American Lamb Board CHECK IN WITH YOUR CHECKOFF

The American Lamb Board

FRESH HOMEGROWN FLAVOR

HOW THE CHECKOFF PROGRAM WORKS

Marketing Strategies

•  Even out seasonality of sales •  Keep lamb top of mind year round with

seasonal campaigns •  Lamb Lovers Month – February •  Spring Holidays – Easter/Passover •  Get Your Grill On •  Fall in Love with lamb •  Celebrate with lamb

Strategies

Focus efforts on key lamb markets for year-round promotions and outreach: – Local advertising, publicity, retail promotions,

cooking demonstrations, farmers markets and events and LAMB JAM

– Current Markets: •  Boston •  Washington D.C. •  San Francisco •  Seattle

Marketing Strategies

•  Encourage the utilization of the whole carcass – Educating chefs about the importance of

using the whole carcass when working directly with local producers

– Educating media, chefs, and consumers about cut versatility •  Beyond the rack and beyond center of the plate

(appetizers, sandwiches, stews etc.)

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Marketing Strategies

•  Expand consumer utilization of lamb beyond special occasions and fine dining – Make lamb more approachable

•  Online Cooking school – videos, recipes, cut guide and more

– Attract a whole new generation to lamb

Marketing Strategies

•  Differentiate and create preferences for American Lamb over imported lamb – 10,000 Miles Fresher – Shepherd to Chef Campaign

•  Highlighting local producers •  Telling our production story from pasture to plate    

ALB’s Marketing Programs

•  Foodservice •  Retail •  Consumer PR •  Nutrition Education

Foodservice

ALB Foodservice Programs

•  Culinary Education •  Online Advertising •  Trade Media Outreach •  Participation in foodservice

conferences and events •  Marketing tools •  Electronic Newsletter

Retail

Roughly 60% of American Lamb is sold to retail

•  Variety of lamb cuts in the meat case has increased –  Ground lamb, sirloins, pre-seasoned butterflied legs –  Retailers want to feature American Lamb – COOL

•  Domestic accounts have increased! –  Kroger, Walmart

ALB Retail Programs

•  Retail education materials •  Electronic newsletter •  Participation at retail conferences •  Seasonal point of sales materials •  Cross promotions with

complementary products •  Promotions in target markets

– Chef demos, sampling, wine pairings

Consumer PR

•  Media outreach •  Social marketing •  Seasonal contests •  Culinary events •  Spokespeople

– Chefs – Butchers – Lamb Producers

Media Outreach

Recent Lamb Headlines: •  “Lamb is the new Pork” •  “Why Lamb Rules” •  “Move over Ham,

Here Comes Lamb”

ALB’s Consumer PR Program Reached 1.5 billion people in 2010!

Social Marketing

•  Creating Fan of Lamb Club – Facebook – Twitter – Blogger outreach – Fans of Lamb websites – Online videos – Electronic newsletter – Contests

ALB has close to 2000 Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers

Culinary Events •  More than one third of consumer have never

had the opportunity to taste lamb – ALB participates at culinary events and festivals to

provide sampling and education – ALB also host their own lamb events to build fans in target markets (LAMB JAM TOUR)

Nutrition Campaign

•  Communications campaign to educate consumers about the nutritional benefits of lamb – Lean on Lamb website – Lean on Lamb materials – Electronic newsletter – Participation at conferences – Media outreach

Non Traditional Markets

•  Minority populations account for about 58% of the total US lamb consumption

•  ALB conducted an ethnic consumer study to better understand these customers

•  ALB is developing a non-traditional advisory group to develop program and tools targeting minority populations

Industry Partnerships

ALB has two coop programs to help support industry partners and expand promotion:

•  Supplier Coop Program: $60,000 • Industry Matching Grant: $40,000

Strategic Planning: The Next 3 Years

•  ALB is updating their Strategic Plan – Need feedback from contributors to ensure

the plan is responsive to industry needs – Biggest challenge as ALB builds plans for

the next 3 year is shrinking revenue

Assessment Rate Increase

•  ALB has requested that USDA increase the assessment rate from .005 cents per pound to .007 cents per pound and from .30 per head to .42 cents per head for first handlers. – At least a 12 month process – 90 day comment period

Assessment Rate Increase

•  ALB’s budget has been shrinking while cost of doing business has been increasing. – Essentially trying to get back to 03/04 budget

•  American Lamb Board Collections History: –  FY02 $404,666 (represents July 2002 – Sept 2002) –  FY03 $2,825,360 –  FY04 $2,526,602 –  FY05 $2,369,734 –  FY06 $2,369,460 –  FY07 $2,320,626 –  FY08 $2,249,267 –  FY09 $2,005,330 –  FY10 $2,000,404 –  FY11 $1,888,220 (based on annualizing April YTD compared to last year)

Assessment Rate Increase

•  The additional revenue will go towards expanding ALB’s current efforts to build demand for American Lamb

•  The additional revenue will NOT go towards overhead – ALB is required to keep their administrative

budget below 10% of total collections

Importance of Promotion

•  During high prices it is critical to keep demand strong and continue support for chefs and retailers to protect our markets and maintain our place on menus and in the meat case.

Importance of Promotion

•  Since ALB has been promoting American Lamb: – Demand is strong

•  Chefs, retailers and consumers

– Media coverage of lamb has skyrocketed – Research shows promotion is working

Texas A & M Study

•  The program has resulted in roughly 7.1 to 7.5 pounds of lamb consumption per dollar spent on promotion activities

•  Doubling ALB lamb promotion expenditures in any given year would boost national lamb consumption by roughly 4 percent.

Increased Demand for Lamb

•  As we work to increase demand for lamb….

– We want domestic lamb to fill the supply needs NOT imported – Importance of industry’s rebuild effort

ALB Resources

Have Questions? Need More Information?

Need Promotional Tools? •  www.americanlamb.com

–  Recipes, photos, press releases contests, event information, resources for foodservice and retail

•  www.lambcheckoff.com –  Checkoff forms, Reports, newsletters, order materials,

local marketing kit, grant applications

ALB Office: 866/327-5262