These markets include Miami, Los Angeles, New York, San Antonio, Houston and Chicago.
“The National Pork Board is diving deeper into understanding not only the Hispanic market, but also the African American market, with the Asian American market out in front of us,” says Bill Even, CEO of the National Pork Board. “When you start looking at the U.S. population, about 19% are specified as Hispanic and around 14% as African American.”
Targeting messaging to this consumer base can lead to great opportunity to grow domestic demand, Even says. And the timing couldn't be more important with the current price situation in the pork industry.
“Virtually all population growth over the last 20 years has come from multicultural consumers,” explains Jose De Jesus, senior director of multicultural marketing at the National Pork Board. “This is a key customer because we are trying to play where there's growth happening.”
Over the last year and a half, the National Pork Board has introduced two strategic platforms that are designed to reach and encourage consumption among African American consumers and Hispanic consumers.
“As we think about the ideal pork consumer, it really comes down to multicultural consumers, particularly Hispanic, African Americans and Asians,” De Jesus says.
Barriers to Increasing Consumption
The Checkoff is studying the barriers that prevent Hispanics and African Americans from consuming more pork. Health and nutrition are key as consumers in both of these markets are looking for healthy protein.
Pork plays well with vegetables, which is something Hispanic consumers are looking for, he adds. Meanwhile, flavor is key for African Americans who are wanting healthy, but still delicious, protein source.
“While there's a lot of love for pork and consumption of pork, there are some concerns that trace back to health. We are being proactive to ensure our best consumers have the confidence that they need to eat our product, and not feel guilty about it,” De Jesus says.
One of the strategic platforms is “Ponle Pork,” which translates to “add pork” in English.
“I can promise you that sounds way better in Spanish,” De Jesus laughs. “We know from research that Latino consumers are eating a lot of pork as an ingredient. We also know there's tremendous affinity for plant-forward diets. We want to meet the consumer where the consumer is. So, if you're eating lots of veggies, how can pork be part of that?”
This platform not only positions pork as a nutritious alternative, but it offers culturally relevant dishes and content that resonate with this demographic of consumer, so they feel good about what they're eating, he adds.
The second platform centers around “Don’t Miss the Flavor.” It’s designed to reach the African American consumer who has a tremendous affinity for pork, but particularly on the processed side. The campaign is designed to move consumers beyond processed and bacon to increase consumption on the fresh side.
“The reason people gravitate towards processed is because of flavor,” De Jesus says. “Our call to action is, ‘Hey, if you want to go eat other proteins, you're going to miss the one thing that you absolutely love most about pork – the flavor.’”
Time for Chops and Ribs to Shine
With grilling season here, a lot of the campaign content is designed in English and Spanish to move ribs and pork chops, De Jesus says.
“We know that for a retailer, the basket size is bigger when those two cuts are part of the mix. It's a win-win for everybody. We're trying to make sure that we keep pork top of mind during this time. And frankly, grilling season is all about pork,” he says.
An analytics team works to identify where more pork sales are happening and which retailers are accounting for the majority of the says, De Jesus explains. The campaign encourages consumers to buy pork at these retailers.
“In addition to that, our retail team is working with retailers to do promotions,” he says. “But I don't mean promotion from a discount perspective. They are looking at how to use the work we're doing in the marketing space and augmenting it. We’ve got a lot of content, recipes and point-of-sale material. How can we take this to the retailer so we're driving traffic to their stores and ultimately selling pork?”
The Checkoff continues to engage with retailers about positioning pork and featuring it more. Ultimately, it’s about building relationships and credibility, he says.
Understanding it’s a tough time for pork producers, De Jesus says NPB is doing everything they can during this critical time and have pivoted some of their planning coming into the summer grilling season.
“Our number one priority right now is to make sure we're positioning pork as the go-to protein,” De Jesus says. “We want consumers to understand that pork wins with flavor and it’s good for you.”
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