Perdue Farms Inc.

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Perdue Farms Inc.

31149 Old Ocean City Rd.
Salisbury, Maryland 21801
USA
Telephone: (410) 543-3000
Fax: (410) 543-3292
Web site: www.perdue.com

NOW ARRIVING CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

For many years chicken has been a staple of the American dinner table. And one of the leading companies to produce and market poultry has been Perdue Farms Inc. of Salisbury, Maryland. The beak-like visage of its chairman and chief spokesman, Frank Perdue, had come to symbolize freshness and quality in the minds of many poultry consumers. In the 1990s, however, increased public awareness of food safety—spurred on by highly publicized outbreaks of food poisoning—threatened to erode the image of Perdue chickens as wholesome, healthful foods. Changes in federal food safety regulations enacted in 1996 were only part of the solution to this problem. Perdue took the health scare as an opportunity to reinforce the core image of its brand as one of "golden yellow" freshness. A series of print and television ads hammered home this message in whimsical, then alarmist fashion.

The television commercial "Now Arriving" was crafted in May 1997 by Perdue's longtime agency Lowe & Partners/SMS. It shows company president Jim Perdue—Frank's son and new company spokesman—being greeted in an airport by a Hare Krishna who offers him a marigold. Marigolds being an integral part of a chicken's diet, Perdue harangues the mendicant at length about the healthy feed regimen of Perdue's poultry.

Then in August 1997 Perdue took out full-page ads in major newspapers questioning the safety of its competitors' poultry products. "Warning! Before You Buy Another Chicken, Read This!" announced the banner headlines on the ads, which touted the chicken giant's policy of requiring its birds to "pass 65 quality inspections, 22 more than the government's so-called Grade A standards." The attention-grabbing print ads were designed by R. C. Auletta & Company and signed by Jim Perdue. This and the Hare Krishna ad both addressed a specific market problem—the food safety concern. They also attempted to build brand value in a manner consistent with two decades of Perdue advertising. Most industry observers rated them a success on both fronts.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

In the late 1990s Perdue Farms was the second-largest poultry producer in the United States. Its branded chicken and turkey products were sold in retail supermarkets, grocery stores, and butcher shops in a market area comprising almost 40 percent of the nation's population. Perdue's food service chicken and turkey products were sold nationwide, and the company's products were exported to more than 30 countries. Sales for all operations exceeded $2 billion annually.

Founded as a table-egg poultry farm in Salisbury, Maryland, by Arthur W. Perdue in 1920, Perdue did not hire a second associate until 1930. In 1939 Arthur Perdue's 19-year-old son, Frank, joined the company as its third employee. In 1950 Frank assumed control of the company. Incorporated in 1953, the company began the process of vertically integrating its operations by constructing hatcheries, feed mills, and storage facilities. By the late 1960s this process was complete. Perdue Farms now had complete quality control of its poultry products.

In 1968 the Perdue brand was born as the company entered the highly competitive New York City broiler market. A limited radio ad campaign was launched, emphasizing the quality of the Perdue brand of broilers. That same year Frank Perdue assumed the role of lead company spokesman. Three years later Perdue Farms embarked on its first national advertising campaign, commissioning the fledgling New York ad agency of Scaly, McCabe, and Solves. Relying on the tag line "It Takes a Tough Man to Make a Tender Chicken," the print and television ads played off Frank Perdue's owlish persona. Scaly, McCabe, and Solves would oversee the Perdue account for the next 15 years.

The following year Perdue ads introduced another of the signature themes that would come to define the brand. In commercials that debuted in the Philadelphia, Providence, and Boston markets, the company compared its own fresh chickens to competitors' frozen birds in order to emphasize Perdue's trademark "yellow" freshness. A decade later the freshness and healthfulness was still front and center in the minds of company marketers. In 1983 Perdue became the first poultry processor to provide nutritional labels on its products. That same year Jim Perdue, son of Frank, joined the family business as a management trainee in quality control at the Salisbury plant.

In its pursuit of quality control Perdue initiated the Quality Improvement Process in 1985. An official Quality Process was also adopted at that time. Responding to the needs of health-conscious consumers, Perdue's feed researchers in 1986 implemented a new diet that substantially reduced fat in chickens. And a 1990 television commercial had Frank Perdue driving a nail into a birdhouse with a competitor's frozen chicken to highlight Perdue's freshness.

