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Marketing the Product In its sales efforts, Meyer Natural Angus has targeted restaurants look- ing for a consistently high quality beef product to offer their customers, as well as health food outlets and upscale grocery retailers for its frozen beef cuts. The company began selling significant quantities of natural beef in 1997 to a distributor in Boston after negotiations with management. At that time 20 head were processed per week, a number that only four years later had increased to 500 weekly in 2001, while purchasing over 15,000 cattle per year from their own genetics, and other animals that meet their criteria for “natu- ral” feeding and management. Management has observed that markets are currently in a process of major change: “Retail outlets are looking for a cus- tomized product for their clients, something that fits the needs of their cus- tomer better than the traditional method.” Meat packers are feeling increasing pressure to offer customers something more than just the commodity beef that has previously been the rule. The Meyer companies are positioned to benefit from this trend by offering a consistent supply of high-quality beef bearing an increasingly recognized brand, from naturally fed cattle of known origin. Dr. Darrell Wilkes, president of Integrated Beef Technologies, has put it thus: “We are moving toward a value-based marketing system,” and adds, “We will have two distinct markets. One will be for what we might call verified, quality-controlled cattle where you know the source, the animal history of the cattle, the pre-feed lot nutrition history and the genetics, which will command a premium price commensurate with the consistent quality of the beef. The other market will be a price-discounted one; the traditional market that has been termed ‘commodity beef’ from cattle without documentation.” Meyer Natural Angus sells beef to an expanding group of retail food stores in eight states (as of 2001) on the east coast from Massachusetts to Florida, plus D.C.; also in California, especially the San Francisco Bay Area; and in the country’s midsection in Texas, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Several dozen restaurants featuring Meyer Natural Angus are scattered around the San Francisco Bay area. One chain, Cheeseburger in Paradise, serves MNA burgers at its several outlets in southern California, Hawaii, and Mexico. Internationally, there is now some export of MNA beef to Japan and 189