This June, Midwest Dairy partnered with Kansas City grocery chain Hen House Market to celebrate National Dairy Month in the southern part of Midwest Dairy’s 10-state region. This collaboration, designed to increase dairy sales and build deeper connections with consumers, featured dairy recipe ideas, farmer stories and Undeniably Dairy content in Hen House Market print and online materials.
Hen House Market is a premier full-service, value-priced, local neighborhood supermarket committed to health, wellness, family, and community. The organization has been a staple in the Kansas City region for 97 years, now with nine Hen House Market locations across the metro area in addition to 18 other stores that operate as Ball’s Price Chopper, Payless Discount Foods and SunFresh Market. The goals of this partnership were to:
- Inspire customers to incorporate more dairy into their meal planning and snacking
- Build consumer confidence by sharing the farm-to-table story
- Help others in the community by donating a gallon of milk for food-insecure people in the area
To inspire shoppers to incorporate more dairy into their cooking, Hen House showcased a quesadilla recipe from a local food blogger and influencer that Midwest Dairy had partnered with, Lauren Lane, in their summer magazine. This magazine was distributed in print and online, with the e-version typically having around 15,200 downloads per issue. In addition, two separate cheese promotions were included on the front page of the Hen House Market weekly circular in June, reaching 2,400,000 potential consumers with each ad.
With many consumers engaging in online shopping, it was also important to connect with people online. To reach these individuals, Hen House Market included three ideas for engaging with dairy in a June newsletter that was sent to more than 37,000 consumers, sharing how to celebrate National Dairy Month in three ways:
- Cook with dairy, highlighting Midwest Dairy’s video recipe series with Kansas Farm Food Connection.
- Meet a local dairy farmer, recommending people follow Missouri farmers Adriane and Chris Heins’ blog.
- Help the community with dairy, calling for consumers to donate milk for food insecure people in their community.
Collaborations like this help Midwest Dairy meet consumers in a variety of new places – including online – to drive dairy demand during the pandemic and beyond. By building consumer confidence in dairy products, farmers and the farm-to-kitchen journey, this partnership helped create and engage dairy fans and increased sales, all while celebrating National Dairy Month in new and exciting ways.