NCBA keeps cool despite

latest mad cow concerns

By Alvin Hattal

(Published in PR Week)

When a case of mad cow was reported in Washington last year, the NCBA already had a crisis strategy in place. These days, the group remains proactive during a time of regulatory chance.

Ever since Britain’s mad cow epidemic, the U.S.—and especially the nation’s $621-million beef industry—has been on the alert for any sign of a similar problem here. Last December 23 it came, and things haven’t been the same since.

A cow in the small town of Mabton in southern Washington State came down with the disease, triggering the implementation of the crisis communication plan created by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), in conjunction with the Washington Beef Commission (WBC), in case of an outbreak in the U.S.

“We had coordinated a crisis response team to prepare for that possibility,” says WBI’s executive director, Patti Brumbach. “Our goal was to assure the public that the market for beef and dairy products is stable, producers are well informed, and consumers continue to have confidence in the industry.”

Besides maintaining statewide consumers’ confidence in the beef and dairy industries and their products, says Brumbach, “our consumer response plan was designed to provide for and facilitate communication between the industry and government organizations managing the issue.”

At the national level, NCBA, which represents more than 250,000 cattlemen through its state affiliates, coordinates the industry response and champions their concerns in Washington, D.C. It is also involved in the Beef Checkoff Program, a federally mandated assessment on cattle sales to “strengthen the position of beef in the marketplace and to maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets and uses for beef and beef products,” says Rick McCarty, the association’s executive director for issues management. The Checkoff Program also funds NCBA’s and WBC’s PR and communications programs, as well as their ongoing research and response to the disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)..

“We are also the creative and culinary engine behind beef new-product development,” says McCarty, “and we direct beef research on multiple fronts, ranging from genetics and pathogen reduction to tenderness and human nutrition, as well as consumer public-opinion analysis.”

So when “mad cow” struck in Washington State, NCBA took the lead in communicating consistent, science-based messages with state industry organizations nationwide about the disease.

Crisis Web site traffic spikes

“That single BSE event in Washington State has basically changed the fundamental economic architecture of the beef industry,” McCarty says. “As a result of the ‘mad cow’ situation in Europe, we had developed new communications and logistics plans, including a crisis Web site, www.bseinfo.org, with current details of the situation in anticipation of the broad media coverage that might develop.

“Traffic on that site immediately spiked up, with more than a million unique visitors since Dec. 23. And traffic remains higher than before, largely with questions dealing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s enhanced surveillance program.”

More important, according to McCarty, “After a brief decline, demand for beef, which has risen 16% since 1998, has continued to rise along with prices. So the effect of the BSE event on both the consumer market and the cattle market has ended. To date, consumer confidence in beef remains very strong.”

In fact, says NCBA’s Director of Food Safety PR Michele Peterson, the industry has introduced 2,100 new products in the last five years. “So people are clearly passionate about beef, and they want assurance that it’s safe. And confidence level is now very strong. But much of consumers’ concern, which does increase whenever testing is in the news, reflects media coverage.”

“In terms of crisis preparedness,” McCarty adds, “we now are preparing for the possibility of another case or cases, a different process from preparing for the first one. Our challenge now is to follow some of the standard crisis communications procedures—e.g., centralizing the spokesperson role and channeling everything through a narrow communications funnel. We are now conducting our ‘crisis’ planning in a different environment.”

NCBA’s affiliated state organizations play an important role in the overall public relations effort. They, in turn, keep the industry’s various stakeholders, including retail and food-service institutions and human/animal health experts, abreast of developments. Not the least among other information targets, of course, are politicians and the media, who are key recipients of NCBA’s PR outreach.

“The state organizations trust us as a mentor for some of their programs, and we do consult with them on a daily basis,” says Polly Ruhland, NCBA’s issues management director.

Although Washington State’s “mad cow” scare’s only victim was the beef industry itself, NSBA also recognized the need to anticipate outside interests’ claims of hazard to consumers.

“Our problem,” McCarty says, “is one of industry image, whose effect on our member companies is difficult to discern. We therefore conduct a significant amount of research to track consumers’ perception of beef and their confidence in its safety.”

Aiding in various parts of the PR effort, which won a PRSA Silver Anvil this year, are three agencies. Burson-Marsteller is the AOR for beef safety programs. Edelman works on the industry’s nutrition programs, and McDowell & Plasecki helps create recipes fed to the media. State affiliates such as WBC work with their local media, generally handling their own PR internally.

Market holds steady

Says WBC’s Brumbach, “In the weeks and months immediately following the U.S. Agriculture Department’s (USDA) announcement of the discovery of BSE in Washington State, consumer awareness of Mad Cow Disease in the United States had reached 97%, and consumer confidence in the safety of the US beef supply reached 91%, up from 88% in September 2003.  Ongoing consumer attitude surveys indicate that awareness and concern has declined.  Domestic beef sales and cattle prices have remained solid.  We did lose access to our export markets where approximately 10% of all US beef is sold.”

By January, MSNBC News reported: “Fears of shrinking sales have largely not come true, perhaps due to the industry’s biggest and most coordinated PR effort ever. Little seems likely to change the way Americans buy beef. The revolution will not be on the plate.”

WBC, one of the 45 state organizations that comprise NABC, actually started developing its own crisis team to implement an information and response plan three years ago. It then began presenting that plan to its producer members last October, just two months before the December scare in Washington State. It also tied in to the State Agriculture Department’s plan and became the contact point between other industry organizations and the department, which in turn also participates in WBC’s conference calls to get feedback from the producers

“As an industry,” Brumbach told PR Week, “we have moved into the ‘adjustment’ phase of the BSE response.  New regulations, including an accelerated BSE surveillance program; new animal identification programs; changes in processing beef and beef by- products; and further feed restrictions, must all be incorporated into the business of producing and marketing beef.  These new and emerging regulatory responses remain a focus of the news media.”

Looking ahead to another possible case of BSE, NCBA has expanded its research to determine how consumers might react and what information they would want to have. Consumer focus groups in Denver and D.C., for example, said they found the industry credible and, while they would not be alarmed by extreme activists groups, they would pay close attention to factual information from both private and government sources.

Meanwhile, the industry has been quick to respond to negative messages such as TV images of sick cows with B rolls showing healthy cattle that have been used by many stations. Proactively, it continues to run commercials stressing enjoyment of the eating experience, including a long-time theme: “Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.”

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