USMEF Creatively Targets Consumers And Restaurateurs With U.S. Pork Advertising...

Gaining awareness, building confidence and educating Japanese consumers and restaurateurs to build desire and respect for U.S. pork is what the the most recent advertising campaign of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is all about.

Two different but equally creative and effective U.S. pork campaigns have been designed to introduce advantages and new uses of U.S. pork to Japanese consumers and food service operators.

“Creating excitement about and introducing advantages of U.S. pork to consumers and restaurateurs in an effort to create demand for U.S. pork is what we are striving to accomplish through this campaign,” said Shinobu Shimada, USMEF Japan general manager of consumer affairs, research and communication.

Underway through July, the USMEF campaigns consist of U.S. pork advertisements in five popular magazines, such as Orange Page, Kyounoryouri and Lettuce Club, reaching a circulation of almost 3 million potential consumers.

In addition, newspaper advertisements reach more than 7 million households in Japan while in-train ads were placed in Tokyo last week. Feedback from newspaper advertisements has been extremely positive with an ad awareness rate of more than 50 percent, which is high for a one-third page advertisement. Many readers said the featured U.S. pork recipe was very appealing and wanted to try the recipe.

Ads are also being placed in culinary magazines such as Nikkei Restaurant, Gourmet Journal and Kindai Shokudo (Modern Dining) in an effort to interest restaurant and foodservice representatives and promote the advantages of U.S. pork in the foodservice industry.

Print media covers a huge market, but preparation of new U.S. pork dishes featured during two programs on Foodies, a popular food show television network, aids as an additional avenue of creating awareness of U.S. pork, its nutritional value and cooking benefits.

By placing ads in popular magazines and featuring U.S. pork on Japanese television programs, USMEF hopes to educate and inform current and potential consumers about all aspects of U.S. pork.

“We want consumers to know that U.S. pork is low in fat, tasty and can be part of a well-balanced meal, in addition to informing consumers about the overall health benefits of U.S. pork,” said Shimada.

USMEF officials are looking forward to the outcome of the campaigns and feel confident great success will be achieved in educating consumers about U.S. pork.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, lamb, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

– USMEF –

The following photos are available with this release:

Photo 1 –  U.S. pork consumer advertisement placed in magazines and trains.

Photo 2  – U.S. pork advertisment placed in culinary magazines in an effort to reach restaurant and foodservice representatives.