Make Ground Beef an Even More Convenient Option for Customers

Posted to BeefRetail.org in conjunction with November 2009 issue of Retail Beef Blast.

It's no secret that today's customers are looking for convenient and affordable meals. Today's households are faced with many challenges that limit meal-preparation time. The number of women working outside the home is on the rise, and parents and kids alike have busier schedules these days. Ground beef is the versatile and convenient ingredient that should be a staple on home menus, helping time-starved families get creative and nutritious meals on the table quickly.

Recent beef checkoff-funded research examined the demand for ground beef and merchandising ideas to increase the demand. Nine focus groups were held in three cities to test concepts that maximize the positives of ground beef as currently perceived by consumers. The people selected for the focus groups had to meet qualifications including: being a primary grocery shopper for their household and consuming ground beef at least once per week at home.

Merchandising Ideas to Capitalize on the Demand for Ground Beef

Merchandising ideas like these came out of the research:

• Many consumers look to save money by buying large packages of beef and breaking them down into smaller packages for freezing when they get home. Make their lives easier when merchandising large packages of ground beef; package the beef into smaller packs bundled together in one big package. This simple added step on your end will make a world of difference for the customers who want to refrigerate some ground beef and freeze other portions for later use.
• Make ground beef patties for burgers using lean ground beef. Your customers will appreciate the time saver, not only for a weeknight meal, but also for a larger crowd.
• If you grind your own beef, add a steak grind to the selections in the meat case. Customers will be satisfied with the restaurant-quality, coarsely ground texture perfect for thicker patties.
• Many customers come to your meat case looking for a complete meal solution. Why not give them one? Solve their dinner dilemmas by providing dry items like boxes of pasta, sauces, Parmesan cheese and a basket of fresh baguettes right by the meat case. They'll be able to get everything they need for dinner in one stop. This idea works especially well with sale items; if a pasta sauce, for instance, is on sale one particular week, your customers will appreciate your efforts to call additional cost-saving opportunities to their attention.
• Feature ground beef recipe cards by the meat case to give customers fresh meal ideas. Rotate these weekly to help add variety to your customers' dinners. Your meat case will become a shopping destination for solutions.

Latest Sales Trends Show Positive Increase

Shoppers frequently purchase ground beef, often on every shopping trip, to use in everyday meals like burgers, tacos, spaghetti, lasagna, stuffed peppers or a variety of ethnic recipes.

Sales data shows sales of ground beef trending upward. Over the past two years, there have been significant increases in year over year sales, indicating that more and more customers are finding value in ground beef. This data is significantly relevant to your bottom line; ground beef represents 46.8 percent of beef retail pound sales, so even a small increase in sales can create a large benefit to your bottom line.¹

Versatile, family-friendly, affordable and delicious, ground beef continues to be a customer favorite. With a little planning and creativity, you can shine a brighter spotlight on the value of ground beef in your meat case to increase demand even more.

^{1 FreshLook Marketing, beef dollar and pound sales, 52-weeks ending 9/27/09.}
2 FreshLook Marketing, beef dollar and pound sales, 52-weeks ending 9/28/08 & 9/27/09.
Source: Increasing Ground Beef Value Research, January 2009, funded by the beef checkoff.