reLAKSation 247. Callander McDowell
Birds Eye view: Seafoodintelligence.com quote a report in the Scottish edition of the Sunday Times in which Deputy Environment Minister Rhona Brankin agreed that the latest Birds Eye TV advertising campaign could backfire and cost jobs. She said that she was extremely concerned that the Birds Eye campaign could result in a damaging down turn in sales. She also said that she was disappointed that Birds Eye had adopted this negative style of promotion at a time when Scotland is trying to sustain remote fragile communities and promote a healthier diet by eating fish.
We at Callander McDowell are not sure how this campaign could be thought to backfire since surely the intention was always to persuade consumers to change from fresh farmed salmon to frozen pacific varieties. Any significant move from fresh farmed Atlantic salmon to frozen Pacific salmon could always result in a downturn in farming and a subsequent loss in jobs. This is not a backfire but a well defined strategy. Fortunately, it would seem that the advert has had little effect, probably because it was trying to be too clever.
The real problem for Birds Eye is that they have confused the message that they wanted to get over to the consumer. What they were trying to communicate to consumers was that frozen food can be fresher than fresh. They used at least three different TV adverts and the same number of advertising posters to get this message across. However, the message in the salmon advert was different to the others. For example, the cod advert focused on that fact that cod can be a number of days old before it reaches the consumer. By comparison, Birds Eye claims that cod, frozen at sea, is as fresh as the day it was caught.
Rhona Brankin’s comments may have come a little too late. The latest TV ads have moved off fish and onto beef burgers. In this Richard Johnson starts off walking down a street market. He says: We’re all busy and cooking a meal from scratch isn’t always practical. He then looks at the packs on a shop shelf. He continues: Burgers from the shops are a quick solution but are they made with the same ingredients that you’d use at home?
A man dressed like a supermarket butcher in white coat and hat responds: Some are but then some contain E301 or sodium metabisulphide. Richard asks: And that’s a preservative?
The picture then changes to Mr Johnson walking through a candlelit stone cellar. He says: In the eighteenth century they stored their food using nature’s preservative – nothing artificial, just ice and that one ingredient we’ve all got at home. The ad ends with a shot of Birds Eye beefburgers and the narrative: 100% beef burger 0% preservative. Birds Eye 5 star food.
Rather than pursue this freshness theme in the salmon ad, Birds Eye opted to address the subject of additives in the form of pigmentors. This did not fit in with the rest of their adverts and confused the overall message. We suspect that many consumers did not warm to the adverts anyway since frozen food does not have the same caché as fresh in the UK market. Birds Eye was always going to fight an uphill battle. These adverts are unlikely to change consumers’ minds.
No Catch: We, at Callander McDowell, are passionate advocates of fish farming and we welcome any new development. However, fish farming is a also business and therefore producers must produce what the consumer wants to buy and at a price the consumer is prepared to pay. This week, the first Johnson’s organic cod appeared in a British supermarket under the brand No Catch...Just cod. Unfortunately, we think that there is a catch, and that is the price. Johnson’s are offering consumers three different packs; 4 skinless fillets; 2 skin-on fillets and 1 boneless tail fillet. These are priced at £21.99/kg, £19.99/kg and £20.99/kg but the price has been discounted as an introductory offer. The current selling prices are £19.99/kg, £16.99/kg and £18.99/kg respectively
However, even the introductory price is very expensive for Tesco customers. Prepacks of Tesco cod fillet are usually £6.97/kg which is a lot cheaper than the organic version, but at present they are also on offer and have been reduced to £5.57/kg as part of a healthy eating promotion. This huge differential means that customers will have to be 100% convinced if they are to buy into the organic ethos. By comparison, Tesco sell organic salmon for £12.74/kg.
We are not yet persuaded that Tesco will be able to maintain organic cod at such a high price. Our observations of Tesco suggest that most introductory prices are usually maintained once the initial promotion ends. In addition, these prices are not really within Tesco’s price bands. Instead, they would be better suited to Marks & Spencer and Waitrose where their customers are more used to paying prices within this range and where the differential between traditional and organic varieties are more realistic. We only hope that high prices will not deter consumers from trying farmed cod, whether it is organic or not.
Lacking adventure: IntraFish report that innovation in seafood cuisine is being heldback by UK diners conservative tastes. Two chefs have said that the lack of any spirit of adventure discourages restaurants from serving more exotic fish. Serge Nollent of Young’s Bluecrest said that it is always cod, haddock, salmon and scampi whilst Tony Tizzard from Fish! thinks it is because people stick with what they know. IntraFish suggest that the conclusion is surprising give the explosion of celebrity chefs and the accompanying TV programmes, magazine articles and recipe books as well as the increased appetite for foreign travel and food.
Our view, at Callander McDowell, is that the British market is subjected to confusing messages. The bulk of the market is still very traditional. They continue to eat just cod and haddock and this is usually deep fried with chips. These people do travel abroad for their holidays but are usually to be found in the ‘British’ bars and pubs eating typical ‘British’ food. However, not all British people fall into this group. There is a section of the public who care about the food they eat; are interested in the ingredients they buy and the way that they cook them. These consumers also eat fish out in restaurants and are more likely to try something different from the traditional cod and haddock. Their taste for something different is also reflected by what’s available on the supermarket shelves. Thus it is possible to buy tuna, swordfish, marlin, monkfish, sea bass, sea bream and sardines.
The real problem is that because these consumers do care about the food that they eat, they also listen to the latest trends and the one that predominates is about buying and eating local British ingredients. It only is necessary to have watched the BBC2 TV programme Great British Menu which has spent five nights a week for eight weeks searching for the best of British food to serve to the Queen to celebrate her eightieth birthday. The final menu includes a starter made from smoked salmon farmed at Glenarm in Northern Ireland and a fish course of wild caught turbot.
It is this kind of TV programme which sets the standard and simply consumers are not that interested in looking for exotic dishes unless they are put into the proper context. Meanwhile, it seems that most British consumers would rather stick with the traditional.