Maybe You Shouldn’t Tell Folks You’ve Got Grass-fed Animals

You remember Romeo and Juliet, don’t you?  When her father heard the name of the man she loved, she knew he’d be angry.  So in a fit of “marketing” Juliet said to her sweetheart”

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet…
…Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.”

Just as Romeo thought it was a good idea to give up his name for the sake of obtaining his true love, you might consider a new name for your product based on some information researchers have found about what customers prefer when thinking about pasture-based meat.

When Ady Voltedge, a firm specializing in branding, ran focus groups to find out more about consumer attitudes and interest in grass fed products, they learned that “grass-fed” conjured up images of confined cattle being fed grass.  Participants preferred the term “pasture-grazed” because to them it presented an image of cows harvesting their own feed on pasture.  When I told a friend what focus group participants thought about the term “grass fed” she said, “Well, obviously, those were uninformed people!  Everyone knows what grass fed means!”

Actually, the people in the focus group were picked because they were informed consumers.  All of them had an interest in and experience with local, pasture-based, artisanal foods.  They were considered to be “opinion leaders” or “cutting edge buyers” and the assumption was that their answers would give us an idea of future trends. What they told researchers is that pasture fed and grass fed rank 3.26 and 3.23 respectively on an attractiveness scale from 1 to 5 (five being the best).  The term “Pasture grazed” hit 4.9.  Then participants described the ideas they linked with “pasture grazed” saying that it is “healthy for cows and people,” “sustainable,” “natural” and “chemical free.”  Aspects of the pasture grazed concept that they found least attractive were the scientific background and the “healthy fats” concept.

These focus group results were part of a larger project conducted from 2009 – 2012 by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection and their partners.  In addition to looking at consumers, they also talked with restaurateurs and distributors and retailers.  What they learned is that both groups are interested in products for both flavor and the stories behind them.  Smaller scale distributors said that the stories sell the product.

When the name of your product paints a picture in the customer’s mind, half the story is told.  So what can you add that will tell an even more compelling story?  Michigan researchers found that when it comes to deciding to buy pasture-based products customers want a product that is:

• Humanely raised
• Environmentally friendly
• Produced without supplemental antibiotics or hormones

When asked, these folks agreed that pasture raised products were healthier for people and said they were willing to pay higher prices to obtain this meat.  They were less interested in whether the product was local, or in knowing the farmer.

If you’re shaking your head at this point, thinking “What do researchers know?” all I can say is really, they know nothing, and that’s why they ask questions of our potential customers.  Then they give their findings to us and we can decide what to do with the information.  As you consider that information, consider this as well: you know that “Happy Cows Come  from California” campaign?  The marketers paid attention to what people wanted, and told them a story that went with that.  It turns out that folks have seen that commercial so many times that now the majority of people believe that most dairy cows graze in pastures.

I’d love to hear what you think and what else you’d like to know about your customer as you market your products.  And will you, like Romeo say:

“I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo Grass fed.”