Final Numbers Are In

After an intense couple of days of presentations and debate at the Operating Committee meeting, the final recommendation for a Fiscal Year 2009 Beef Checkoff Plan of Work is in. Click here for more details.

Day of Debate

Producers and importers who sit on the Beef Promotion Operating Committee are continuing their difficult and sometimes emotional debate today about how best to invest beef checkoff dollars in Fiscal Year 2009, which begins Oct. 1, 2008.  In the several entries below posted yesterday, you can review the proposals that are before the committee. (Please note that the dollar values below represent the Beef Board dollars only and that the Federation of State Beef Councils also has approved funding from states that will increase the total for most of the programs listed.) We should have the decisions of the committee to post by tomorrow, as the final plan of work is ever-evolving throughout this day of debate.

Promotion and Producer Communications

A lot of times when we think about ‘promotion,’ we think specifially about advertisements. And while advertising is a major component of the Beef Checkoff Program’s “promotion” efforts — in effect, the ‘voice’ of the beef industry – there is much much more to that arena. Up most recently here at the Beef Promotion Operating Committee meeting in Denver are proposals for FY09 checkoff-funded ‘promotion’ programs in the areas of consumer advertising; foodservice marketing; retail marketing; veal promotion; new product and culinary initiatives; and the National Beef Cook-Off.

Specifically, the Meat Importers Council of America (MICA) is presenting proposals for two promotion projects that seek a total of $330,000 in funding from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board; the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is presenting five promotion proposals seeking a combined $14.87 million; and the American National Cattlewomen are presenting one promotion program that would cost $850,000.

Also up for presenting this afternoon are proposals for checkoff funding in producer communications. In this area, the Beef Board communications staff, in cooperation with the National Livestock Producers Association, is requesting a total of $2.16 million for an integrated proposal aimed at sharing with producers and importers nationwide the results of their checkoff investments.

Promotion and producer communication projects presented to the Operating Committee for checkoff funding consideration are as follows:

PROMOTION:

• Northeast and N. Virginia Retail Marketing; MICA – $250,000: This proposal would fund retail marketing initiatives in the Northeast, where more than 70 million consumers shop for their food at local grocery stores. Tactics included in this proposal include making new retail contacts for beef; coordinating retail channel initiatives including beef training camps, Beef Value Cuts, nutrition labeling issues, and the Beef Backer Award program; and seasonsal promotions with four to six regional retail chains.
• Northeast and N. Virginia Foodservice; MICA – $80,000: This request for Beef Board funding addresses identification and implementation of partnership promotions with foodservice chains and institutions in the Northeast to leverage the checkoff dollar and get more beef on more menus.
• Consumer Advertising; NCBA – $9,073,000: Under this proposal are plans for consumer advertising aimed at reinforcing consumers’ positive attitudes toward beef, at the same time making them feel good about its nutritional properties. This includes a national campaign with print, radio and online media.
• Foodservice Marketing; NCBA - $1,495,300: Covered in this proposal is foodservice channel advertising, as well as publicity/public relations, education and information, and partnership proposals with foodservice chains nationally. The goal here is to increase beef’s brand positioning in the foodservice arena. 
• Retail Marketing; NCBA - $2,538,600: Retail beef promotions are at the center of this project proposal, aimed at increasing demand for beef at the retail level. This includes a holiday roast promotion, the checkoff’s Summer Grilling Program, a fall tailgating promotion in partnership with Kraft A.1, Anheuser Busch and Sutter Home, and a variety of other promotions and partnerships. 
• Veal Marketing and Communications; NCBA – $595,600: This proposal aims to build demand for veal through a variety of efforts centering on the Veal Go-To-Market Strategy. The goal is to stimulate retail sales activity in high-volume markets with retailes and veal packer/processors while continuing to provide veal menu ideas to targeted chains. 
• New Product and Culinary Initiatives; NCBA – $913,900: This project would fund work with manufacturing partners to develop, refine, commercialize and promote new youth and convenience beeef product concepts developed in FY07 and FY08 for foodservice and retail channels. It would also invest in providing two new round cuts to the market and continue exploration and testing of cuts from this part of the carcass. Other areas coveren through this proposal would be the program development and execution that takes place at the checkoff-funded Beef and Veal Culinary Center, including recipe testing and development and other beef-showcasing projects.
• National Beef Cook-Off; ANCW & NCBA - $850,000: The goal of this renowned Cook-Off funded by the Beef Checkoff Program is to promote consumption of beef by featuring strategic recipe categories that are appealing to health-concious beef-eating Americans and that bring marketable beef recipes to the fore. ANCW would manage this program, in conjunction with representatives of the Culinary Center.

