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Marketing the Meat Case: Innovation the Key to Success
Stepping outside traditional marketing pays dividends for savvy retailers.
September 30, 2020
2 Min Read
Stepping outside traditional marketing pays dividends for savvy retailers.Photograph courtesy of Meat & Livestock Australia
Sponsored by Meat & Livestock Australia
As retailers adjust to consumers’ new ways of shopping and more cooking at home, finding and engaging with shoppers in non-traditional ways has never been more relevant. The most desirable shoppers—ones with higher income and bigger baskets who are willing to pay for higher quality meats—are more likely to be drawn to those marketing methods. According to a national survey on the grassfed beef U.S. consumer shopping journey, these shoppers are attracted to the quality, natural and health attributes of these products, and tend to pre-plan their shopping visits. This makes “getting on the list” an essential first step to engagement and higher sales.
Especially for the meat case, here are some newer marketing methods that are proven to drive sales at retail. The country-of-origin marketing group True Aussie Beef & Lamb has trialed of all of these approaches, and shared their findings.
Chatbots
Using chatbots for marketing allows retailers to personalize help for shoppers when they’re looking for recipe ideas and cooking tips, in an easy, low-contact format that they’re already doing all day—looking at food content on their phones and texting. They’re drawn in by recipe videos and eye-catching food content, and invited to opt into a chat experience to get recipes curated just for them. Once consumers are there, retailers have an engaged shopper and can connect them directly to pre-load their shopping cart or list.
Shoppable recipes
Shoppable recipes are simply paid placements for recipes with embedded links to e-carts for purchase. With eye-catching photography and on-trend recipes to draw shoppers in, retailers are paving in the path to purchase and facilitating the customer journey. Notably, this tactic increases foot traffic, not just impressions and digital cart sales.
“We’ve been thrilled with the success of our marketing trials so far, and would love to test more of these non-traditional methods both in-store and digital to bring shoppers to the meat counter for our retail partners,” said Catherine Golding, Business Development Manager of Meat and Livestock of Australia, North America. “As the dominant imported source of both grassfed beef and lamb in the US, chances are we’re already in your meat case – why not take advantage of the marketing boost!”
Personalized videos
Micro-targeted video ads based on location, time and demographic, these ads are meant to reach a shopper when they’re most receptive to food and recipe content. Retailers can even adjust for the weather, showing grilling ideas only when the weather’s good, for instance. By including or connecting retailer brands and “where to buy” information with the content, retailers add a step towards purchase to an engaged shopper.
Those interested in learning more, seeing the metrics behind the programs, or partnering up with True Aussie should drop a line to [email protected].
