Cattle Feeder Touts NCBA's
Beef "Brand-Like Initiative"

By David Bowser

SAN ANTONIO — Since the National Cattlemen's Beef Association announced its "brand like initiative" a couple of years ago, a core group has been working on developing it and putting it in place.

The initiative was started, according to James Herring of Friona Industries who helped spearhead the program's development, to help stem decreasing beef demand.

There were about six months worth of negotiations within the multi-segmented beef industry, he says, before they finally came up with a system that all the segments agreed to.

"We felt we could create a consistent quality product that we could all put out standards on," Herring says. "We did that."

The next step was to create a "brand-like commission."

"I chaired that," Herring says. "I volunteered to do it because I think it's so important to our industry to have this kind of stuff going on where we can focus on that consumer and that customer."

The seven-member commission was tasked with picking pilot projects involving a consumer product that would qualify for a symbol saying the product met certain standards.

"That would mean that that product had been through sort of the Good Housekeeping seal of approval," Herring says.

The symbol that was chosen was the familiar red check with "beef" written on it used by the Cattlemen's Beef Board.

"We got the check from CBB," he says. "It's nothing new. It's been around for a long time. We lease it from CBB and have an arrangement to use it for one-year licenses for selected products to bear that symbol. Maintaining the quality and accountability is really, really important."

That quality assurance check is the cornerstone of the program, not only in the end product, but throughout the production side.

"We're accountable for that product," Herring says. "We want to do something good for our customers."

Herring says the check put on those products would mean approval of production practices, labeling, quality of product and placement of product at the consumer's beck and call.

"It's been one of the most interesting endeavors of my career, and I think probably the most rewarding," he says. "You spend all your life in the production side of the beef industry, you get to see what's going on on the retail side. On the product innovation side, you get a whole different view of this business that we're in. You start thinking a little bit more about what you do to create a product."

Herring says the industry has to do it because of a $1.2 billion loss of market share over 16 years of steady declines.

"I've heard this so many times I'm about sick," Herring says. "We have that because we have a segmented production system from the producer level all the way through to the packer, through the channels of distribution to the consumers."

He says none of the segments talk to each other.

"It's always antagonistic," he says. "Everybody knows they've got to get their money for their performance from someone else. It's a heck of a mess."

Such a system sends irregular signals and results in an inconsistent product. The solution is for the to become more consumer-oriented in its approach, he contends.

"We have to send a clear signal to the consumer that we're accountable," he explains. "That we want them to know that."

But they needed a way to put that symbol of quality and convenience before the public.

"We wanted to just get into an area and get it started," Herring says. "We wanted to put that symbol on something to start the revolution. We wanted to get it in an area that was clear for somebody to see it and where we had a chance for national distribution."

He says they wanted a chance for people to see what they were trying to do.

"The table stakes are great," Herring says. "We win the battle of taste with the other proteins. That's easy. That's something that's a given. If we can deal on that, it's a strength."

They focused on consumer-friendly packaging, accurate cooking instructions and convenience on products the industry needs to sell, beginning with products that could be microwaved or cooked in seven minutes.

"Our first meeting in Chicago was really interesting," Herring recalls. "There were seven volunteers sitting around the Culinary Kitchen. If you've never seen it, it's a thrilling thing to see those gals running around doing great things with beef products. You get a little confidence about what can happen in the industry."

They sat around a table and tested and reviewed evaluations of all the products at Culinary Kitchen in Chicago.

"Thank goodness, we had five or six companies — small, entrepreneurial, regional companies — that were will to give this a try," Herring says.

They were willing to try it in their stores and see if they could build brand loyalty to it.

Even a packer became involved. Excel brought in several branded products; Hormel had some. Most of the companies, however, were regional.

Two national companies also stepped forward with products, Stouffer's and Louis Rich.

Stouffer's, a division of Nestle, created Beef Skillet Sensations, which they introduced in the marketplace in September.

