Sustainability continues to grow in importance for the modern chicken consumer. However, other factors, including rising prices and welfare practices, also play a role in purchasing decisions.
With consumer demand shifting rapidly – and competing values shaping purchasing decisions – how can marketers best engage with consumers?
Know your consumer
Consumer segmentation groups consumers according to shared characteristics, behaviors or preferences. It helps marketers better understand what’s motivating purchasing decisions.
“It all goes back to understanding who your consumer is and what they’re buying as it relates to your brand,” Bruce Blakeman, senior consultant and public policy and issues practice leader at Heart+Mind Strategies, said. “The more definitive you can be on the segment you’re going after, the better.”
For example, some chicken consumers may identify as value consumers, but are willing to splurge on certain things. For others, price is all that matters.
Organic chicken consumers are willing to pay a premium “because they think that’s the right thing to do either for themselves or for the globe,” Blakeman said. For other chicken consumers, important purchasing factors may include free-range or other animal welfare criteria.
Sustainability is another factor that plays a growing role in consumer purchasing decisions.
“The sustainability message is becoming more and more important, particularly as it relates to brands. To enhance your brand, having a strong sustainability leg to that brand positioning is becoming more and more important with consumers,” he said.
“It’s not just what people eat. It’s the things people buy, the cars they drive, the boxes that show up from Amazon. All of these things need to have a sustainability story now.”
Choose chicken?
With consumer concerns about sustainability at an all-time high, retailers and foodservice are prepping for the dawn of the climavore.
Long associated only with environmental issues, sustainability has transformed into a catch-all term also encompassing animal welfare and other topics.
During the global COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability expanded even further to include social issues. For meat and poultry processors, this meant consumers gained awareness of the extra work frontline workers took on, as well as greater scrutinized the conditions in meat plants.
In a recent survey of 1,000 consumers from Kearney, 40% of respondents indicated they nearly or always consider the environment when making purchasing decisions. Furthermore, the results revealed cost is “decreasing as a barrier to purchasing products claiming environmental benefits” despite rising prices due to inflation.
“A climavore is someone who makes a specific food choice based on the climate impact of that food choice,” Corey Chafin, partner for consumer and retail at Kearney, said.
For example, a climavore would choose chicken over beef, not necessarily because of taste, but because chicken is generally perceived as having a lower environmental impact.
“It’s someone who’s fundamentally making a food choice – not necessarily all food choices – but a single food choice based on the climate impact of that food choice,” Chafin said.
Chicken is in a unique position among proteins when it comes to sustainability.
“If you compare chicken to alternative protein sources like pork, beef, fish and even plant-based, there are so many attributes that chicken has and that it has the potential to improve upon and create a lot of new demand and new positioning when it comes to sustainable food,” he said.
Connecting with climavores
Chicken companies must focus on building trust to connect with climavores.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity there,” Erika Stewart, a consultant for consumer and retail at Kearney, said. “It dovetails with this need for education of how we’re actually going about solving things. I think we’re just in a broader environment with increased demand for traceability in general.”
Consumers are looking to chicken producers to push toward sustainable outcomes. They also expect producers to take the lead when it comes to education. They’re looking for education in the form of positive reinforcement. They want to feel good about the food choices they make.
Improved traceability will play a big role in educating consumers about sustainability efforts throughout the entire chicken supply chain. Advances in digital technologies – from artificial intelligence (AI) to sensors – can track and monitor chicken from hatch, providing information about how birds are fed, raised, processed and even transported to retail or foodservice.
“If you think about it from an animal welfare perspective, traceability plays a big role,” Stewart said.
Attend the 2023 Chicken Marketing Summit
The 2023 Chicken Marketing Summit will be held at Hotel Effie Sandestin in Miramar Beach, Florida on Monday, July 31 – Wednesday, August 2, 2023. Serving a unique cross section of the chicken supply chain, Chicken Marketing Summit explores issues and trends in food marketing and consumer chicken consumption patterns and purchasing behavior.
ROOM RATE EXPIRES SOON: The group rate for the Hotel Effie Sandestin is only available until July 7. Join us today!
For more information and to attend, visit: www.wattglobalmedia.com/chickenmarketingsummit/
