It’s 2021! Nearly a month in for that matter, and I don’t know about you but it doesn’t feel significantly different from 2020. I'm hunkered down for another Iowa winter, managing Zoom fatigue and trying to peel off those pesky quarantine pounds before in-person meetings start up again. (Because they will, right? At least some of them?)

This month also marks for me exactly one year in my role leading the domestic marketing team at the National Pork Board. The events of 2020 certainly made it an interesting year to be a meat marketer. While those who would like to significantly reduce or eliminate our consumption of animal protein took advantage of the pandemic to try a new set of talking points, our products were flying out of the retail meat case as a result of COVID shopping, cooking and eating behaviors. What did we learn?

People still like meat. They like options. And sometimes, those options include alternative or plant-based proteins. OK. Cool.

You read that right. I’m not having a heart attack over the non-traditional players in the meat space.

Competition is what drives our industry to do better and be better in all things. And not just better at things like product development and packaging improvements, but also on things at the farm like animal welfare and environmental practices. So why has the competition from alternative proteins rocked us to our core?

Well, for one, they aren’t shy about their goal to eliminate us. It was pretty bold and brash when the CEO of Impossible Foods said in August 2019, “Our goal is to replace animals in the food system by 2035.” And, to be honest, they have done a wonderful job connecting with consumers at a very emotional level.

What are we doing as meat marketers to make this type of a deep consumer connection? If we were to review 2020, I believe we would see that a lot of meat brands pulled back on consumer marketing because of the strength of retail sales. We had a lot of other challenges and expenses last year, and marketing is scalable. Generally, it is an easy budget to cut, especially when the product is selling so well. The question is: Should we be cutting back on marketing, product development and consumer research?

Non-meat competitors were right there next to us last year, as loud and as proud as ever. While sales remain small in this category compared to real meat, they’re growing both their share of dollars and share of voice. They focus their consumer efforts on how eating those products makes people feel — not only physically after they eat it, but how that meal decision helps that person or family contribute to society, or make the world a better place ... you get the picture.

How do we compete? I don’t have all the answers, but it’s fair to say that doing the same thing we’ve always done is not working. Regurgitating nutrition facts isn’t hitting home. How do we connect with consumers who want to know about the shrinking environmental footprint of their protein? Simply put, this is not about science, it’s about making an emotional connection with consumers who look much different today than 10 years ago. They’re thinking differently about their protein, so we have to think differently about how, when and where we connect with them. Scary? You bet. But if I learned one thing from last year, it’s that I work in an industry that is both innovative and resourceful. We just need to put our minds to it.

Looking back: The pandemic, pork proliferation, and plant protein players

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