Commentary: Mistakes, missteps, misunderstandings

I’m still someone who holds out hope that in time, the furor over pink slime might die down enough so the company that developed and marketed the product might have a chance to regain some of its lost customers.

But I won’t be holding my breath.

That’s because even a cursory analysis of how the controversy arose, how the media portrayed it and how the manufacturer and the industry responded reveals a series of blunders—to put it mildly—that scuttled whatever chance there might have been to rehab (and possibly reverse) the smear campaign against pink slime.

For starters, there is the matter of timing. I know it takes time to mobilize one’s allies, but to wait a week while the media positively erupted with stories slamming pink slime before arranging for several meat-state governors to attempt some damage control was about as ineffective as it gets.

In marketing, you need to be ahead of the curve, not attempting to catch up to your competitors. And in public relations, you have to get out in front of the story, not spend days scrambling to rally your troops while the public is solidifying its disgust for your business and its product.

Easier said than done, I realize, but it’s Rule No. 1 in media relations.

Second, regarding the so-called re-branding strategy: An effort cobbled together like a B-team spring training lineup was doomed from the start. Having a less-than credible presidential dropout heading up your big fight-back news conference is simply bizarre. Gov. Rick Perry might be the leader of a very large and very populous state—and one with enough cattle on feed to provide critics with a gift-wrapped disclaimer—but choosing somebody who was embarrassed during the Republican debates with his inability to articulate the basics of his campaign strategy does not make for an effective spokesperson.

In the end it’s a shame that for years a perfectly acceptable product was marketed with a less-than-appealing name simply because it was being sold through B₂B channels. “Pink slime” is awful, but “lean,finely textured beef” isn’t far behind, at least not as something a celebrity chef or even a discerning consumer might embrace.

One wag suggested that the manufacturer should have replaced LFTB with something like “meat smoothie” or “hamburger slurpee.” That’s not the answer, but neither is the lame “Dude, it’s beef” slogan that Perry and the other governors tried to roll out at a news conference at the BPI plant in South Sioux City, Neb., last week.

You don’t launch a re-branding effort with the word “dude.”

A better strategy

So what should have been done? What could have been handled differently?

For one, the branding of LFTB ought to have started with “Made in USA.” If you want to market leaner, healthier hamburger these days, how do you do it? By importing manufacturing beef from Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

That’s un-American, and consumers should have been educated to that fact.

Second, this product needed to be sold as an ingredient aimed at making ground beef products healthier and more nutritious. It’s not beef, dude—never was. Beef is what you slap on the grill. Beef is what you put in the center of your dinner plate.

LFTB is more akin to the fruit pulp left over after processors portion the fresh fruit and squeeze out the juice. Although pulp is a perfectly acceptable food ingredient that can and is used to manufacture extracts and natural flavorings and food coloring, it’s still “orange slime,” or “beet slime” or some other totally unappealing moniker.

But you don’t put fruit pulp in a bowl and dig in, and you can’t pretend that pink slime is what’s for dinner, either.

Finally—and this is an unfortunate by-product of the iconic status of hamburgers—any ingredient that isn’t 100% pure, natural ground beef is going to find tough sledding as part of a burger formulation. Henk Hoogenkamp, an internationally known food scientist, famously developed a lean, high-protein “Burger McDo” patty for McDonald’s in The Philippines that is only about 50% beef. Because he used vegetable proteins and other functional ingredients, Hoogenkamp’s creation is cheaper and healthier, and it still tastes great.

And it would never sell a single sandwich here in The States.

As Kroger executives noted in a news release renouncing their use of LFTB: “Our customers have expressed their concerns that lean finely textured beef is something they do not want in their ground beef.”

Not by that name, and probably not by any other name as well.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.

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