In-store retail promotions increase awareness of lamb and encourage more consumers to consider Australian lamb as an everyday meal option.
The Aussie Beef school education program is a new initiative aimed at shoring up confidence in Aussie Beef amongst parents and their children.
Media advertising is prohibitively expensive in Korea, so we sought alternative avenues including train station advertising.
A new Halal logo aimed at reinforcing Australia’s strict Halal standards in one of the world’s largest Muslim markets was launched to help grow Australian lamb and beef sales in the Middle East.
Export trade and consumer promotion
| PROGRAM OBJECTIVE | KPIs | OUTCOMES | BENEFITS | FUTURE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grow demand for Australian red meat internationally |
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Our activities this year, boosted with additional funding from the increased cattle transaction levy, continued to raise awareness of the safe, healthy and delicious attributes of Australian red meat. They helped to achieve a 8% increase in the volume of beef to 973,900 tonnes (valued at A$4.9 billion) and 5% growth in sheepmeat to 150,200 tonnes (valued at A$779.2 million) for 2006-07.*
This growth was achieved in the face of a rising A$, re-entry of other major beef exporters into our key markets and adverse seasonal conditions at home.
MLA conducted several key global initiatives this year, including forging into a new area for red meat marketing via category management trials which have already reduced supply chain costs and are now moving towards new product development. In Japan we conducted a consumer sensory study to support exporters in better targeting their product to meet customer demands.
We actively supported the joint promotion of 92 individual brands of Australian red meat products in our key export markets through industry collaborative agreements (ICAs) leveraging levy funds to amplify marketing efforts.
North America
Australia exported 302,838 tonnes of beef and 41,388 tonnes of lamb to North America during 2006-07 – a respective growth of 2% and 5% on the previous year.*
New Australian beef and lamb websites including a Spanish version were launched to build confidence in the quality and safety of Australian red meat among consumers and trade. The websites attracted 1.5 million visits over the year, and we further built our online marketing through a series of eight Australian lamb e-newsletters, notifying over 54,000 registered users about new recipes and events.
The ‘Easy. Any Day.’ advertising campaign was launched to challenge consumers’ perception of lamb as merely a ‘special occasion’ meal, and demonstrate that lamb can be quick and easy to prepare. The campaign consisted of four advertisements placed in a range of food and lifestyle magazines with a combined readership of three million, and the launch of a new consumer recipe book, Easy. Any Day – Australian lamb for all seasons.
We conducted profiling research to better understand the US retail and foodservice industries, how meat purchasing decisions are made, as well as identifying retailers, foodservice operators and distributors who are interested in learning more about Australian red meat. The research was used to enhance the North America business development strategy.
Australian beef and lamb also starred in the G’Day USA events held in Los Angeles and New York aimed at promoting all things Australian. These high profile events consisted of three gala dinners and saw Australian chef Neil Perry prepare Australian lamb on the Martha Stewart Show in front of an estimated 2.2 million viewers.
Japan
Australian beef continues to perform well in Japan with exports up 4% on last year to 403,172 tonnes* despite the impact of the rising A$ on the cost of Australian product.
Recognising the challenge from the US positioning its beef to regain market share this year, we ramped up our marketing activities in Japan to reinforce our position in the market, retain our customers and market share.
Synonymous with safe, healthy and delicious, Aussie Beef continues to build its reputation through ads and editorial in popular women’s cooking magazines and all five national newspapers.
Combined with an integrated print advertising campaign, retail promotions were developed to increase awareness and sampling of Australian beef - a key strategy to increase sales in this market.
Our Father’s Day promotion, involving 2,200 major retail outlets and 1,000 regional supermarkets, offered the equivalent of 2,000 days of in-store sampling. And Japanese families responded, serving up 21% more Australian beef during Father’s Day week compared with the previous week and increasing Australia’s market share from 69% to 74% over the period.**
The Aussie Beef school education program, trialled in seven schools around Japan, involved a series of presentations on the safety and nutritional benefits of Australian beef to 1,000 students, parents, teachers and school nutritionists. A children’s textbook featuring Australian red meat was developed and distributed to 10,000 school kids. The events received widespread media coverage in local newspapers, child-focused newspapers and magazines.
It was a much more difficult year in Japan for lamb. A slowdown in the growth of Genghis Khan restaurants (Mongolian BBQ), combined with a high level of stocks, led to a decline in chilled imports of lamb in 2006-07. The fall in the yen affected all imports, but particularly lamb, and processors experienced lower market returns for lamb compared to the alternatives.
