reLAKSation 313. Callander McDowell
Wrong message?: IntraFish reports that a panel of experts at the World Seafood Conference in Dublin have concluded that the public are misreading the messages that are supposed to encourage them to eat two portions of fish per week. Rather than persuade consumers to eat more fish, the two a week message is actually causing people to eat less fish. Donal Maquire, aquaculture development manager for the Irish Sea Fisheries Board said that even the regulators were now prepared to admit that the two a week message had been ill-thought out. Mr Maquire had been surprised by the groundswell of opinion at the conference that the advice isn’t working.
The panel including Professor Patrick Wall of the European Food Safety Authority concluded that the advice does nothing to promote the benefits of eating fish and seafood. Instead it is based on the theoretical risk of contamination. This has led to consumers assuming that there must be something wrong with the fish if they are being advised to eat only two portions of fish a week and this has led some consumers to stop eating fish altogether.
We, at Callander McDowell, have never been great advocates of the two a week promotion because it ignores the fact that many consumers never eat any fish at all. Whilst the implication of the two a week message is that the public should limit their fish consumption to two portions a week, it also implies that those who only eat one portion a week or less should increase consumption to twice a week. However, this promotion does little to encourage those consumers who do not eat any fish, to even consider eating just one portion.
Some years ago, the salmon industry considered ways to encourage increased consumption of salmon. It was decided that it was easier (and cheaper) to persuade consumers who already eat salmon to eat more rather than encourage those who don’t eat salmon to start doing so. There is a much greater hurdle to get non-fish consumers to start eating fish than to get those who already do so to eat more. The two a week campaign follows a similar approach, encouraging existing fish consumers to eat the two portions recommended each week.
The two a week message was never going to encourage the non-fish consumers to try eating fish because it was the wrong message. This section of the public were never going to be concerned about the adverse affects of eating too much fish because they never ate any at all. They needed a different message although some might argue that the health benefits of fish and seafood could be and should be advocated to all. Yet, consumers don’t want to be bombarded with the healthy living and eating message all the time. There are other reasons for eating fish and seafood than the health message. Perhaps the best reason of all is simply that fish and seafood are just good to eat. Yet, although fish and seafood make good eating, there are plenty of people who just don’t want to try it. This is usually because the public have negative feelings about fish mainly as they are promoted as looking like fish with all the unwanted extras such as heads, eyes, scales and fins as well as being slimy to touch. This is the image that most people have about fish and one that most want to avoid.
Of course, this image is not necessarily the same as that which most retailers use to present their fish. Some have tried to present fish as a standard portion more akin to a beef steak or chicken breast. Yet, however much retailers promote this type of presentation they still like to decorate their fish counters with all sorts of different types of whole fish. So whilst they hope to attract new customers at the same time they deter exactly the same customers. We shall look at one such new approach in more detail further into this issue of reLAKSation. We, at Callander McDowell, have always believed that the real way to persuade these non-fish consumers to try fish is to move some fish away from the traditional sections of the supermarket where fish is displayed and put it where these consumers least expect to find it. Thus they may suddenly find a fish alternative on display when they are looking for something else and because it is divorced from the traditional view of fish, they may then even consider trying it.
There is no doubt that the biggest challenge today is to persuade those consumers who don’t eat fish at all to consider trying it. The twice a week message was definitely not the right approach and now it seems that it wasn’t even the right approach to get over the message originally intended.
Once a year: Exactly a year ago, the twice a week message was the central theme of the National Seafood Week. This national campaign was aimed at persuading consumers to eat fish and seafood twice a week. The campaign was later adjudged to have been a great success. Now it seems that if the expert panel of the World Seafood Conference are right in their assessment, then the central message actually failed to get through to consumers and perhaps the Seafood Week promotion was not as great a success as we have been led to believe. Certainly, regular readers of reLAKSation may recall that over the years, we, at Callander McDowell, have been less than impressed with the way that the promotion has been presented in the retail sector. Last year IntraFish reported that the country’s leading supermarkets, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose were offering special promotions, offers and sampling to encourage customers to try a range of seafood products. In addition, thousands of fishmongers and fish and chip shops were hosting events during the week. Sadly, we found little evidence to support these claims and we were actively looking rather than shopping as most customers would be doing. In our view, most consumers would have been generally unaware of the promotion.
Next week, it is again National Seafood Week and this time it is being hailed a major success and it hasn’t even happened yet. According to Fishupdate.com, the organisers, SeaFish, base this claim on the fact that they have obtained the best ever industry support since the campaign began in 2000. They say businesses from across the whole seafood industry have signed up, joining a long list of chefs and celebrities to pledge their support for the week which runs from 5th – 12th October. They say that the list of organisations participating in Seafood Week is growing daily, although reference to the section of the Seafood Week website that provides information of what is happening in your own area, currently indicates that just eight businesses have signed up in our own area, the North West of England and this does not seem much different to the level of support in other areas. Although we may take a look at what these small businesses offer during the week, our attention is really drawn to what the five major supermarket partners will be offering to their customers since these supermarkets are the real front line between consumers and seafood. Seafish have said that all the supermarkets will be holding promotions throughout their UK stores including tastings and special events. In previous years, despite actively looking, we have seen little evidence of the Seafood Week promotion in any supermarket. Of course, if anyone reading this knows where and when these tastings and special events are taking place, then we will willingly go and be proved wrong.
The Seafood Week website (http://www.seafish.org/2aweek/index.asp) lists the activities planned for each of the five supermarket groups taking place during the week:-
Asda – The 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 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.
This year Asda have changed their advertising away from their pocket tapping jingle to ones which use celebrities who appear to have been recruited to work 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 use of the new cook in the bag packaging which allows consumers to select a piece of fish and then a portion of flavoured butter which are then sealed together in a bag which 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 fat/liquid.
Ian Wright
Flavoured butters
Asda Cook in the bag
Marks & Spencer – The website states that ‘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.’
Those of you who subscribe to our retail surveys will already know that the ‘Buy one, and the second is half price promotion’ offered during Seafood Week is not special since it has been running on various different products for most of the year. This week it is available on smoked salmon so we will be interested to see what is so special next week. We’ll also be claiming our trial sized pack.
Morrisons – The website sates 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 have been displaying a fresh fish booklet on their fish counters for about three months containing information on sustainability, the two a week campaign and recipe ideas. This might be the same one as that linked to the Seafood Week promotion but equally it may be different. In previous years, Morrisons have usually produced a new leaflet for Seafood Week usually including a competition. However, it is only available from the fish counter so unlikely to come to the attention of other consumers.
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.’
Sainsbury’s have never really attracted our attention previously in relation to Seafood Week so we will be watching what they do this year.
Waitrose – The websiste 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.’
Of all supermarkets, Waitrose have usually been most active in relation to 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 chilled products have carried a two a week sticker during the promotion but no explanation has been provided. The store always offers recipe cards and these include fish recipes. As yet we have not come across any specific Seafood Week tastings in Waitrose but we will be watching out for them.
We are sure that those participating in Seafood Week are well intentioned but it always seems to us that the reality never lives up to the expectation. If we find it difficult to come across evidence of this national promotion and we are actually looking then we can only conclude that National Seafood Week just by passes most consumers unnoticed. We will report on what we find and don’t find at the end of the promotion. Maybe this year, we will be surprised.