Chicken marketers and poultry retailers across the country are urging consumers to “click and serve” great recipes from the Web site www.eatchicken.com for National Chicken Month this September.
Visitors to the site can enjoy any of the hundreds of recipes posted there, including many winners in the National Chicken Cooking Contest.
The National Chicken Council and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, sponsors of National Chicken Month, will provide grocery retailers across the country with “Click and Serve” graphics to help encourage consumers to click on Eatchicken.com to discover new ways to prepare chicken. The graphics may be used to create in-store displays or to illustrate print advertisements keyed to National Chicken Month.
“Consumers rate chicken’s versatility as its number one feature, so with the Eatchicken.com Web site we have an excellent tool to help get shoppers thinking about new and different ways to enjoy chicken. The summer and early fall grilling season adds to the variety of ways to serve chicken,” said Gary Brown, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at O.K. Foods, and Chairman of the NCC Marketing Committee.
“The Web site is easy to use and provides a great variety of ideas,” Brown said. “Linking the Web site to the other elements of National Chicken Month — companion product coupons and special features on chicken that will be available in September — should make for a very successful National Chicken Month.”
Also, for the first time, promotional graphics will be made available to retailers online, at www.eatchicken.com/sellmore. CD’s containing the same artwork are available from the National Chicken Council. Retailers who register online for NCM materials are eligible to win one of the $250 prize monies in a random drawing.
Sales representatives for chicken companies can also participate in a competition that will recognize those who are most effective in securing retailer participation in National Chicken Month. Two grand prizes of $2,500 will go to sales representatives whose accounts sponsor the largest number of different advertising and marketing initiatives for NCM. Prizes will be awarded in two categories: sales representatives with retailer chains of more than twenty stores, and those whose accounts are chains with twenty or fewer stores.
“We rely on our company’s sales forces to spread the word to retailers about National Chicken Month,” said Brown. “Their active involvement builds the momentum we need for a successful promotion.”
The primary component of the NCM retail promotion is, as in past years, an on-pack coupon program. Shoppers looking for food bargains in September will find coupons with a combined worth of $1.85 for Heinz 57 Sauce“, Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce and Campbell’s“ Supper Bakes, as well as single coupons for Jack Daniel’s“ Grilling Sauce, on 20 million packages of chicken in September.
“This year, the chicken industry is distributing more coupons than in any previous year for food products that are served with chicken,” said Sue Quillin, Vice President of Marketing, Tyson Foods, and Chairman of the NCC Promotions Subcommittee.
Quillin added that the coupons will also be available in an 8-page magazine insert found in subscription copies of the September issue of three prominent consumer magazines, Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and Family Circle, reaching approximately 40 million readers. “The coupon program remains the foundation of the NCM promotion,” Quillin said. “These are products that enhance the taste and usage of chicken.”
Chicken companies signed up to date to participate in the on-pack coupon program include: Allen Family Foods, Claxton Farms, Empire Kosher, Foster Farms, Gold Kist, Gold ‘n Plump Poultry, Mountaire Farms, Pennfield Farms, Perdue Farms, Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Fieldale Farms and Park Farms.
September will see the second annual “Chicken in September” outreach to the foodservice industry. A nationwide contest encouraging Americans to eat chicken at their favorite restaurant in September will reward six diners with cash prizes. Diners may mail in receipts for a chicken dish purchased at any restaurant — fast food to fine dining — and be eligible for a random drawing that will award a total of $10,000 in cash. And more than 1,000 food editors at newspapers and magazines nationwide will receive a special NCM press kit, filled with information on food safety, nutrition, storage and preparation of chicken, plus photographs and recipes.
Over its 13-year history, National Chicken Month is expected to result in a 60 percent increase in chicken sales in September 2002, as compared with September 1989 when the program started. Traditionally a weak month for chicken demand, September is now one of the strongest sales periods.
For more information about National Chicken Month, please contact Bill Roenigk, Senior Vice President, National Chicken Council, 1015 15th St. NW, Suite 930, Washington, DC 20005. Telephone (202) 296-2622; e-mail [email protected].
NOTE TO EDITORS: A jpeg version of the “Click and Serve” logo shown above is available upon request. Please send an e-mail to [email protected].
