Pork Checkoff Program Wins Award

February 5, 2001

In helping supermarkets organize their meat case, a checkoff-funded program implemented by the National Pork Producers Council is helping grocery stores sell more meat and is earning retail industry honors. It is called the NPPC's Category Management Program.

The program organizes the meat case by species. Setting the case by species and item within each species matches the consumer's decision-making process and makes it easier for them to shop. Colorful signs and on-pack recipe labels helps consumers navigate the often-intimidating meat case. Label designs include recipes to educate consumers on how to prepare easy and nutritious pork dishes. Supermarkets buy the labels and apply them to individual packages of pork.

In an area where marketing winners usually are multi-national corporations producing for grocery categories ranging from produce to sauces to chips to beer, the NPPC program focused on helping supermarkets increase total meat sales. This program has helped category management retailers increase total sales in the meat case by 4% to 7%. Typically in the meat case, a sales increase of a half percent is considered a big improvement.

"By working as a third-party adviser, we can offer regional or national grocers help to determine what items are making money, no matter what the species," explained Karen Boillot, NPPC director of retail marketing. "The benefit for pork is larger than other species because pork is oftentimes under-utilized in the meatcase so we can gain more space for pork by showing retailers how to best lay out their meatcase."

Supermarket Business honored the checkoff-developed program with one of a dozen "Best of Class" and one of 70 "Category Captain" awards. The Best of Class award honors suppliers that have done the most outstanding job of developing category management programs. The Category Captain award acknowledges thought leaders in every category sold in supermarkets. Selection criteria for Category Captain include an innovative, proactive program that grows total category sales and shows leadership with quantifiable results.