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Reaching Consumers Through The Internet
The convergence of the Internet boom and the current economic downturn is having a permanent impact on consumer spending habits and brand perceptions, according to recent research from a marketing company known as Interpublic Group’s Initiative. The research was done with their proprietary online consumer panels, made up of 3,200 economically active family and pre-family online consumers in U.S. and Western Europe.
This impact provides an unexpected opportunity for companies to develop stronger customer relationships. Traditionally, recessions cause temporary changes in consumer behavior, but the Internet has changed the game. Consumers are more and more often turning to the Internet to learn how to stretch their budgets and how to investigate brands and products.
During the past year, 75 percent of consumers have altered their purchasing behavior, often trading down or even changing entire lifestyle patterns, according to the research. Seemingly intense brand loyalties are being challenged as consumers spend time researching products and gathering opinions from other purchasers. Forty-three percent of consumers trust online consumer sites such as blogs, review sites and forums, while 48 percent trust expert opinion. It appears the days of blind faith in traditional brands are over.
To take advantage of this opportunity, brands need to demonstrate their support of the consumer. As this shift in behavior continues, successful brands will engage with consumers on their own terms, through more touch points, building trust by meeting consumers’ expectations of competence, reliability, security and honesty. Opportunities for the food industry are enhanced by the research finding that supermarkets are increasingly seen as trustworthy in the current climate. In addition, compared to the average consumer tendency to maintain spending levels, they are 19 percent more likely to maintain spending on meat. There is a definite opportunity to demonstrate your brand as one that is authentic, honest and personal for the consumer.
To increase engagement with the consumer, the BIG team is encouraging companies producing beef products to link their Web sites to the checkoff-funded BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com. Recent qualitative research on the site demonstrates its potential to connect with the consumer. Participants in this study were surprised and pleased to find the vast range of beef information including food safety, cooking lessons, types of cuts, lean cuts, and most importantly, beef recipes.
As consumers are making trade-offs with the state of the economy, the number of Internet searches for recipes has drastically increased. In fact, more consumers visit AllRecipes.com per month to access recipes than the entire monthly circulation for Better Homes and Gardens. According to a 2008 study by Unilever, more than 30 percent of consumers are eating at home more often, which makes the recipe database a perfect fit for the website. Food Marketing Institute conducted a study in 2008 called ‘The Power of Meat — An In-Depth Look at Meat Through the Shoppers’ Eyes.’ The study has shown that the average family has five dinners at home per week, with an average of 4.2 of these meals including a meat item.
Along with proven beef recipes for all occasions, BeefItsWhatsForDinner strives to meet consumer expectations by providing reliable, straightforward information. It is these added features that differentiate the site from other recipe sites.
The BeefItsWhatsForDinner features most appealing to consumers include:
• Organized and easily understood recipes
• Hard-to-find basic food information
• Visual layout and enticing photos
• Shopping for Beef pages (Types of Cuts page in particular)
• Celebrations and Summer Grilling pages
• Cooking Lessons
• Food Safety pages
BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com
To further enhance the consumers’ relationship with beef, companies may wish to link to explorebeef.com. This newly introduced site is the successor to the checkoff-funded beeffrompasturetoplate.org and provides information about beef production from those who know it best, America’s beef producers. This site invites consumers to learn about the carefully developed practices implemented to ensure a nutritious, safe, beef product reaches their dinner table. Take advantage of this consumer site to demonstrate to your customers the competence, reliability and authenticity of your product.
The checkoff also supports two additional Web sites for specific audiences – beefretail.org for retailers and beeffoodservice.com for foodservice operators. Taken together, these four sites provide “all things beef” for your potential customers.
To begin your recipe search on BeefItsWhatsForDinner, click here. For further information, please contact Jim Ethridge at jethridge@beef.org.
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