English supermarkets to lead QMS sales campaign
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is to take its marketing and promotional efforts a step closer to the final consumer in a £50,000 collaboration with a major supermarket which will see Scotch beef and lamb sold exclusively through in-store butcheries in 110 English stores.
Revealing the move at a reception held in the Scottish Parliament, QMS chief executive Alan Clarke said that the meat would be sold under a new logo which identified the range-topping brand offered by the stores.
However with discussions on the deal still under way, he was unwilling to name the chain:
“All the supermarkets are looking to offer their customers something different at the moment and the creation of this new in-store brand which will top the range will use only certified Scotch beef,” said Clarke.
He said that while QMS would be closely involved in operating the initiative, providing all the marketing information and provenance story which backed the brand, he made it clear that all the real life sales data would be retained by his organisation for marketing purposes.
And with the kudos associated with the Scotch brand playing a key role not only in this initiative but in underwriting the popularity and prestige of Scotch products around the globe, he also divulged that a pilot scheme to use DNA testing techniques to affirm the product’s provenance was set to be launched.
With the aid of a £95,000 grant from the Scottish Government the project, set to get under way this spring, will run for six months. “We already have class-leading assurance schemes and traceability credentials, but using new technologies like this will help us to stay at the forefront and continue to lead the world,” said Clarke.
Also speaking at the reception which gathered a capacity attendance of 150 made up of producers, processors and retailers, the organisation’s chairman, Kate Rowell also outlined how, despite being highly successful, some of the marketing campaigns would be developed to meet the needs of the 21st century.
With an ever greater focus on social media she said that the recent recruitment of new specialists in this field would help QMS make the most of this platform – which offered the ability to deliver promotional material where it mattered the year round:
“While our marketing schemes have been highly successful in the past these have tended to take the form of short, concentrated efforts which have put the message over, but with limited funds these focused campaigns have been rationed to only a few weeks or months a year.”
She also said that younger people were now becoming more savvy to the “paid for” endorsements of products and goods made by celebrities on social media and we’re now keener to listen to the views of their friends and peers.