How to engage consumers and satisfy social licence
AS MORE and more people in the global population become aspirational consumers, it’s important for producers in intensive agriculture to consider their social licence.
With the global population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050, consuming more food than ever, intensive agriculture will play a role in feeding the world its protein.
Ian McConnel is the World Wildlife Fund global leader for beef.
He spoke at the Intensive Animal Industry Conference in Dalby last week to shed some light on social licensing, what it’s not, and who controls it.
“Consumers on average will take about 1.3 seconds to make a decision when in the supermarket. So if they’re faced with a choice, that’s the amount of time you have to give them information.
“It’s widely known things like the colour of the label matters. You put a green label on meat – you’ll increase sales by 12 per cent.
“It makes the idea of social licence to the consumer a very challenging topic. The consumer should not be the target of your social licence, for that reason.
“Your consumer needs to be the focus of your marketing, not your social licensing.”
There are a number of groups in charge of social licensing including farming organisations, consumer groups, and advocacy groups, but Mr McConnel said the biggest role was played by the farming community.
“Social licence exists on a number of different levels. It was originally born out of the fracking industries in the US, where these industries came into parts of rural America with really strong social licence.
“They started to employ a lot of people, they bought a lot of communities out of poverty, especially in the northwest. A lot of these communities identified with it, it became part of who they are.”
Mr McConnel said something similar happened in Central Queensland with the mining community.
“The community identifies with the industry because of the economic drivers and the amount of people they’re employing,” he said.
“Over time some of the challenges being faced in some of the watersheds in those landscapes led to erode its own trust level.
“And as it crossed this trust boundary it was still given regulatory approval to be there, but it was no longer what the community idolised or identified as.
“Over time the community then went further back and said ‘Is it credible? Should it be here? Do we enjoy them being here? And they lost their acceptance.”
Mr McConnel said the same rules apply to the agriculture industry.
“One of the challenges we have is our product is closely related to people a long way from us. Food is a very intrinsic, personal, attachment. It’s why so often there are beliefs attached to food,” he said.
“Here in rural Queensland, as in rural areas everywhere, we have a psychological identification with meat production. Animals and animal meat production is who we are, it’s what we grew up doing, it’s what we see every time we go for a drive.
“That is very different from the largest number of voters, consumers, politicians. We need to be aware of that.
“In our rural communities we’re right at the top, but there are certainly other parts of the community where meat production is down the bottom.”
According to the aspirational consumer index, close to half of millennials are aspirational shoppers, which means they care where their food comes from.
“Social licence is your right to operate. It’s directly related to regulation and consumer acceptance,” Mr McConnel said.
“Social licensing is not marketing – it’s risk. Risk is only realised when challenges come out.
“They’re only realised when you’re actually doing something bad. If there are bad things happening in your industry, be assured they will get out.
“If you’re seeing them on your farms, if you’re doing something you don’t want someone else to see, then I suggest stopping it, because right now the chances of them seeing it pretty soon, are going up.”
Mr McConnel said producers must do everything they can to remove the risk.
“There is an innate responsibility in social licence. That risk cannot be avoided,” he said.
“For those in intensive agriculture, it speaks to workplace culture more than personal responsibility.
“Do you say to your workers ‘it’s okay to take a bit more time to get it right and keep the animals calm’? Those sort of cultural aspects in your workplace will play an important role.”
The most important aspect of social licensing is trust.
Mr McConnel defined trust as truth over time.
He said transparency was an important part of gaining trust and social licence.
“Trust can be eroded very quickly. Ask live export how quickly it can be lost,” he said.
“You have to live the truth all the time before you can get the trust. It’s not something you will get and then you can put away. You have to live it over time.”