The Rural Voice, 1983-08, Page 12Promoting
the beef industry
Making sure things go better with beef is a full time job for
Mary Eadie from Bruce county.
by Mary Lou Weiser
Beef sounds good to Mary Eadie and for
a couple of very good reasons. Not only
was she raised on a beef farm in the heart
of beef country, Bruce County, but now
she helps promote the beef industry as a
home economist public relations person
with the Beef Information Centre in Toron-
to. Located at the Ontario Stockyards in
west Toronto, the BIC is the consumer
promotion arm of the Canadian Cat-
tlemen's Association and provides infor-
mation to the public, from advertising to
retail merchandising. "Beef Sounds
Good" is the slogan for the BIC advertis-
ing campaign.
Although Mary lives in Guelph and com-
mutes to Toronto daily and travels to
many parts of Ontario promoting beef, a
map of Bruce county in her office says it
all. There is no place like Bruce county for
Mary and particularly Holyrood where her
father Lorne, and the four oldest of her
five brothers, farm a combined total of
2,000 acres with commodities including a
beef feedlot, a cow/calf operation,
chickens, and cash crops. Her youngest
brother, Alan, will be attending the Univer-
sity of Guelph in the fall. Being an only girl
and growing up with five brothers has its
ups and downs, Mary feels. "I never learn-
ed to fight because I knew I'd get beat up
if I did", she jokes, but on the other hand,
all those brothers are "great protection."
Mary has strong family ties, and coming
from a family that is so keenly involved in
the beef industry is a great asset in her
job. She graduated last year with a
Bachelor of Applied Science degree from
the College of Family and Consumer
Studies four year program at the Universi-
ty of Guelph and started working for the
BIC last September.
Her first major project was to organize
the Ontario Cattlemen's Association
booth at the Royal Winter Fair which In-
volved a lot of planning. Different com-
modity groups sell samples of their pro-
duct as part of the Foodland display and
the OCA sold barbequed beef on a bun.
The Royal is a good place to meet not only
the consumer but also the producer, and
they can see firsthand what is being done
to promote their product. Because they
are involved with promotion, the BIC is in
PG. 10 THE RURAL VOICE, AUGUST 1983
the public eye as much as possible, par-
ticipating in many shows and taking ad-
vantage of the media.
Mary recently travelled to Napanee and
talked about beef to a teacher's
workshop. then spoke on a talk show and
had a newspaper interview in Kingston
the next day. all to help promote beef in
Eastern Ontario.
Closer to home, Mary gave a slide -tape
presentation and answered questions at
the Bruce County Cattlemen's Ladies'
Night held recently in Red Bay. As well,
Mary represented the BIC at the Interna-
tional Plowing Match at Lucan last fall
where she gave her first cooking
demonstration on the preparation of beef
wellington and a stir fry to 400 women,
mainly wives in the ladies tent.
County displays are booked through
Mary whereby the BIC provides posters
and stickers and literature about beef and
may arrange for stores in the area to have
specials on beef to tie in with the display.
However, this is a costly promotion com-
pared to advertising, which costs 11/2
cents per person.
There are six Beef Information Centres
located throughout Canada and each of-
fice is responsible for a national program
area. Program areas for each office are
determined by the on -staff expertise, and
because of her background in social
studies, Mary is responsible for revising
the existing environmental studies kit for
elementary schools. "It's such a
challenge to try to translate a complex in-
dustry into terms that a nine or ten year
old urban child can relate to and you have
to really simplify the concepts." Mary
says. "The purpose of this kit will be to
familiarize the kids with Canada's largest
agricultural sector and show where the
major beef producing areas are In
Canada. And also to show them all the
really positive contributions the Industry
makes, not just in terms of very high quali-
ty protein and some of the best beef in the
world, but in terms of all the people it
employs." She added that "you can relate
the guy who manufactures concentrate
to the farmer himself to the shoemaker
and the packer in the grocery store. That's
why it fits into environmental studies."
Consumers have been hearing more
about beef in the past several months
then ever before, since the BIC launched
their advertising campaign, "Beef Sounds
Good". While the campaign thus far has
proven very effective to increase con-
sumer awareness about beef, it has
stirred controversy among many pro-
ducers.
Partial funding for the campaign comes
from a check -off that must be taken off a
cattle beast when it is sold at a sales barn
or wherever the transaction is made. If the
producer wishes, all or part of the check-
off will be refunded to him by the Ontario
Cattlemen's Association. Few farmers re-
quested refunds until last fall when the
check -off was tripled to support the in-
creased budget for the advertising cam-
paign. The first phase of the campaign
will run for one year until August, at a cost
of 2.8 million dollars. Phase two will also
run a full year with an estimated cost of
2.5 million dollars. The bulk of the phase I
advertising money has gone to television
commercials which show twenty-three dif-
ferent ways to serve beef in 30 -second
spots which are aired on TV hit programs
such as Dallas, MASH and Magnum P.I.
Other media coverage includes consumer
magazines and in-store merchandising.
Mary feels that part of the reason for
the high percentage of check -off refunds
"is a reflection of the economic struggles
that some farmers are going through."
Whatever the reason, budgeting for the
second phase of the campaign is difficult
when the amount of support is uncertain.
The OCA makes a commitment to the Na-
tional Advertising Campaign, and if too
many people come and get their money
back, they can't meet their commitments.
"How do you set an advertising campaign
six months or a year in advance if you
don't know whether the OCA is going to
be able to meet their commitment?" Mary
asks.
The check -off now represents 1/5 of 1
per cent of the market value of an animal
or about 13 cents per $100 of product that
goes toward promotion and advertising.
This promotional check -off is low in com-
parison to other farm commodity check -
offs. Ontario Pork Producers spend
24c/$100 while the Milk Marketing Board
have allotted $1.41/$100 of product. Pro-
ducers will have a plebiscite vote later thls
year to determine whether they want the
check -off to be refundable or not.
Research has indicated that the adver-
tising campaign is having a definite im-
pact on consumer attitudes and beef
usage and should be continued.
Mary couldn't agree more with the im-
portance of the campaign. "We're in the
position now where we have a mature pro-
duct. We have to hold our market share
rather then build it," she says. "The pur-
pose of the campaign is to maintain de-
mand for beef as it is now, and in a long
term maintain it, which is the big
challenge." She adds that "a lot of people