A journey through National Seafood Week

On September 18^th 2007 a press statement was released stating that “Seafood Week 2007 is set to be a major success with the organisers Seafish reporting the best ever industry support since the campaign started in 2000.” The full press release can be read at http://www.seafish.org/2aweek/whatsnew/detail.asp?newsid=104 but it goes on to say “Nikki Hawkins, Seafish account manager said ‘I have been involved with Seafood Week for the past five years and every year I am delighted and encouraged by the support and enthusiasm of the industry. We have some excellent events and offers lined up across the country – consumers are in for a real treat’.”

This is an offer which we, at Callander McDowell, could not ignore. As we visit the major retail stores on a daily basis, we were keen to see what sort of treat consumers could look forward to. We have to admit that in the past we have been rather scathing of this annual promotion because it simply did not live up to the expectation created by the pre-publicity. We hoped that this year, the promotion would be very different.

Although, the week long promotion involves all sorts of businesses, the main interface for consumers and seafood are the major supermarkets, which are now responsible for the bulk of fish and seafood sales and thus became the focus of our search. According to the Seafish press release, Asda, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, the five Seafood Week supermarket partners are all holding promotions throughout the UK including tastings and special events.” However, we didn’t restrict our visits to just these five continuing with our data gathering in fourteen different supermarket chains.

The National Seafood Week website detailed what each of the five supermarket partners would be doing for the week long promotion. This provides the basis to see whether what we found matches what was expected.

Asda – The National Seafood website states that ‘promotions encouraging customers to give fish a try: customers will be offered fish in 3 easy steps - choose the fish, then a free portion of butter in one of four flavours, take it home in an oven ready bag, creating a simple meal solution ready to cook.’

Whilst the implication is that Asda will be running this ‘cook in the bag’ promotion, the reality is that Asda have been running this campaign since the beginning of September and are expected to continue doing so until they roll out the Christmas promotions. It just happens that National Seafood Week coincides with their latest round of promotional activity and advertisements. Although to be fair to Asda, one or two of their stores have made an effort to promote past Seafood Weeks by decorating the fish counter with balloons and displaying a Seafood Week banner but not recently.

This year Asda have changed their advertising away from their pocket tapping jingle. Instead, the adverts use a range of celebrities working in various departments of the store. The series began with comedienne Victoria Wood working in the bakery section. The latest uses ex Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright in the fish department. The full advert can be seen at (http://utalkmarketing.com/Article.aspx?id=2844). The theme is the new ‘cook in the bag’ packaging that allows consumers to select a piece of fish and then a portion of flavoured butter which are then sealed together in a bag that can be put straight into the oven to be cooked. The idea is to make buying and eating fish simpler and it remains to be seen whether it is a success or not. This is not the first time that the cook in the bag has been launched as it appeared earlier this year but the concept had not really been thought out as then just the fish was sealed in the bag. This meant that it was not even possible to season the fish prior to cooking let alone add any flavourings or butter.

This promotion was already winding down as Seafood Week began and was not really evident in store. However, neither was National Seafood Week. Asda had given the promotion some pre-publicity in its in house magazine with a two page spread, one of which is shown below:

However, when it came to promoting the week in store, Asda fell rather short. The fresh fish counter remained completely bare of any publicity material nor was any found elsewhere in the store.

The only evidence of Seafood Week in any the Asda stores visited was found on the shelves of chilled fish. Selected packs of fish carried a sticker detailing a 'Two for One' hotel offer that formed the basis of Asda's contribution to National Seafood Week. Asda customers may wish to take advantage of this hotel accommodation offer but it is not really an incentive to eat more fish.

As can be seen, the offer sticker does include the '2 a week' logo but that was the sole evidence of the promotion in Asda. There was certainly no evidence of any tastings or special events but then neither was there in Marks & Spencer.

Marks & Spencer – The website states that there is a ‘Special 'buy one, get a second half price' offer on chilled, pre-packed fish and ‘cook’ fish products. Trial size pack of fish free for account holders.’

Marks & Spencer appeared to make most effort of all the National Seafood Week supermarket partners to promote the week long promotion. They even extended the promotion because their Oxford Street store was already promoting the week three days before the promotion began. Marks & Spencer stores changed their shelf edge labelling to National Seafood Week and the shelves displayed small information cards advising of the promotion and the two a week message. Customers could be left in no doubt that it was National Seafood Week.

Customers were given further encouragement to buy fish with the 'special' buy one get second half price offers. However, this deal was not that special as it has been running on a changing range of products for some months. During National Seafood Week, M&S customers could also buy breaded chicken on the same deal.

M&S did have a trial pack of Lochmuir salmon on display, although fresh salmon did not appear to be part of the Seafood Week promotion in M&S. There was no indication that this was being given away free to account holders.

