1998 Annual Report for FNC98-239
A Consumer Driven System to Natural Beef Marketing
Summary
Consumer awareness of production practices and product quality is key to marketing. The objective of this project was to give small beef producers a competitive advantage by developing a customer-driven market. The coordinator's strategy is based on product "localness" and customer environmental sensitivity. The coordinator wants to improve customers' environmentally value-added concepts of natural beef, identify customers and track their satisfaction, use positive reinforcement to recognize and reward repeat customers, and empower meat managers to promote natural beef. A Quality System Certification Program (QSCP) Guide has been developed. The coordinator also upgraded kiosk graphics for an in-store consumer survey, developed a newsletter, and planned a beef production and processing workshop for meat managers. The project has been extended to meet intended goals and assimilate data.