With Stouffer's and Louis Rich, they went from regional products to national.

"They came to us for immediate use of the beef check," Herring says. "We had an emergency meeting and reviewed the products. They were fabulous. The preparation instructions and labeling were great. Everything was great. This is a wonderful product."

With the launch of Beef Skillet Sensations in September, Stouffer's advertising campaign with newspaper inserts hit 44 million readers across the country.

"If you can get that beef check in front of 44 million faces in this country, 16 percent market penetration with a national brand, you're making some progress," Herring says. "I'm tickled to death about this."

Stouffer outpaced Green Giant's Create a Meal, dominating that category of products.

"Success in the store was almost immediate," Herring says. "Now those products dominate frozen meals."

Louis Rich, a division of Kraft, will launch a line of products in January bearing the red beef checkmark logo. Louis Rich describes it as a preseasoned, precooked, direct assault on chicken.

"This is another big success for our brand-like initiative," Herring says.

They are resealable packages of beef strips that can be used cold or hot in a number of applications.

"They just provide what we've been looking for for a long time," Herring says.

It's a meal solution, he says, for time-constrained families.

After it is introduced, Herring says he is confident it will be the product of the decade.

All these products carry the red beef checkmark logo.

"These kinds of successes are clearly going to add momentum to our program of trying to create understanding of a brand," Herring says, "and communication of that brand-like existence to all the segments involved in our food production system."

In the future, Herring says, the industry needs to create more relevance and understanding for the brand and what it means, and continue a consistent application of that symbol for good products and good practices.

Successful companies, he says, have been able to change their brands over time as consumers have changed their attitudes toward products.

"We've got to make sure that evolution of the beef mark represents new products and services that build relevancy with consumers without sacrificing our one point of clear differentiation — that's taste," Herring says. "Every piece of data that we can find, we're just killing the opposition on taste. There's just so much chicken you can stand."

The program revolves around nutrition, quality and flexibility.

Herring says beef is loaded with nutrition.

Quality is where the feeder and the cow-calf and stocker operations come in. They have to provide the raw material.

The industry also has to be flexible, Herring says, and have a production that evolves with the times.

"Any system that lacks the flexibility to deal with the changing consumer of today is going to lose," Herring insists. "Case closed.

He says the poultry and swine industries are doing well because they are rapidly moving to a line production system that can quickly adjust to consumer demands.

The next step is to move the brand-like initiative concept downstream.

Herring says the brand-like initiative commission is meeting Dec. 3 to go over 16 state Beef Quality Assurance plans.

"Texas Cattle Feeders is one of the first ever to create a Beef Quality Assurance program," Herring says. "They will be at the table to discuss how we display and validate the concept of good management practices and BQA down at the production level to create a raw material coming through the system that makes sense."

He says they will choose as a brand-like initiative the beef quality assurance programs at the state level, which then can take producers from those states and approve them for the use of the symbol on their promotional material.

"It won't be too long before you see the brand symbol on a ranch or a stocker operation or on a calf yard or on a feedyard or in a packing plant," Herring says. "That's how we add relevance to the brand."

He says there will also be pilot tests of vertically coordinated systems. There are already about a million cattle involved in vertically coordinated systems.

"That's not vertical integration," Herring explains. "You don't have to worry about that. That's impossible in our business, but coordinated production is not. It can happen. It is happening."

Success of such systems, he says, should result in a more consistent product.

"All of that is about creating meaning and relevance," he says.

The more the beef checkmark logo is used, the better recognized it will be.

Herring says the beef product should be easy to choose and easy to use.

"Our products have got to be more easy to use, more convenient," he says. "It's got to assist that homemaker in time management. It's got to provide a solution."

The key is reaching and gaining the cooperation of those in the beef production chain.

"The cow-calf operator, the stocker operator, the feedlot, distribution chain, the marketer, if all of us consistently deliver on brand promise, then we have something," he says. "It is what's for dinner."