Meat and poultry producers have long been confilcted on how to use packaging label real estate. Since consumers base so much of their purchasing decisions on what they can see through a transparent film, labeling and messaging space has been limited.
“Yet at the same time, consumers have more and more question about where their chicken comes from and how it’s produced,” says Ira Brill, Director of Communications for California chicken producer Foster Farms.
To solve this problem, Foster Farms introduces DORI™ (Deals, Origins, Recipes, and Information), a new, interactive on-package QR code that is designed to make shopping for chicken easier. Stylized as an emoji, the DORI QR platform connects consumers to exclusive savings via a collaboration with coupons.com, source information, more than 500 fresh chicken recipes, a guide to poultry labeling terms, and more. DORI is accessible via smartphones wherever Foster Farms fresh chicken is sold. DORI recently debuted across all Foster Farms fresh chicken lines, including Fresh and Natural, Simply Raised, and Organic products.
The use of QR code as for augmented messaging on packages seemed promising in its infancy but lagged when disparate smartphone platforms required dissimilar steps or apps to access the QR information. But with the iOS 11 and Android updates that enable QR scans directly from smartphone cameras, a QR code resurgence is predicted by technology industry analysts. According to astudy from Juniper Research, approximately 1.3 billion QR code coupons were redeemed via mobile phones in 2017. This number is expected to grow to 5.3 billion by 2022. DORI is paving the way for greater access to information and savings in the fresh poultry case.
“As more shoppers and retailers embrace scannable technology, including QR codes, we see DORI as a new channel to deliver information about our products and reward our loyalists,” says Brill. “People are looking for convenience and savings and want to know more about where their food comes from. DORI is a new tool for us to share information that our consumers care about.”
Foster Farms will be supporting the DORI roll out with in-store point of purchase signage, social media support as well as other marketing activity such as flash sales and promotions. Over Thanksgiving, a turkey extension to DORI was launched that included directions to the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. The company expects to expand DORI to all its other product lines by 2019, and when it does, it will be able to use the platform to cross-promote among its entire product line. But there are other benefits to Foster Farms that the consumer doesn’t see.
“We’ll get a full suite of analytics back on [DORI], so we’ll know where people are going, how often they’re coming, etc. Are they are responding to digital promotions? Are responding to point of sale?” Brill says. “We will know where people are going on the platform, how long they’re staying on it so we will know where to invest our creative time as we evolve the platform and optimize it. It really is like any other kind of digital platform, one of the advantages is that it allows us to be guided by data.”
Brill indicates strong reception among Foster Farms’ retail customers and sees further potential for cross-promotion outside of poultry and permitting the brand to align with, say, other California-grown agricultural products.
“We could offer some kind of combination coupon on chicken and avocados, along with recipes that feature both products,” Brill says. “Like anything else, we’re bringing something new to the store, and we think the shoppers will see a value in it—if they do, the retailers will be able to get value out of it, too.”
