Beefed-Up Assortments Phoenix AZ

Beef and pork products in the value-added meat category are benefiting from consumer demand for great-tasting, easy-to-prepare products that also offer versatility and value, whether it's minute steaks, burgers and cheeseburgers, meatballs or fully-cooked cuts of barbecue brisket.

Two companies, Advance Brands, with its Fast Fixin' and Steak-Eze brands, and Quaker Maid Meats, with its Gina Lina's, Mama Lucia, and Quaker Maid brands, as well as its recently acquired Steak-umm brand, are pursing individual strategies that include new product introductions and significant investments in advertising.

Advance Brands, Oklahoma City, Okla., continues to add new products to its existing lineup of Fast Fixin' beef meatballs, Italian meatballs, beef steaks for sandwiches, country fried steaks with gravy, as well as its sirloin Philly beef steaks under its Fast Fixin' and Steak-Eze brands.

"Our fully-cooked, convenience products offer a solution to the time-crunched person with the kids after school," says Bill O'Neill, vice president of business development. "And we will be rolling out four new products between now and July: a Philly steak sandwich, a pork rib sandwich, and two poultry products—a grilled chicken sandwich and a Buffalo-style sandwich."

These four new introductions closely follow the recent introduction of the Fast Fixin' On the Go Cheeseburgers, a grab-'em-and-go concept that features six individually wrapped, microwaveable cheeseburgers in a bag, priced at $5.99. The other new products being rolled out this summer will be line priced with the cheeseburgers.

Advance Brands reaches out to consumers with store circulars, Catalina Marketing's coupon programs at the point of sale, its own web site, and word of mouth from happy customers.

"We are working hard on the whole idea of developing and marketing fully-cooked, convenience items for a tray, bag or box (for after school, breakfast and dinner). We're also working to develop packaging that is environmentally friendly, by shrinking the size of the package and using water-based inks," notes O'Neill.

With the Steak-umm brand having maintained a low profile for several years, new company president, Sergei Szortyka, based in Redding, Pa., is making a splash with the brand's first TV ad campaign in over 20 years.

The Steak-umm line includes four SKUs in seven-, 12-, 16- and 24-count boxes, each requiring a cooking time of about 90 seconds. As Szortyka observes, "It takes longer to prepare other components of the sandwich that it takes to cook the steaks."

Quaker Maid Meats acquired Steak-umm last year and, as the president explains, "We're back and we are promoting the brand. Our goal is to grow our sandwich steak brand and the entire sandwich steak category. It's been let go for several years."

While Szortyka prefers not to disclose the price tag on Steak-umm's TV campaign, which was launched in early March and was scheduled to conclude in mid May, he says it is having a significant impact.

"We have seen a dramatic increase in consumer emails asking about retailers that stock the items. And because of the TV ad spillover into Canada, we are also seeing an increase in Canadian consumers asking where they can purchase the products. We are planning to make them available in the next eight weeks, when we have dealt with the issue of multi-language packaging," he adds.

"Sandwich steaks are not a destination item, but we found that if we remind consumers that this is an ideal product that is quick, easy and convenient to prepare, and is also inexpensive, we can get them back in the habit of buying them, and we will get repeat purchases when our customers start replacing what was in their freezer," Szortyka notes.

While Steak-umm is entertaining other new items to be put under the brand name, meeting consumer demand generated by the ad campaign is the current priority—especially as the company expands into a new market in Canada.

"The brand has been around since 1960 and it has always fit consumers' need for quick, convenient and easy sandwiches and meals. It fits all the requirements of today's fast-paced lifestyle, and just about anyone can prepare it for steak and eggs or Stroganoff. It's an all-purpose, all beef product." And speaking of the brand's new owner, he explains, "Quaker Maid Meats is a family business. Our reputation in the industry with retailers is beyond reproach. We can guarantee there will be no problems—from production through to distribution."