In an effort to maintain exports of sheepmeat we included lamb as part of our 47 cutting seminars delivered to the Japanese trade. We also incorporated sheepmeat components into nine foodservice missions, along with 550 days of in-store demonstrations nationwide.
Korea
Australian beef has performed consistently well throughout the year with 156,703 tonnes exported, up 29% on last year.*
Our marketing programs in Korea continued to leverage the Hoju Chungjung Woo (Australian beef – clean and safe) brand with an integrated suite of activities.
We worked with retailers to conduct 22,000 days of instore sampling to stimulate awareness and product trialling; developed new point-of-sale material for 700 butcher stores and hypermarkets; and conducted 30 trade seminars on the safety and versatility of Australian beef for 550 buyers, retailers and chefs.
Culinary competitions – MLA Black Box Culinary Challenge, Pencil Box and Iron Chef – introduced new cuts of Australian beef to 180 chefs and achieved media coverage worth A$1.9million.
Korea is setting the global pace when it comes to internet use with more than 34 million Koreans (out of 48 million) getting online for an average of 14 hours a week. With this in mind, we boosted our efforts in online marketing with the Hoju Chungjung Woo website for consumers and commercial buyers. The informative and interactive site drew 125,000 visitors this year, and over 52,000 signed up as members to regularly receive recipes, information and online competitions and promotions for Australian beef.
The prohibitive expense of media advertising in Korea compels us to look for more creative alternatives, such as this year’s train station advertising campaign. Four train stations, through which more than 22 million commuters pass each day, displayed Hoju Chungjung Woo ads during the year. The results were outstanding in marketing terms with 50.7% recollection of the ads and 57.5% of these positive among consumers†.
Our success in raising awareness of and trust in the Hoju Chungjung Woo brand was again recognised this year, with it being named Korea’s leading food brand in the ‘Best Brand Awards’, judged by a panel of independent marketing and retailing experts.
Middle East
A key plank in our activities to grow Australian lamb and beef sales in the Middle East was the launch of a new Halal logo aimed at reinforcing Australia’s strict Halal standards in one of the world’s largest Muslim markets.
A tactical advertising and communications campaign on the safety, traceability and Halal standards of Australian red meat resulted in more than 35 media items with more than six million readers.
Our training seminars introduced 84 chefs, butchers and hotel managers to the superiority, reliability and versatility of Australian beef. This was further reinforced through the showpiece MLA Black Box Culinary Challenge in Dubai and our sponsorship of the ‘Time Out Steakhouse of the Year’ award in Abu Dhabi.
Europe and Russia
Until 2006, the Russian market was barely a blip on the radar of the Australian red meat industry. However, last year a unique set of circumstances saw Australian beef exports soar from 500 tonnes in 2005 to just over 12,500 tonnes, and exports of Australian mutton more than doubled to nearly 11,700 tonnes.* These circumstances included the European Union being unable to fulfil its frozen beef quota, the absence of US beef (due to BSE-related trade bans) and the lack of Brazilian beef in the market (due to FMD restrictions).
Building on Australia’s global reputation as a supplier of high quality red meat, we identified key importers, developed relationships, conducted meat quality training programs and linked them with Australian suppliers to capitalise on Russia’s emergence as a high-value market, with demanding consumers and a rapidly growing, five-star restaurant sector.
Much of our work in the European Union is focused on access issues, however we also invest in building relationships with the trade. We participated in a major trade show in Paris and made presentations to prospective retailers, which are critical to gaining ground in the competitive European market.
South-East Asia
Driven by demand from Indonesia’s manufacturing sector for frozen product, beef exports to South-East Asia grew 4% in 2006-07. Sheepmeat exports decreased by 6% as a result of a challenging exchange rate and high demand for lamb from alternative, higher value markets, particularly the US and Japan.
Australian red meat continues to face fierce competition in South-East Asia from Brazil, Argentina, India and New Zealand. However, well-established supply chains and co-funded marketing programs with six exporters have enabled industry to capitalise on Australia’s international disease-free status and differentiate itself from low cost suppliers, securing an average 80% of imported retail shelf space in the chilled beef sector.
Almost 250 foodservice professionals participated in the annual MLA Black Box Culinary Competitions in the region helping to increase their exposure and understanding of Australian beef and lamb.
The Handbook of Australian Meat was translated into Chinese, providing the trade with a resource to enhance their knowledge of Australian product to supply the growing Chinese market.
* Source: Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)
** Source: Agriculture and Livestock Industries Corporation (ALIC)
† Source: Embrain Co., Ltd.