Consumption of meat continues to go down. Protein based diets continue to pop up. And as health-consciousness continues to rise in the US, more people are eating at home than ever before. Sounds like the perfect time to be a seafood brand and in the healthy food marketing business. So how can they capitalize?
Take Advantage of the move toward Protein Based Diets
Part of the challenge for seafood brands is that healthy food consumers may not be clearly seeing seafood as an easy solution to their dieting challenges. Take Paleo for example. This is one of many protein based diets, and it’s actually become more of a lifestyle. There are even Paleo friendly restaurants! What better food than seafood, for Paleo devotees who need more protein, but don’t want to increase their consumption of meat. Why not reach out to these folks in some of the many online Paleo communities with Paleo-friendly seafood recipes. Showing up where these protein-seeking consumers are with contextually relevant content has the potential to be a homerun for the seafood brands that get there first.
Participate in the eat-at-home movement when people are thinking about it in the grocery store.
Healthy food marketing research shows that as more people jump on the healthy eating bandwagon, many of them are cooking at home, particularly Millenials. Why not reach them when they are stocking up on food to cook at home in the grocery store. Inspiring Millenials with seafood recipe ideas and cooking hacks, especially those who are sick of making the same old thing, could really engender loyalty. Especially since we know that a big part of the seafood hurdle is that consumers simply don’t know what to buy or how to prepare it. Providing some simple recipes with exciting flavors at the moment of truth might just point them away from the meat aisle and translate to sales for seafood.
Get together and do what other industries have done.
Both the Beef and the Pork Associations have banded together to create successful campaigns touting the benefits of their respective animals, and unlike seafood, they had some big health hurdles to overcome. Porkbeinspired.com is a one-stop-shop for all things pork- nutritional facts, recipes, information on different cuts, and more. If the Seafood Associations would get together they could create and distribute a pretty powerful health message with a much bigger audience than any one brand can do on its own. And if they created an online seafood community to provide the kind of inspiration and information today’s healthy-eaters are seeking, all ships would rise (pun intended)!
Follow my twitter for these and other ideas about the healthy food marketing industry.
