Why the Pork Industry Needs to Build a Toothbrush
Every day we are flooded with stories that show the disconnect between consumers and farmers. As I listened to Mohan Sawhney, a professor at Northwestern University, discuss growth and innovation during a webinar hosted by the National Pork Board, I was reminded of the great challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the pork industry.
Today’s consumers, especially millennials, want to know where their food was raised and how. If we want to improve our market penetration, salience and ultimately, our relevance, we need to start asking ourselves hard questions.
Perhaps one of the biggest points I took home about how to grow pork consumption was a lesson Sawhney learned from Facebook and Google: Build a toothbrush.
“If you build a habit, something they will do day-in and day-out, you’ve got a great business. Google is a toothbrush. Facebook is a toothbrush,” he said. “We’ve got to make pork into a toothbrush – not something that’s exotic, that you do occasionally.”
No wonder why ground pork became so much more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s easy to prepare and practically fool proof. It goes with anything. How can we get more pork products into consumers’ weekly “habit” of go-to meal ideas?
He outlined three pillars for profitable and sustainable growth – the same concepts he shares with companies like McDonalds and Microsoft.
Innovation That Creates Value
“Think about innovation and all of its grand possibilities, not just limited to thinking about product or thinking about how we improve our efficiency in our operations,” Sawhney said.
Innovation creates new value – it is useless unless someone wants to pay for it. He says innovation is more about new combinations, not radical redefinition. Although you can borrow innovation ideas (and you should), remember it’s not copy and paste. “It’s copy, translate and paste,” he added.
A Focused Growth Mindset
Growth is important in business. But he urges the pork industry to remember to stay focused and disciplined. Don’t pursue growth for growth’s sake.
“I love the story a CEO shared with me some time ago. He said, ‘I never met a revenue dollar I did not like, but all dollars are not equally green.’ All growth is not good, sometimes growth can become toxic,” Sawhney said.
Unruly growth that is unchecked can be problematic. Growth should never be a strategy, he warned. It’s a tactic. Successful businesses find ways that growth can be profitable, sustainable and disciplined.
Consumer Centricity
Growth and innovation will be meaningful when focused on the customer, Sawhney emphasized. How will trends like the rise of convenience, food delivery, veganism, multi-cultural cuisine, dining and meal habits, among others, impact purchasing behavior?
In addition, Sawhney said we must make pork less intimidating to cook. I’ve heard that come up in a few conversations lately. For example, as much as I love pork ribs, they are not easy (for me) to prepare. As a busy mom of three kids, I’m looking for convenient, fast ideas because my time is pretty limited. How can we innovate ways to make pork easier to get from the meat case and on to more tables?
I recently shared how two Iowa farmers borrowed a concept from Etsy and built an online meat store during the pandemic that allows consumers to order directly from the farmer.
Consumer Greg Leichty of Denver, Colo., said he hopes this concept grows to “allow more consumers to have this higher-level of choice and the option to be more knowledge about the products and people who produced them when they purchase the food that they put on their table.”
In our latest Pork Perspectives, Hog Slat’s David Herring said people don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing food.
“I think we need to learn more about what our consumer wants and design products that are more desirable to them. I see it in other proteins, but pork is not leading the race in product innovation. I think this presents a great opportunity for the pork industry to increase pork consumption through new innovation,” Herring said.
As consumers find a new rhythm post pandemic, how will the pork industry innovate to build pork into that toothbrush for more consumers?
More from Farm Journal's PORK:
PORK Perspectives: A Minute with David Herring
Consumer Says "Etsy of Meat" Website Identifies a Gap in the Market
