Tyson adds jerky to Ball Park lineup

Tyson Foods is betting on the rising popularity of snack foods to drive its branding strategy.

Ball Park, one of the brands acquired by Tyson in last year's purchase of Hillshire Brands, has introduced a line of beef and pork jerky.

The marketing campaign for the jerky, which will be the biggest product push ever for a Hillshire brand, is doubling Ball Park's marketing budget, said Tim Smith, vice president of Ball Park Jerky at Tyson Foods. Smith would not say how big the budget is.

Protein-based snacks are the fastest growing component of the $34.9 billion snacking industry, according to IRI, a Chicago marketing research firm.

Smith said Tyson is targeting millennials with the jerky push. According to a study released earlier this year by Tyson and Anheuser-Busch, millennials prefer smaller snacks to eating three meals a day.

"Millennials, as well as a lot of the population, are moving away from these big meals," Smith said. "Where we have a sweet spot is when we talk to millennials, specifically guys."

Jerky is traditionally marketed toward men, Smith said. He said Ball Park will use part of its advertising budget to get the company's jerky featured at Southeastern Conference football games.

To breach the gender gap in jerky sales, Smith said Ball Park has made flame-grilled flavors that he hopes will appeal to more people.

"The reason they stay away from the category is that the jerky out there today is too tough and too dry," he said.

Tom Hayes, Tyson's chief commercial officer, said at a presentation last month that the company's new focus will be on developing its brands. He said Tyson will devote 72 percent of its resources toward the highest value brands including Tyson, Wright, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park and Aidells.

Ball Park is most well known for its burger patties and hot dogs. The jerky rollout will be the brand's first move since being acquired by Tyson.

Sales of jerky rose 13 percent last year, and the category is now worth $1.4 billion, according to IRI. And more than half of U.S. adult consumers said they wanted more protein in their diet, according to a study by NPD Group, a market research company.

"Protein is clearly on trend," Hayes said at the presentation. "The categories we are in are hot."

Tyson and Hillshire have been developing the jerky line for three years. Tyson built a 50,000-square-foot production facility in Virginia for the Ball Park jerky line in 2014.

Tyson already has a specialty jerky brand, Golden Island, which also came with Tyson's purchase of Hillshire. Golden Island sells higher-end jerky. Ball Park has the potential to reach a wider range of consumers, Smith said.

"Ball Park has such mass appeal," he said.

Smith said Ball Park will have to compete with more-established jerky and protein snack brands, including Slim Jim. He said Ball Park's jerky will be priced to give more price-conscious consumers a cheaper way into the category.

"Our beef jerky will be [comparable] with other mainstream players," he said. "But we will be pricing our pork jerky at a lower price which makes a lot of sense for consumers."

Three of the five flavors being released by Ball Park are beef. This extra beef product comes at a time when Tyson is scaling back its beef production. Last month Tyson closed a beef production plant in Iowa.

"We don't need the amount of cattle that some of our other products do, so we don't see that being a big issue," Smith said.

Martin Thoma, a principal at Little Rock-based brand leadership firm Thoma Thoma, said consumers can expect Tyson to continue growing its brands and products.

"It seems consistent with their overall strategy that they've articulated," he said. "It's really about adding more and more value-added finished products to their portfolio."

Thoma said the challenge for Ball Park will be to align its new product with the brand image, which is well-known for its hot dogs.

"Every time you do that, you are stretching the envelope, asking consumers to think about Ball Park in a new way," he said. "There's always a risk of confusing or losing consumers along the journey."

Business on 10/13/2015

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