Perspective

By Michael Kelsey

 

Every Monday morning, your NC staff gathers by conference call for a staff meeting. We review the past week’s activities as well as those coming up. We discuss current issues and the strategies we should employ to be both proactive and reactive, depending on the issue. It’s quite easy for staff to spend an hour and a half discussing 40 or 50 different issues. Of course, each and every issue is equally important and is given its proper time. While that statement is truthful, one umbrella priority connects all issues – consumer confidence.

It’s no mystery that the cattle business is far more than just selling an animal. This business requires that producers be knowledgeable of economics, engineering, chemistry, physics, psychology, accounting, salesmanship, grammar (that may push it with some of us) and a whole host of other specialties. At any given time, we are working feverishly on a particular issue and, in some cases, multiple issues. As an association, our job is no different.

If forced to rate the importance of the issues we work on, I would have to cheat and go for the big picture rather than a single issue. In my opinion, consumer confidence is and should be our first priority. Notice I didn’t say consumer satisfaction. Satisfaction is a character of confidence. We certainly want every beef eater to be satisfied and even thrilled with every beef eating experience. Confidence is more than just a juicy steak or burger that tastes great. Confidence is a measure of trust, information, value, ability and even image. Without consumer confidence, other issues are powerless.

Think about this for a moment. If consumers have no confidence in beef, then they do not purchase it. If consumers do not purchase beef, then what value do cattle have? None! Other issues are small compared to the awesome capability of the consumer buying choice. Fundamentally, I truly believe that all issues we engage have some connection to consumer confidence. Many of the connections are quite obvious. Food safety regulations and nutrition labeling are a great example. Others may be less apparent but still correlated in some fashion. Environmental regulations and animal handling come to mind.

Whatever the issue of the week or the work of the day, ultimately we strive to maintain and build consumer confidence. To do anything that would jeopardize our product’s image in the consumer’s mind is downright unthinkable. It is no wonder then that when adversaries question and even criticize beef in any way, we should and do become very protective. Many of our actions are proactive to “cut them off at the pass” by educating consumers about our product and business. Unfortunately though, many of our strategies to maintain consumer assurance are reactive.

One thing is certain. Producers can and should count on their association – Nebraska Cattlemen – to defend beef and promote confidence in our consumer. Working with sister organizations like the Nebraska Beef Council, consumer confidence in beef remains high. It is not by accident or luck that consumers enjoy beef and appreciate the beef producer. Priority one – consumer confidence. Let’s go to work! Y Michael Kelsey is NC’s executive vice president.