08/27/08 Consumer, consumer, consumer

Think of the oldest catch phrase in selling real estate. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to relate that phrase to selling cattle. I hope you agree the oldest and most well known real estate selling phrase is "location, location, location." Well, selling cattle and beef, I think, is all about "consumer, consumer, consumer." This idea is never more true than it is with branded beef sellers. A branded beef company or alliance looks the final consumer, a beef buying individual or a family in the eye and says this is ours, we raised it, we fed it, we approved of the processor and we guarantee it. I'll tell you, that company had better know its consumers wants, needs and tastes. Not all consumers in the cattle business are beef buyers. A purebred breeder's consumer is the rancher who has a commercial cow-calf operation and is buying seed stock that will give him or her the type of cattle they want. Wait a minute; maybe I should say the type of cattle their consumer wants. If the ranchers are part of a branded beef alliance then they are thinking of the final beef buyer. But, if the cow-calf operation sells to say, a feedlot, then that feedlot is its consumer and those cattle better gain and finish right or that feedlot will not be a return buyer. Now, the feedlot owner sells to its consumer, the packer, who sells to retailers, who sell to that ultimate consumer. Hey, this sounds like the old "House that Jack Built" poem. Well, that's how it works  we all have to please the consumer, consumer, consumer. I'm Jeff Keane.