Meat + Poultry - June 2006 - 40

Photo courtesy of Maverick Ranch

The Moore family's roots are in ranching, and
Maverick Ranch Natural Meats uses the family's
cowboy image to market its products.

persona must be believable and based
on values with which your target audience can empathize."
Moore and his family members
wouldn't have it any other way. They
were cowboys when Charlie's father,
Roy, began the company in 1985, and
they'll be cowboys tomorrow and the
day after. "It's part of our core value
system and our identity," Charlie says.
"We're easily identified."
Gary C. Smith, distinguished professor at Colorado State Univ., refers to
Maverick Ranch's marketing efforts as
"story beef." Smith says he first heard
that phrase about 15 years from Phil
Seng, president of the United States
Meat Export Federation. Seng used the
term to describe the system by which
the Japanese differentiate the more than
2,000 brands of beef merchandised in
their supermarkets.
"As the concept is used in merchandising branded beef, the seller employs the strategy of convincing both
the customer and then the consumer to
purchase the product by telling them a
story," Smith says. "The mindset of the
merchandiser is, 'I'm going to tell you
a story about my beef.' "
The story consists of several value
propositions, such as quality, palatability, production practices, animal care
and handling, and real or perceived
safety, Smith points out. Hence, the
merchandiser communicates through
its story that it must recover special
costs of production because it does spe-

cial things to create value, he adds.
If a company secures a "special image," it must stay truthful to the image
it has created, notes Ron Paul, president of Technomic, a Chicago-based
food industry consulting and research
fi rm "If you create an image of higher
quality and premium-priced, it's no
problem to keep up the price, but you
have to make sure you maintain the
quality," Paul adds.

Customers want to have
firsthand knowledge
of the people behind
the product.
Image evolution
Images aren't formed overnight.
Roy Moore, who founded Maverick
Ranch, says the seed for the family
business was planted long before it actually began. The Maverick Ranch Association was organized by the Moore
family in 1985 to market natural meat
products grown on family owned
farms and ranches.
"[It] has its roots on the Moore family ranch in Idaho, where my wife
Bobbi and I encouraged our sons to
join the local 4-H Club and show
their 4-H livestock projects at county
and state fairs," Roy says on the company's Web Site. "Our goal was that

these 4-H projects would earn enough
to pay for their college educations and
teach them a strong work ethic."
All four sons attained that educational goal, and from there they set
their sights on the untapped market
for meat that was free of antibiotics,
steroids and pesticides.
Bill Niman, founder and chairman of
Niman Ranch, says it took several years
for his business to establish its image.
Niman began his business about 30
years ago in Marin County, just across
the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Niman's goal was to establish an
image of providing great-tasting meat
products achieved through strict animal husbandry guidelines, including
humane treatment of animals and a diet
of all-natural feeds.
"Building the company's image was
a slow process," says Niman, who began the business selling to extended
family members. "It was one customer at a time."
Niman Ranch now works with more
than 500 independent family farmers
who raise livestock according to its protocols. Many restaurants list "Niman
Ranch" on their menus. When the chef
is willing to brand a product on a menu,
it is a strong quality endorsement, Niman says. "A lot of it is about trust," he
adds. "We desperately try to be exactly
who we say we are."
So does Columbus, Ohio-based Bob
Evans Farms, which has formed an
image of serving up "quality home-

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June 2006

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Meat + Poultry - June 2006

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