As in Asda, there was no evidence of special events of tastings in any M&S store visited.

Morrisons – The website states that ‘Free ‘Have you tried?’ booklets will be available from fish counters, encouraging customers to sample alternative, more sustainable species, with recipe ideas and top tips.’

Morrisons did eventually display a fresh fish booklet at their counters. It wasn't called 'Have you tried' but it does contain information on sustainability, the two a week campaign and recipe ideas. Otherwise, there was no evidence of the National Seafood Week promotion in any Morrisons store visited. In previous years, Morrisons have usually produced a new leaflet for Seafood Week usually including a competition but not this year. Equally, we have previously come across a tasting in a Leeds branch of Morrisons that was run by a Humber based fisheries organisation, but not this year.

Morrisons own website included a calendar showing the dates of the week long promotion and drawing attention to special offers available from the fresh fish counter. These offers were actually no different from those offered the previous week and were similar to those that run continuously on Morrisons fish counters.   

Sainsbury’s – The website states that ‘Staff will receive training about fish sustainability and the importance of ‘2 a week’. This will also be rolled out to local schools. There will be a customer leaflet available on Seafood Week as well as a money-off coupon on-pack on selected fish products.’

We don't know whether Sainsbury's provided fish counter staff with extra training nor whether local schools benefited from this increased knowledge but we do know that they fulfilled their intention to provide customer leaflets and money off coupons in store. Certainly, we found evidence of this promotional material in every store we visited.

National Seafood Week promotional material on Sainsbury's fish counters and chilled fish shelves.

The leaflet was available both on counters and the chilled fish display

Packs of chilled fish carried a money-off coupon.

However in common with other supermarket stores, there was no evidence of tastings or special events.

Waitrose – The Seafood Week website states that ‘Seafood recipe cards available in store, along with a customer leaflet including ideas on how to incorporate seafood into your diet twice a week. Customer tastings will also be taking place during Seafood Week.’

In the past, Waitrose have been most active during Seafood Week with discounted price offers across the whole range of fish species from their fish counters. The price labels usually refer to Seafood Week although they are not prominent and customers may be forgiven for thinking that the store is just being unusually generous. Some prepacks of chilled products have carried a two a week sticker during the promotion. Waitrose offer recipe cards on a continuous basis.

This year, Waitrose appeared to have forgotten Seafood Week with no change to their usual promotion, nor any evidence of National Seafood Week promotional material.

Although recipes cards were available as usual, none were really directed towards a seafood promotion. Waitrose did have a significant link to National Seafood Week on their website providing a whole range of fish information which wasn't apparent in store.

Although there were just five National Seafood Week partner supermarkets, a couple of others undertook some form of promotional activity. Some packs of chilled fish in Tesco carried a sticker offering a pampering break such as a massage as part of National Seafood Week. At least we presumed that it was part of this promotion because there was nothing to say so just that the stickers included the 'Two a week' logo.

We saw our only evidence of a tasting at a Tesco store. Sadly, it wasn't for fish but rather Nescafe coffee.

Packs of chilled fish sold under the Young's brand in Somerfield store also carried a sticker with a 'Two a week' logo along with a message to eat more fish. This label was specifically intended for Young's products as it included a reference to their website.

Finally, the National Seafood Week website was keen to draw attention to individual businesses in 'your' local area. The list for our own area, the North West, contained just seven, one of which was the Haydock Plaice fish and chip shop. According to the website, this 'chippy' was to run special Seafood Week promotions with special prices for fish and chips as well as fish meals and fish cakes. We thought that this was sufficient incentive to merit a visit.

Although it was halfway through the week long promotion, we found no evidence of any special prices. The fish and chips we bought were priced as advertised on their menu board. There was a Seafood Week poster in the window (the blue one) and also one inside but they were mixed in with other posters ranging from local events to advertising for a pie producer. It certainly didn't do anything for us.

So what is our view of National Seafood Week? Once again, we don't think it lived up to the industry hype although there was more evidence of its presence than possibly in previous years. The problem is that the promotion is focused on those consumers that already eat fish. Perhaps because the underlying message is the 'two a week' campaign, this is not surprising. However, what about those consumers that don't eat fish? Are we not interested in encouraging them to try fish and get them to eat fish once a week, or even once a month.  Most supermarket shoppers never go anywhere near the fish counter so never see the National Seafood Week promotion nor hear the message that it tries to convey. Instead, the promotion needs to be taken away from the fish counters and into the more popular areas of the supermarket, preferably near the entrance where most shoppers would see it.

We appreciate that the overriding factor is money and this dictates what is and what is not possible but at the moment, we do not think that the current promotion is a true celebration of fish and seafood. Neither does it really encourage new consumers to try fish, or existing consumers to eat more. The proof surely is that, according to Seafish, only 28% of consumers eat fish twice a week. Is this really enough?