Who loves steaks? Who knows the connection between creating them and marketing? Slaughterhouses are where the connection starts. They are violent, bloody, messy places that create enormous value upon faithfully executing their strategy. A slaughterhouse’s success requires maximizing usage of every animal component. First, realize that creating value can be messy. Death and destruction of farm animals is necessary for consumers to enjoy the finest steaks and most succulent ribs. Furthermore, slaughterhouses maximize profits when animal parts transform into succulent cuts of meat, as well as into hamburger. Ultimately, they can be unpleasant and dangerous, which oddly sounds like business development processes in competitive marketplaces. 

Communication 

Effective marketing is fundamentally communication with a business purpose. In other words, marketing is getting a business idea from one place to another. Regardless of the medium, the tool, or the strategy, ultimately benefits are communicated leading to a good or service exchanging hands for money. Communicating both practical and emotional benefits is at the core of maximizing value regardless of the business.  Consistent messaging is absolutely required for any customer to trust a seller. Only then can the opportunity for repeat business emerge. Effective messaging must match the end user’s expectations and experiences. Whether the business emphasizes the product’s emotion, its value, or its taste, the experience must remain consistent to maximize revenue. Translating the slaughterhouse metaphor to a commercial transaction, every part of the sales transaction has value. The successful sales maximize value regarding attributes that the customer prioritizes. Most importantly, the customer is delighted with the expectation and the execution of the transaction. Great selling emphasizes that delight! 

Branding 

While the butchered animal communicates value for customers who anticipate eating it, additional business communication emerges. Branding represents what your good or services says in the product’s absence. Recognize that a butchered cow’s shoulder is communicating a significantly different set of dining expectations than the tri-tip. In the slaughterhouse, two cows may go to slaughter simultaneously. Nevertheless, they may be preparing for very different destinations. Not all beef is created equal. On behalf of the consumer, butchered cows may have very different experiences based on pedigree and attributes. Nevertheless, all pieces and components must contribute somehow to the overall value offering of the butchered animal. The branding that communicates pricing may have more to do with who buys the pieces of meat, as much as the pedigree that sired it. The slaughterhouse may have different pieces going to different butcher shops and restaurants. Ultimately, the brand dictates the tangible value according to its positioning for buyers. 

Conclusion 

Slaughterhouse marketing makes sense because it emphasizes maximizing value! Ultimately, the value drivers are the details that communicate to a customer what pedigree or cut will indicate superior quality to benefit customer experiences. A reputation for cleanliness, precision, and quality commands more customers’ willingness to pay premium prices for the final product. Slaughterhouse marketing achieves value goals because it delivers value to customers across several niches. From ground beef to filet mignon, multiple price points reflect the same raw materials and manufacturing facility. Slaughterhouse marketing works because differences in production yield segmented pricing for outputs. Coordinated communication efforts leads to cost-efficient marketing tactics creating segmented products across multiple price points. Profits are maximized! What can be more tasty than that for a business leader? 

By Glenn W Hunter 

Managing Director, Hunter and Beyond, LLC