PRODUCER COMMUNICATIONS:

• Producer Communications; CBB – $2,160,000: This project aims to keep beef producers and importers informed about the results of their checkoff investments. Among regional and national communications tools that would be funded through this proposal are paid media (print, television, online and some radio in cooperation with state beef councils), as well as earned media via press releases and event sponsorships with key ag communicators; and a variety of direct communications with CBB members, state beef councils, other producers and importers. It also calls for development of information conduits through projects with livestock marketing facilities and other producer groups, including use of the Beefmobile at very targeted events. Finally, it includes $320,000 to create and maintain a seamless partnership with state producer communication efforts via provision of a “state toolkit” and brochures, and a pilot “share” program to help state beef council accomplish select producer communications in their states or regions. 

Consumer Information and Foreign Marketing

The Meat Importers Council of America (MICA), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) have continued the series of presentations before the Operating Committee today (see more below from this morning) with proposals for Beef Board funding of consumer information and foreign marketing Programs in Fiscal Year 2009.

MICA’s proposal for beef public relations in the Northeast region of the United States — where there are fewer cattle but tremendous density of consumers — seeks $125,000 in funding from the Beef Board. NCBA proposals for consumer information programs — including consumer public relations, nutrition influencers, and youth information and information — are seeking a combined total of about $3.56 million in the coming fiscal year. In the area of foreign marketing, the U.S. Meat Export Federation brought a total of 13 requests for national checkoff funding in Fiscal 2009, totalling about $5.84 million.

The breakdown of the proposals presented for these two funding areas are as follows:

CONSUMER INFORMATION:

• Northeast & N. Virginia Public Relations; MICA - $125,000: This would fund health and fitness events in the populous Northeast and be implemented by State Beef Council staff in the area. The goal is to extend the reach of other national checkoff nutrition public relations programs in an area where states have fewer checkoff dollars available to them.
• Consumer Public Relations; NCBA – $2,188,700: Tactics in this proposal include “safety reputation management,” which involves protecting the beef industry’s reputation from misinformation through outreach by nutrition-industry influencers, as well as a public service safety education program. In addition, it would invest national checkoff dollars for nutrition public relations to reinforce the positive beef protein and nutrition messages to consumers nationwide.
• Nutrition Influencers; NCBA – $866,900: This proposal seeks Beef Board funding to continue building a preference for beef among the industry’s target food- and health-involved consumers via dissemination of sound scientific information, partnerships and relationships with nutrition professionals, and mitigations and management of dietary-guidelines issues.
• Youth Education & Information; NCBA – $260,500: This proposal would fund dissemination of positive and science-based beef information to youth in the school environment, delivered through parents and schools. This includes continuation of the checkoff’s School Wellness and Family Mealtimes Program.
• Youth Education Grant Writer; NCBA – $50,000: This is a new proposal that suggests identifying and hiring a reputable and experienced grant writer to help identify supplemental funding for the checkoff’s youth education program in light of shrinking budgets.

FOREIGN MARKETING:

The 13 foreign marketing proposals are aimed at building U.S. beef exports worldwide, considering that 95 percent of the world population lives outside of the United States. In fact, international market opportunities are considered by many in the industry to offer the best possible opportunities for growth in demand for U.S. beef. Following are the promotional campaign regions covered by the foreign marketing proposals for Fiscal Year 2009, and the accompanying projected cost for the Beef Board (which would be combined with funding from USDA). All proposals were brought to the Operating Committee by USMEF.

• ASEAN (leading markets are Vietnam, Philippines, and Singapore) - $75,000
• Caribbean – $60,800
• Central/South American – $60,900
• Dominican Republic – $20,400
• Europe – $167,300
• Middle East – $101,600
• Greater China – $172,700
• Japan – $1,227,900
• Mexico – $806,100
• Russia – $189,400
• South Korea – $947,600
• Taiwan – $233,500
• Implementation of all proposals – $1,773,800

Still on the agenda for this afternoon are proposals for Beef Board funding of promotion and producer communications programs, as well as implementation costs for all NCBA projects. We’ll be back with details when those come up.

