SI2M promotion for lamb

Press, 18 March 1985, Page 26

SI2M promotion for lamb

NZPA staff correspondent London The huge $12.2 million promotion to sell New Zealand lamb in Britain this year highlights the ex-

tremely sophisticated methods used to keep ahead of the marketing for the home product. The promotion’s director of the Meat Board in Lon-

don, Mr Chris Arnold, said that more than half a billion meals of New Zealand lamb would be served in Britain this year, based on the campaign of “educating the housewife” as well as stimulating demands from the catering trade. The board estimates that at least the same amount as last year — more than 11 million carcasses from New Zealand — will be sold in Britain, with the big promotional thrust beginning this month to counteract the big domestic kill. In trying to create demands through promotion the board believes the brand name of “New Zealand Lamb” has huge selling power among both individual consumers and caterers. The strict grading system, year-round availability and price consistency of the meat has attracted a strong demand from traders who need standard bulk supplies, Mr Arnold said. “Last summer we sold a lot more lamb than we should have simply because retailers also knew where they stood.” He believed this was also due to the board’s big campaign to convince customers that lamb was easy to handle in the kitchen and the main advertising programme now is aimed at providing a wide range of recipes. Mr Arnold said that surveys among consumers indicated strong recognition for New Zealand lamb with over half those questioned saying that they bought it, often in preference to other meat. To reinforce this the board is spending more than £ 1 million ($2.4 million) on television commercials to coincide with full colour advertisements in the main women’s magazines and widespread national newspaper advertising. Mr Arnold believed that the two main factors supporting sales of New Zealand iamb were that the British consumer liked lamb

and “has a soft spot for New Zealand.” But one problem was that lamb generally had been seen as not being of good value compared with other meats, nor particularly useful. “We are trying to make it easier for the consumer, so that lamb can be seen as a quick and cheap meal,” Mr Arnold said. He believed that although forecasts of British lamb were much higher this year

there were still opportunities to exploit “almost untouched markets” in Britain. An example of this was that Scotland took only 1 per cent of the sales last year “mainly because importers have known there is an easier profit in the South.” The British market still represented 70 per cent of the lamb sales from New Zealand to continue setting prices for sales to Iran and markets in other countries.