It’s what food retailers dream about: winning new seafood buyers without sacrificing their existing customer base. The common complaint is that the retail food market is saturated with advertising all aimed at the same people. The surprising news to many at the International Boston Seafood Show this year was that new customers exist, and it won’t take fancy retail alchemy to reach them. But it will require strategic thinking and marketing savvy, and maybe a little salsa. That’s because the seafood industry has for the most part been ignoring the large – and growing – ethnic market.
From Asians to Hispanics, seafood comprises a large proportion of the ethnic diet. Surprisingly, it came as a surprise to many in the audience – from Arizona retailers to New England suppliers – that the most important ingredient to selling to ethnic groups isn’t a new item to stock on the shelf. Rather, it’s a simple understanding of the culture you are trying to serve.
Phil Walsh, managing director of Enaca International, an importer, led the discussion with a primer on developing a seafood marketing plan directed at ethnic markets. His company grows and imports Ecuadorian tilapia for sale to several U.S. big city markets that have a large and diverse cultural mix. The first question Walsh asks anyone before they launch into a marketing plan, is “Why market to ethnic groups?” The stated answer is “it’s new customers that you don’t cannibalize from your existing customer base.” But he cautioned listeners about raising false expectations. “Forget the high margins,” said Walsh. “They’re slim.”
Better instead to focus on identifying customers’ ethnic base and their specific needs. In other words, do your homework, and be smart and efficient about how you proceed. To learn what nationalities are in your target markets, check the U.S. Census Bureau website. Current census data is a tremendous resource for checking ethnic diversity, and after all, it’s already paid for. Walsh also suggests hitting the stores. “Identify their needs, check what they buy, how much, and from where,” said Walsh. “Then, skim the cream. Take the top three selling items and begin selling those.”
Walsh also recommends visiting vendors to learn about product handling, how to sell it, and to whom. Take time to learn the cultural calendar: special holidays mean stocking special items. You know – turkey at Thanksgiving, lamb at Easter.
Walsh offered a list of key components to any ethnic marketing, transcending ethnic backgrounds and origins. “First and foremost, the product must be top quality,” said Walsh. “To be inexpensive doesn’t mean being borderline product. Ethnic markets know fish, and their dollars are precious.” The good news Walsh offered is that most ethnic markets make less of a distinction between fresh and frozen seafood than is made in high-end markets. If the fish is handled well, bled properly, and frozen pre-rigor mortis, the product can be very high quality.
The third item on Walsh’s ethnic marketing checklist is that seafood products must have value. Even if many established and emerging ethnic markets offer the opportunity for relatively high-volume sales, people in this sector of the population will always spend their hard-earned cash wherever it brings the best value. Which leads to Walsh’s final point: Pack sizes can be large. Many ethnic families are larger than the typical middle class family. To a family of seven or more, buying a three-pound package of frozen fish is practical, where to a family of four, that might mean waste or leftovers for a week.
While Walsh said that 80 percent of ethnic sales are made in smaller owner-operated stores and chains (those with less than 20 stores), some large scale retailers have arrived at a successful marketing formula based on bulk. By example, Walsh cited the ethnic marketing done by Costco, a large retailer, which he says moves between 600 and 800 thousand pounds per week of pin bone out, deep skin salmon fillets in its 340 store locations across the U.S. Why? “At $3.99 a pound it’s a reasonable price. It is a good value. And the quality is good, in part because turnover of the product is so high.”
After Walsh’s How-To presentation, listeners were given a primer on the size and scope of one of America’s largest ethnic markets. Horacio Gavilan, Executive Director of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, began his presentation by sharing statistics about the size and shape of the US Latino population. For openers:
Gavilan concluded his portrait of the U.S. Hispanic market by emphasizing that it is currently underserved. “If the Hispanic market was separate from the U.S. economy, it would be the tenth largest economy in the world,” said Gavilan. “It is underserved in every category. If you want to be successful, you must invest in the Hispanic market.”
Admonitions aside, Gavilan also offered advice on how to reach the Hispanic market. He said many prior attempts have failed because they lacked fundamental background information. It’s going to require more than printing ads in Spanish. “Research your local target market for accuracy as to names of species, selection and serving suggestions,” he said.
In response to a question about different ethnicities under the Hispanic umbrella, Gavilan said that subtle differences do matter and that it is important to know whether you are dealing primarily with Dominicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans or Mexicans. It may not be possible to have every fish counter staffed by people that know the language, but it helps. “Just like Texans and New Englanders have different preferences, the same is true for different Hispanic nationalities. But you can market to the 90 percent they have in common,” said Gavilan.