In 1991 Jim Perdue took over from his father. He was named chairman of the board of Perdue Farms, with Frank Perdue designated chairman of the board's executive committee. In one of his first moves, Jim Perdue green-lighted the launch of the "Fit 'n' Easy" line of skinless, boneless chicken and turkey products. Additional nutrition initiatives included expanded nutritional labels and a series of "Guides to Nutrition" for consumers. And when a drive to enhance safety capabilities was spurred by outbreaks of E. coli and salmonella in various parts of the United States, Perdue Farms capped its efforts in this arena with the establishment of a new microbiology laboratory in 1993.

The mid-1990s proved to be a period of important changes at Perdue. In 1993 ad agency Scaly, McCabe, and Solves merged with The Lowe Group to form Lowe & Partners/SMS. A concerned Frank Perdue expressed reservations about such a large agency paying sufficient attention to his account. After assurances from Lowe & Partners/SMS executives, the poultry scion agreed to stick with the reconfigured ad house.

In 1994 Perdue did some reconfiguring of its own. The poultry giant acquired Howell Farms, purveyors of the Cooking' Good chicken brand, as well as a processing plant in Milford, Delaware. Perdue Farms was now the second-largest poultry farm in the United States. That same year Jim Perdue made his commercial debut in a series of local television spots with his father Frank. The "Third Generation" spots eased the transition for Perdue to take over the role of company spokesman.

In the late 1990s Perdue's television spots continued to emphasize freshness and food safety. A 1996 spot showed Jim Perdue scolding one of his chickens for eating pizza instead of Perdue's own premium feed. These advertising initiatives were backed up by a highly publicized food safety information campaign. In 1996 Perdue began to implement the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) program. The company also introduced a free educational booklet for consumers, "Perdue Guide to Safe Handling of Chicken and Turkey Products," and invited members of the press on food safety tours.

TARGET MARKET

"I think about germs," Terri Savage of Oklahoma City told USA Today in 1997. "I'm very aware of them. There are all kinds of little buggies you can get that get misdiagnosed as flu and what you've got is food poisoning." Savage was part of a growing number of American consumers who worried as much about food safety as good taste when they cooked. With the increased incidence of food poisoning in the 1990s, this group became a market that Perdue Farms wanted to sell itself to.

Accordingly the poultry giant's 1997 ads addressed the American consumer's legitimate fears about food safety. Polls showed that more than 65 percent of American consumers had some trepidation over food safety, with chicken one of the major areas of concern. Poultry sold in supermarkets is safe to eat if properly handled once it departs the production facility. But the birds must be thoroughly cooked, and any surface or utensil that comes in contact with the uncooked poultry should be washed with soap and hot water. With the overwhelming balance of its business in chicken, Perdue looked to reassure these customers about the freshness and safety of its products.

COMPETITION

The year 1996 was one of record growth for Perdue Farms. The company's acquisition of Howell Farms in January was the second-largest merger in poultry industry history, and the purchase of ConAgra's Milford, Delaware, processing plant vaulted the company to number two in the poultry sector behind Tyson Foods. The two industry leaders had always competed on chicken quality. But the food safety concerns of the mid-1990s gave Perdue a unique opportunity to exploit its advantage on freshness. Emphasizing this point of difference between the two brands was given further impetus due to a series of health scandals that bedeviled Tyson in 1997.

Just days before July 4th—one of the biggest barbecuing days of the year—U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors found severe problems with chicken heading to consumers from the Tyson slaughtering and processing plant in Cumming, Georgia. Some birds had black machine grease on them, according to reports filed by inspectors. Others had infections under their skin or had been stored in temperatures favorable for bacterial growth. In what one Tyson employee contended was "an act of God," chickens spewed from a machine onto a broken conveyor belt too quickly for workers to handle, and birds were falling onto the floor and piling up. The birds that fell into the plant's drain water were destroyed. The others were reportedly cleaned up and sold. Inspectors classified those deficiencies as "critical," meaning the meat heading to the market was contaminated and, if eaten, would be certain to harm the consumer. The previous year Tyson Foods had accumulated 311 "critical" citations at its Cumming plant, which processes about 1.3 million birds a week.

MARKETING STRATEGY

The "Now Arriving" television ad, in concert with the surrounding print campaign, was what industry analysts considered the rarest of advertising creatures: a brand value spot that also addressed a specific market concern in an effort to build sales. The ads emphasized the traditional Perdue brand themes of freshness and nutrition while countering a growing public perception that commercial chickens may pose a health hazard. In an era when many creative shops seemed to opt for the offbeat and surprising in order to grab the attention of the public, the long-term, big picture thinking implicit in a brand value strategy sometimes got short shrift. As a result companies saw growth in short-term sales without adding any long-term value to their brand.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

Perdue Farms marked a milestone in 1994 when chairman Frank Perdue introduced his successor as chief company spokesman—his son Jim. In the initial television spot Frank described Jim as "a little project I've been working on for the past 45 years."

