Ron Glaser Q&A: What the New Check-Off Means for Canada Beef

Ron Glaser is Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Canada Beef and he also serves in another capacity for the agency on the Executive Leadership Team, responsible for setting Canada Beef’s strategic and business plans

a Canadian Meat Business exclusive by Cam Patterson

With the provincial regions signing into the National Check-Off this spring, and considering what is going on in the world of trade at present, it seemed a good time to have a chat with how Canada Beef was setting the course for this year’s marketing plan for the beef industry.

Canada Beef is focusing on four key areas:
• High Growth Market Segments,
• Marketing Program Expansion with Key Industry Partners,
• Protecting and Growing Canadian Beef Export Markets,
• Doubling the Business Generated by the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence

Ron Glaser (RG) was open to discussing the organization’s three year plan with Canadian Meat Business (CMB) and the direction Canada Beef is taking for the 2018/19 fiscal.

“We’re not banking on that extra revenue until it is finalized and actually in the pipeline”

 

CMB: We’d like to focus on what Canada Beef’s plan is for the increased check-off revenue along with the four core areas of your organization’s plans.

RG: Essentially, Canada Beef has operated on a successive series of three year strategic plans. And going back a couple of years we had a three year focus on what we called the Canadian Beef Advantage (CBA). Which in a nutshell is the technical attributes that differentiates us in the marketplace.

Subsequently, the next three year strategy focused on developing the Canadian Beef Brand itself. Basically what that did was built off of the CBA, which defined the technical attributes for our industry and our product. We took the CBA and added emotional attributes through the brand such as the Canadian Beef story, how our product is raised, consumer responses and preferences about the product and the industry, etc., and then blended the technical and the emotional – the head and the heart – to fully define the Brand. So, going forward we want to be more deliberate in terms of how we’re going to apply those tools and materials we’ve developed into the marketplace.

CMB: Let’s focus on those four areas.

RG: So building off the CBA and our Canadian Brand Positioning we’re looking to capture growth in specific market segments. By using consumer and market research tools we want to better understand the various niche audiences within those markets, understand what’s important to them, what they identify with, what they’re interested in with respect to our product, they’re lifestyle, those sorts of things.

We then use that information to create specific marketing programs for those specific audiences. In short having a better understanding of new Canadians, baby boomers, millennials, essentially all the niche audiences, and what their unique needs and wants and expectations really are when it comes to Canadian Beef products. Another way to think of this is Market Segmentation.

CMB: And how about the partnerships you’re forging with high volume retailers such as Sobey’s and Walmart?

RG: Yes, our Market Expansion plan. Over the last number of years we focused on partnering with the larger players in the marketplace with whom we reach a lot of consumers. It has been very successful for us to partner with retailers such as Costco and the ones you mentioned, and being able to influence what they have been doing with their Canadian Beef offering. The same goes for food service partners like Cara Group and their various house brands. And now with the new check-off coming online, we’re going to continue to make market partner expansion an emphasis and invest more in that area.

CMB: Essentially are these are co-marketing campaigns in those stores?

RG: Yes. This has been a value-added component. Canada Beef still performs direct marketing to our customers and trade partners, which falls under our High Growth Market Segments plan. But we also focus on expanding our scope with this Hand and Glove type of co-branding with these high value partners. And not just in Canada, but abroad as well. When it comes to the Canadian Beef brand we’ve really been front and centre in creating that identity, especially in international markets where our product resonates and we are seeing longer term commitments to Canadian Beef supply as a result of that. So these premium co-partnered, co-branded partnerships with retailers, food service providers, and distributors, who appreciate the market position that the Canadian Beef Brand offers to their business, is an invaluable marketing strategy.

CMB: With the current trade deals such as CPTPP and CETA and increase in exports to Asia and other markets, do you foresee a problem of not enough product being produced?

RG: Well, you are right that there has been an increase in Canada Beef product abroad and that is projected to increase even more over the next decade. But our industry has been able to grow domestic production hand in hand while our international market share grows by retaining and processing more Canadian Cattle at home.

CMB: What do you mean exactly?

RG: Well, historically there has always been a portion of our herds that has been fed and processed in the states, but over the past years we have been processing and finishing more and more of our own cattle here in Canada, and that’s where we have been able to grow the amount of product exported without actually seeing our herd grow in size.

CMB: Are these areas you’re focusing on are designed to meet the marketing demands that will come with the increased check-off? And does that includes the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence?

RG: Well certainly those are the three areas where we’re increasing our investments. The Centre of Excellence falls under that mandate. As our premier teaching and training facility we have entertained and educated international trading partners and missions from all around the world, basically taking them through cattle production processing, right to the dinner plate. We have organized plant and farm tours so they can see for themselves the added value in our entire production chain. The Centre of Excellence has not only been very valuable in terms of telling and showing what our Canadian Beef Brand stands for, but for encouraging and influencing successful value-added partnerships and long term market commitments.

Essentially, going forward, we want to escalate that experience.

CMB: How will you accomplish that goal?

RG: The Centre for Excellence is a physical location but there is an opportunity to take the centre on the road – to take the programs we offer there and develop them into an interactive experience by creating and developing electronic intellectual tools and information that we can share with partners anytime, anywhere. To be able to take the learning and teaching that is done in the centre around the world is a long term goal. To be able to take the staff and the expertise directly to the clients, trading partners, etc., would exponentially grow the industry value that we currently have with the Centre for Excellence. We’re really excited with this plan.

CMB: Where does Canada Beef stand with respect to regions signing on with the check-off increase? Did you expect the buy in too be this slow a process?

RG: Well, to be honest, we basically considered the first year of the check-off increase to be a wash. And that’s to be expected when each province has to contend with their regional approval processes before they could sign on. Some are quick, but others have more lengthy regulatory approvals, and we understand that. That said, our budgets are very similar with what we had last year. We anticipated that additional revenues would not be flowing in until year two or three following the increase announcement. That said, for this three year plan, we’ve set our budgets based on conservative estimates for what the increase could mean for each successive year. But, practically speaking, until those regional agreements are finalized and check-off is being collected and remitted at a higher level, we’re not banking on that extra revenue until it is finalized and actually in the pipeline.