While other ethnicities were barely mentioned, the rules that Walsh outlined in his strategic presentation apply universally across that large but underserved market that seafood vendors call “ethnic.” They are used to quality, they will buy value, and in many instances in large quantities. Frozen is acceptable.
Gavilan offered a last anecdote. “Hispanic people tend to buy fish differently. They are used to buying fish off the boat whole and fresh, not behind glass, and not cut up and wrapped in plastic on a piece of Styrofoam.” Though naturalized U.S. citizens, he said, even second and third generation families still buy seafood differently. Their biggest connection to family is through food, because they eat together – seven days a week.
Seafood producers downplay that “fishy” taste
by SANDY OLIVER
Krill, farm-raised tilapia, fresh whole scallops, and fish tacos clamored for buyers’ attention along with tons of wild and cultivated salmon, catfish, shrimp, and the breaded-and-fried of every ilk, over the three days of the International Boston Seafood Show at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, March 12-14.
Convention goers sampled appetizer-sized bites of cold-smoked salmon, hot-smoked salmon, salmon pates, salmon dips, and grilled salmon plus crab cakes, semi-shelled and breaded crab claws, coconut encrusted shrimp, and calamari rings. They watched alligator filleting, demonstrations of skinning and portioning machinery, and ogled the scantily-clad Contessa booth girls who passed out shopping bags and hand peeled shrimp while a deejay pumped out music loud enough to drown out sales pitches in neighboring booths.
The major seafood producers who already occupy freezer space in the mainstream supermarket chains presented their new takes on the same old ready-to-serve products and the general public can expect to see more of the same from them in the coming year. Some examples: from Geisha Brand, a fully cooked seafood mix of shrimp, clams, mussels, squid rings and tentacles offered in one pound retail sized bags with recipes for a Seafood Sauté or a Seafood Cioppino on the back. From Fishery Products International, a line of variously flavored fillets, breaded or cracker-crumbed ready for deep-fat frying or to put in an oven. What actual fish is in them is less important than the convenience they offer home cooks or even moderate priced restaurant kitchens.
Fishiness is downplayed in descriptive literature for one product, “Delta-Style Lightly Breaded Natural fillets” aimed at the restaurant business. The brochure says “these 3 oz. natural cut fillets offer a flaky white moist, mild-sweet flavor in a crispy cornmeal coating,” but does not specify the fish used. Asked what fish was inside, a sales representative said Alaskan pollock, but pointed out that it could be cod, flounder, tilapia, or sole.
In fact, several sales representatives cheerfully explained that their product’s chief virtue was that it didn’t taste like fish, and was sure to please people who didn’t like fish.
Though hardly new, one current trend in the seafood business less noticeable in grocery store seafood sections but hugely apparent in the Seafood Show with its high density of consumer products is that fish is duking it out with chicken for the low-fat white meat market. Seafood producers have adopted prepared-chicken terminology: salmon “tenders,” fish “fingers,” crab or salmon “nuggets,” and one new product, “Salmon Tonight” echoes the name of its chicken counterpart.
There was continued evidence of the trend towards more and more convenience with cooked, sauced and frozen seafood entrees vacuum sealed and ready to eat. One sales representative explained that his product looked and tasted just like a restaurant prepared salmon dinner, and claimed “this is the future.”
The vagaries of fishing seasonality and changes in the fish stocks themselves conflict with the demand for consistent ready-to-eat products. Little wonder that the show featured so many products based on farm-raised fish and shellfish. Salmon, catfish, tilapia, and shrimp out-represented wild catch products.
Several of the newest products introduced and judged at the show face various hurdles before the public will ever find them in the grocery store. For example, Antarctic Krill Meat produced by Top Ocean is targeted primarily to the food service industry. This tiny crustacean is caught, cooked, peeled and frozen aboard the fishing vessel. One new products judge praised it as “clean and fresh tasting,” and another noted that it would be good as an ingredient in seafood dishes because it will take any seasoning. How well the product is adopted will depend on whether chefs or food processors take to it. As one judge pointed out, “Americans may not yet want krill on a cracker.”
Americans may not be ready, either, to eat whole scallops, though Pec Nord of New Brunswick is offering whole, natural, farm-raised scallops which can be delivered fresh in 12 hours from the source. Pec-Nord raises its scallops off the coast of Labrador, in the Magdalene Islands, and in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, and has had success selling to chefs in Quebec. Pec-Nord sells an optional marinara sauce in which the impeccably clean and beautiful scallops can be cooked whole. Anyone who enjoys whole clams, mussels or oysters will like whole scallops, though the producer will have to overcome the notion that scallop-eating means scallop muscle only. If this product catches on, it may have to appear first in high-end restaurants where consumers may be willing to try it.