It was not the first time that two generations had crossed paths in the world of advertising. Bespectacled popcorn patriarch Orville Redenbacher began appearing in commercials with his grandson shortly before his death in 1995. And Frank Perdue himself once appeared in a print ad with his own father, company founder Arthur Perdue. But there are always risks when the baton is passed from a successful spokesperson to an unknown quantity.

Initially reluctant to try to replace his father, Jim Perdue was swayed by company research showing that consumers liked the idea of knowing who is behind a product. "It turned out it was very important," said the younger Perdue. "It's certainly the heritage of our company. And it's something that the consumer's having a harder time finding today. So that's why we decided to go ahead and try it."

In making the switch from father to son, Perdue's ad partners wisely decided not to try to transplant Frank's personality. "Jim is a little bit softer than Frank," said Sam Scaly, deputy chairman of Lowe & Partners/SMS. "He's not as hard-nosed." So out went the tag line "It Takes a Tough Man to Make a Tender Chicken." And in came the Hare Krishna's. The torch had most assuredly been passed.

Novel or dramatic approaches in advertising often can be effective, but usually only if there is some element that reminds consumers what the brand is and what it represents. Often this is a long-term process in which a brand message is hammered into public consciousness repeatedly until the market gets the message. Marketing professors often explain this approach to students by asking them to explain their brand in a single word or phrase. In this way American consumers have come to understand that the Nike brand translates into athletic achievement, BMW is "the ultimate driving machine," and, in this case, Perdue stands for freshness and safety. If the ultimate goal is to get the customers to call up this word or phrase when asked what a brand represents, the first goal is get everyone in the marketing department to agree on this proposition. Unfortunately many creative shops never even bother to ask the question; consequently, a sense of continuity from one campaign to the next may be lost, and that which made the brand famous to begin with is the first casualty.

Every brand has a history—a personality profile in a sense. All brands also possess certain practical advantages that can be used as selling points to the consumer. But most analysts agree that advertising, if it is to be effective in the long as well as the short term, must do more than just lay out the product's pros and cons. A whimsical or offbeat ad is fine as long as its message is drawn from the brand's core identity in order to build the value of the brand.

Brand identity carries with it all sorts of benefits, attributes, and emotional associations. The brand's identity in the final analysis is what sets it apart from all other brands in its category; often called the sustainable point of difference, it is the one thing that customers seem to desire most. Companies that have isolated this "one thing"—in Perdue's case, freshness—and stick to it in their ads usually enjoy a long and healthy life. They can then use whatever gewgaws their creative agencies come up with to attract consumer attention and address specific market concerns, like food safety.

Perdue's print ad, which ran in newspapers in every major city east of the Mississippi, was designed to address consumer concerns (some apparently fostered by other poultry companies) that commercial chickens such as Perdue's were not safe. The testimonial, signed by Jim Perdue, read in part: "Every chicken we sell is raised on a strict, all-natural diet, full of things like corn, soybeans, and marigolds. And no hormones. Our fresh birds have always been fresh, never frozen." The ad failed to mention the fact that many supermarkets froze Perdue chickens once they arrived at the store, but this was tangential to the purpose of the ad, which was to reassure the public that Perdue meat was fresh.

In the television spot entitled "Now Arriving," the same message is relayed in a more humorous manner. Genial Jim Perdue—clearly helped by his physical resemblance to his father—reminds viewers of the healthiness of his poultry products by detailing their macrobiotic diet to an airport Hare Krishna. The fact that the Hindu mendicant flees Perdue and his accordion of chicken snapshots only reinforces the notion that Perdue is almost obsessive about the health of his chickens. The birds' golden yellow color is mentioned three times as a visual cue for consumers who will associate yellow Perdue packaging with healthiness and nutrition the next time they go shopping.

OUTCOME

Perdue's print and television ads of 1997 retained two essential elements from previous Perdue advertising: the use of the company spokesman and the emphasis on freshness, specifically the all-natural diet. In this way the ads remained consistent with the brand identity already established through years of successful advertising. "Perdue is fresh," the ads essentially said, and, concomitant with that, "Perdue is run by a nice man who would not allow you to eat anything that was not good for you." At the same time, however, the ads reacted to a specific consumer concern that threatened to affect chicken sales. In this rare case building long-term brand value and addressing short-term sales concerns went hand in hand.