Introduction
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) requested that the PIE Center assess targeted consumer perceptions of potential messaging strategies related to the Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing’s Gulf Safe seafood campaign. The research enabled FDACS to focus more directly on a specific target audience consistent with the Gulf Safe campaign objective of increasing the purchase and consumption of Florida Gulf seafood, as well as reassure the public of its safety.
PIE Center researchers conducted ten focus groups in five metropolitan locations identified as the top marketing areas in the state: Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville. Participants in the focus groups were asked about their seafood purchasing behaviors and their responses to different seafood marketing concepts and logos. The focus groups were recorded, transcribed and analyzed.
Key findings
When asked about their general seafood preferences, participants said they prefer some seafood to others because of health considerations, taste, smell, texture, as well as preparation time and ease of cooking. Participants exhibited general understandings of overall nutritional or health benefits to consuming seafood, but a few respondents said they chose to avoid seafood because of worries surrounding mercury content.
Overall, participants reported being skeptical or uneasy about foreign or farm-raised seafood and instead prefer locally caught seafood. Memories of the oil spill are a barrier to purchasing Gulf seafood in grocery stores, participants said, but many still prefer to buy Gulf seafood for the local benefits to the economy and fishermen.
Participants identified commercials for BP’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Red Lobster as seafood marketing they had seen. Participants liked BP’s focus on the cleanup efforts as well as the safety and recovery of the Gulf seafood industry, but said the commercial reminded them of the oil spill disaster and at times brings back sad or negative feelings about the way that the area has been impacted.
When examining FDACS’ Fresh from Florida logo, participants said they thought of produce, particularly citrus. They enjoyed how the logo promotes Florida simply and clearly but did not like the overall vagueness of the logo since they could not determine a specific product it represents.
When comparing the previous logo to an adapted version showing a fish jumping out of water and the words “Fresh from Florida Gulf Seafood,” participants liked the clarity but recommended changing the fish image to a species that lives in Florida waters.
Message testing
PIE Center researchers also asked participants to respond to four different marketing concepts related to consuming Florida Gulf seafood. The concepts consisted of one or two sentences and photos illustrating the sentences.
Concept 1, “I choose Florida Gulf seafood at home because my family and friends love the taste and variety. Plus, being in Florida, I know it’s fresh and easy to find locally,” was received favorably for the most part. Participants were mixed on their feelings of the photos and recommended including pictures of Florida seafood and fishermen.
Concept 2, “I indulge in delicious, fresh, Florida Gulf seafood as part of a healthy lifestyle,” resonated with participants’ desire of healthy nutrition. Participants, however, thought the word “indulge” evoked a somewhat negative connotation and had a hard time connecting the images of exercising with seafood.
Concept 3, “I like to create new, fresh Florida Gulf seafood recipes to share with my family and friends and show off my cooking skills,” didn’t seem to appeal to participants, who were concerned that not everyone cooks.
Concept 4, “When dining out, treating myself to fresh Florida Gulf seafood makes the meal feel more special,” illustrated seafood as a treat. Participants responded favorably to this concept, but identified the photos showing seafood not from Florida.
Key recommendations
Although the Fresh from Florida brand resonates with consumers, focus group participants had problems with the word “from” and thought it meant the produce or seafood would be going elsewhere. A slight word change might help the overall branding effort as FDACS seeks to use the Fresh from Florida brand with other agricultural products.
Interestingly, consumers want to know where their seafood comes from, but don’t want to see the word “Gulf” and be reminded of the oil spill. Consumers who want to consume seafood but lack knowledge about whether to trust the safety of Gulf seafood might avoid purchasing something labeled as from the Gulf. FDACS should focus on consumer trust and focus on Florida seafood rather than Gulf seafood.
Participants responded favorably to aspects of all four concepts. The local perspective, combined with freshness, being outdoors and health are elements that most resonated with consumers. When creating images or commercials, FDACS should consider using images of families and gatherings of friends to portray messages about eating seafood, as participants responded very positively to images of social gatherings.
FDACS should also consider leveraging consumers’ desire for trusted in-store information to include seafood counter markers so the seafood from Florida waters could be marked. The current campaign could be expanded to include seafood counter workers and package markers in order to educate distributors and encourage them to mark packages of seafood with the location of origin. Seafood counter workers could be educated about where different seafood comes from in order to inform customers through word of mouth about which seafood choices are local Florida choices. Since many participants talked about feeling it was worthwhile and important to support the local economy and local fishermen, knowing that the seafood comes from the Florida may encourage and increase purchasing and consumption.
This project was part of the Gulf Safe series. Learn more by visiting Gulf Safe seafood communications audit, a similar project in this series.