Another new product aimed for the food service industry is NorthIce’s NorthTaste line of shrimp, lobster and pollock “flavors.” The product is so different from anything familiar as to be nearly inexplicable. Sales representatives repeatedly said, “no, it is not a base,” bases being the product much used in food service to create soups and sauces. NorthIce has a patented process by which it “isolates the flavor of the seafood in its purest form using enzymes derived from the seafood.” The product has an intense flavor and could have great appeal to chefs looking for a shortcut around the traditional court bouillon making. Most consumers will unwittingly try this product in restaurants, but its high cost and limited home use will probably keep it off grocery store shelves.
It’s the fish, stupid! Panelists urge fishermen, fish farmers to stop squabbling
by SANDY OLIVER
The message was clear: commercial fishermen and the aquaculture business need to stop squabbling, get organized, and start cooperating to promote seafood consumption.
Dun Gifford, founder of Oldways Preservation Trust, summed it up by saying, “Once the fishery industry is focused on marketing fish effectively, it will matter less where the fish comes from in the first place.”
One of several panels presented at the International Boston Seafood Show, “Water Farming Initiative: Oldways Conference Summary,” moderated by Center For Fisheries Engineering Research Director Clifford Goudey of the MIT Sea Grant College Program, brought together Gifford, David Peterson, CEO of Atlantic Salmon of Maine; and Bill Springer, Publisher of SeaFood Business. The group listening was small (a little more than a couple dozen) and there were somber demeanors and very serious tones among the panelists. Their purpose was to review ground covered in February, when Oldways, the National Fisheries Institute, and the National Aquaculture Association sponsored a gathering in Baltimore for people interested in all the issues associated with aquaculture.
Oldways is now known mainly for its promotion of the “new food pyramids,” most famously one based on a traditional Mediterranean diet. These guidelines are used widely by nutritionists to encourage healthier eating habits. According to Gifford, Oldways has long observed that traditional populations around the world who eat a higher percentage of fish than most modern Americans show much less cardiovascular disease and obesity. Even though many Americans seem to have gotten the message to eat more fish, per capita consumption is still low.
Peterson of Atlantic Salmon of Maine described the state of water farming, assessing its potential and asserting that a healthy aquaculture would lead to healthy fish and a healthy environment. No other animal production for food, he asserted, has ever grown up with the level of scrutiny that aquaculture has been subjected to. “Water farming is creating a new standard of transparency and environmental accountability,” he said.
Next, Springer of SeaFood Business shared his perspective on promotion. (SeaFood Business is the publisher of a magazine of that name, and is part of the company that annually organizes the Boston Seafood Show.)
Springer observed that traditional fishing supports communities and that aquaculture often looks like a threat to them. But, he said, buyers generally do not distinguish between wild and farmed fish. In his view, the industry needs to focus on getting consumers to buy more seafood. Springer reported that fish consumption has increased in the past two years, but not by much. Many people did not grow up eating fish, he said, and are still uncomfortable about preparing it at home. It can be more expensive than other foods, and consumers perceive a higher risk with fixing it at home. These are barriers to fish industry success which the industry has to address, he said. The commercial fishery “fills the variety needs and gives us high-end products like lobsters,” while farm-raised fish “give us consistency and portion control.”
He emphasized that the two sides of the industry need “to work together to grow the entire enterprise, not fragment into groups who get into each other’s ways.”
Oldways, Gifford said, is frustrated in its efforts to promote fish consumption by the fragmented and fractious fisheries, and more recently by environmentalists who have been well organized and timely with their attacks on further aquaculture development.
The salmon raising industry, much beleaguered this past year by disease, has been stymied in its efforts to open more acres of water to fish farming (and also under attack by people interested in preserving wild stocks of salmon from genetic contamination) is a case study in the consequences of an unorganized fisheries response to criticism. If there is to be enough fish for the world’s growing population, Gifford said, some of it must come from water farming. For the sake of health now and future food supply security, aquaculture needs to defend itself now and help the public maintain a balanced perspective. This it has not done, Gifford said. Environmentalists have been “just so well organized that their criticisms penetrate the public’s attention because no one counters them.”
Gifford offered an example. Aquaculture opponents offer “food conversion ratios [which] are wrong in the science, but they are going unchallenged. It is like a death wish for the industry,” so even though more fish-eating would be good for both aquaculture and the wild catch, it is full of problems in the public eye. When criticism is not adequately addressed, Gifford pointed out, the entire fisheries industry is harmed. “One shellfish or groundfish criticism can bring the whole industry down,” and sales will be depressed fisheries-wide.