(stud) farm to fork

It’s been a while since the last post - a busy few weeks at this end, but not as busy as it’s been for supermarket PR departments across the country.

Over the past fortnight, ‘horsemeat’ has been on everyone’s lips, if not their palate. And as of yesterday, it became something more than a couple of rogue suppliers when facilities in the UK also became implicated.

Who will suffer? I’m not sure retailers will, almost all of them are affected by the controversy thanks to their supply chain which makes switching stores difficult, not only that, retailers still stand to benefit from changing shopping habits as a result. The problem could be more serious for brands such as Findus if the category suffers. Every year the likes of Hugh, Gordon, Jamie et al highlight the reality of what processed meat actually contains and it’s not pretty. While slightly different, this particular scandal has achieved far more reach and could do irreparable damage to some processed food categories.

Government regulation both domestic and European is inevitable, but will that be enough to encourage shoppers back to the products? What will be interesting is how those brands and retailers affected begin to adjust their approach to quality and provenance after the horsemeat fiasco.

This episode highlights the gap between the marketing promise and the supply chain reality. At the moment brands are in damage limitation mode with apologetic letters, emails and adverts bombarding us on a daily basis. But once the dust has settled, how will retailers and manufacturers win back trust in the category? Will ‘home grown’, ‘animal welfare’ or ‘farm to fork’ promises be enough? I think consumers will begin to demand more than a smiling farmer and an authentic stamp on the box. Which in turn means that brands and retailers alike, will need to deliver more ‘proof’... and make it more appetising than a DNA certification.

This reminds me of a great feature length ad from last year that was produced by Chipotle, a US based Mexican (fast) food franchise. They weren’t sneaking horses into their burritos, but their business had moved to a much more ethical supply chain including naturally grown beef, pork and chicken produced without antibiotics. Despite that, the vast majority of their 800,000 daily customers came for the taste, value and convenience of the food, and knew little of where that food came from. What Mark Crumpacker (Chipotle’s chief marketing officer) did next was to tell an important story “in a more approachable way... making the message interesting and entertaining”. You can watch the film below, and read a longer article from The New York Times about it here, and maybe this time next year, we’ll be watching the Findus version....