Research and Industry Information

As the Operating Committee’s review of proposals for checkoff funding in Fiscal 2009 kicked off this morning, national beef industry groups are coming to the table with their ideas. So far this morning, representatives of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the American National Cattlewomen have presented their proposals for checkoff-funded programs in the areas of research and industry information to the Operating Committee.

Research proposals — covering beef safety, product enhancement, nutrition, and market research — accounted for more than $5.36 million in proposed checkoff investment. In addition, three proposals, or “Authorization Requests” in the area of industry information — beef quality assurance, beef issues and image management, and the National Beef Ambassador program — represented another $1.62 million in proposed checkoff investment.

The breakdown of the proposals so far presented for Beef Board funding include:

RESEARCH:

• Beef Safety Research – $1,264,500: This includes development and implementation of safety threat research to enhance understanding of existing and new pathogens; funding of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, which revises, updates and disseminates Best Practices to eliminate safety threats; and safety science monitoring, which examines research and applies learnings from U.S. and international scientists related to any safety threats and consumer confidence.
• Product Enhancement – $986,500: This proposal seeks checkoff for pre-harvest beef quality research and knowledge dissemination. The goal of this research area is to optimize pre-harvest management that enhances the quality of our end beef products and, accordingly, increases demand for them.
• Nutrition Research – $1,429,600: Plans and programs for human nutrition research designed to generate, monitor and disseminate nutrition research are included in this proposal. The goal is to strengthen beef’s position in the dietary guidelines, position our protein as a premier nutritional protein, and protect if from the potential impact of nutrition issues.
• Market Research – $1,237,600: Covered in this proposal are plans and programs for conducting research with consumers and other beef industry influences to provide the industry with insight into consumer and influencer attitudes and behavior, thus maintaining a strong marketing climate to help drive beef demand.

INDUSTRY INFORMATION:

• Beef Quality Assurance – $691,300: Funding requested for this proposal would allow continuation of the national Beef and Dairy Quality Assurance programs aimed at improving beef quality to maximize market opportuniuties for beef and dairy producers.
• Beef Issues Management – $754,100: This request seeks checkoff funding to continue monitoring and responding to issues that threaten consumer confidence in beef, as well as pro-active efforts to share the beef production story and put a face on the beef industry for consumers in urban areas nationwide.
• National Beef Ambassador Program – $100,000: This proposal would continue funding for a national “Beef Ambassador” contest that leverages beef industry youth in telling the positive beef story nationwide. That includes attending consumer events and talking to consumer groups of all ages to combat myths about beef with hard science.

Next up are proposals for consumer information and for foreign marketing. We’ll be back with more on that later.

Review of Checkoff Proposals Under Way

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee meeting is getting under way now, with a standing-room-only audience — some here to make presentations for proposed investment of checkoff dollars in Fiscal Year 2009 and other state beef council and beef industry representatives here to see how the committee will leverage a tight budget to the greatest extent possible.

Certainly there are more proposals than there are dollars in the checkoff budget to fund them. Even after earlier projecting a 6.6 percent year-on-year cut in the Cattlemen’s Beef Board budget for the coming year, assessment collections during the last few months and projected revenues for the coming year are tighting that belt even further — another $850,000. That means this committee will have a lot of tough decisions to make this week.

The Beef Board Executive Committee met last night and agreed to reduce the Board’s administrative budget by $100,000 and to drop one of three evaluation audits next year, saving another $25,000. That means the program cuts that the committee will need to make this week are about $725,000.  

This morning, checkoff contractors and subcontractors – including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Meat Importers Council of America, the U.S. Meat Export Federation, American National Cattlewomen, CBB Producer Communications and the National Livestock Producers Association — will present proposals for funding of checkoff projects for the year beginning Oct. 1, 2008. Committee members will be able to ask questions about those as they are presented, but will not debate them on merit until tomorrow morning, after which they’ll make their final recommendations. We’ll keep you posted here as the process moves along.