It’s all about the consumer. Whether you work in pork production, sustainability, health, nutrition, efficiency, genetics, or meat processing, it doesn’t matter, says David Newman, National Pork Board senior vice president of market growth.
“All of the work we all do is for nothing if you don’t have a consumer on the back end who desires to purchase, eat and repeat purchase your product,” Newman says.
Demand leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout the pandemic was strong. In addition, exports were on fire in a good way, says Chad Groves, National Pork Board director.
“We had good demand coming out of Asia, markets developing in Central and South America, and all of that led to good pork markets,” Groves says. “However, we lost sight of the domestic side because markets were so good, and we were focused on other challenges like foreign animal disease preparedness and prevention.”
When pork demand came crashing down after the pandemic, everyone shifted their attention to domestic pork demand, Groves says. The National Pork Board conducted a consumer segmentation study that showed the consumer is changing and the consumer of the future radically different than the consumer of the past.
So, the question remains, what is the pork industry going to do?
“This is a transformational time,” Newman says. “We have a great opportunity to reposition pork. Successful brands require risk. What is the risk of doing nothing? The risk of doing nothing is that we continue to decline in consumption. We continue to be less relevant with future consumers like Gen Zs and Millennials, and less relevant than other proteins that are innovating and rising in popularity.”
No More Apologizing
During the National Pork Industry Forum, the National Pork Board will reveal the pork industry’s new tagline. The tagline will speak to pork’s future consumer and be unapologetic about pork, focusing on a whole hog approach (fresh and processed). The full-scale launch to the world will take place in early May.
“We aren’t the ‘other’ anything,” Newman says. “We know consumers are driven by flavor. Taste and flavor will be at the forefront of the campaign we launch as a brand. Also, there are segments of the population who are very concerned about nutrition so it will also address how pork plays a role in a balanced diet. Finally, it has to be convenient for the consumer of the future. Pork is no longer just the center-of-the-plate item that I grew up with.”
Future consumers are asking different questions when it comes to what’s for supper. They are thinking about pork as food categories, Newman says. Who wants Italian? Mexican? Or should we make Asian?
“If you look at our consumption data, a third of all consumption of pork in the U.S. is done in just four states: California, Texas, Florida and New York*,” Newman says. “The good thing about having data is that it tells you where the fish are, and you’ve got to fish where the fish are. Casting that broader net, or taking a shotgun approach to the market, is what we used to do. Today, we can take a very targeted approach to the market that can drive better results.”
A Rally Cry for Pork
The National Pork Board has been working closely with retailers, allied industry, stakeholders and other partners drive business.
“The time is now, and working with those partners is a great example of how the National Pork Board can be a catalyst,” he says. “The National Pork Board is an information hub. We don’t own a pig. We don’t own a pound of product. Our product is information, and that looks like our consumer segmentation data, the subject matter experts we have on staff at National Pork Board, and the relationships we maintain through the entire value chain.”
This campaign must be something the entire industry unifies around, Newman adds.
“It can’t just be a feel-good campaign that’s glitzy and sexy. It’s something we need to be able to capture ROI,” he says.
Launching a brand campaign is a monumental task, he admits. But from his perspective, being a third-generation pig farmer, it’s time for a rally cry.
“We need something we can all rally around,” Newman says. “The entire pork industry revolves around one simple concept: a consumer walks into a retail store and purchases pork, takes it home and cooks it, or a consumer walks into a restaurant, buys pork and eats it, and likes it enough to repeat the process.”
And if that doesn’t happen? The business won’t work.
“It doesn’t matter whether you sell breeding stock, feed or grain bins, build buildings, or are in the processing community, if we don’t have a consumer base who wants to eat the only thing we make, that creates a scenario for long term decline,” Newman says. “If we can’t rally around that, I don’t know what we can rally around.”
*Source: U.S. Census (3-year population trend by region), Circana (3-year trend of pork consumption [lbs])
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