From the Association By Nancy Foster, President, National Renderers Association Connecting with Millennials Recently, I was describing how the National Renderers Association (NRA) is reaching out to communicate the important work the rendering industry does for consumers and American agriculture. When it was mentioned that NRA is active on social media, such as “tweeting” on Twitter, I got a polite, uncertain look. When I explained that tweets are like a short text message – 140 characters max – there were more polite stares. I then asked the audience how many “text” on their cell phones. One hand went up. The audience did not include millennials, the youngest population group to launch into the job market and live in the cyber world. Just as millennials need to understand older generations, such as their bosses and parents, renderers need to see why this group is important to the future of their industry. Look around. Millennials, born from the early 1980s to mid-2000s, are the largest population segment in the United States (US). They are major consumers of today and tomorrow and are driving political influence. Both their consumption and influence will expand over the next several decades, perhaps even more so than the baby boomers did in the past 40 years. Also called generation Y, this group is actually bigger, much bigger, than the boomers born from 1945 to 1964. Millennials are 86 million strong, seven percent larger than the baby boomers. Now 10 to 33 years old, they are moving into business, politics, the media, and elsewhere. Millennials will increasingly influence the rendering industry’s freedom to operate and the regulations faced. Their eating choices, which differ from previous generations, will drive the industry’s supply of important animal co-product inputs. As I have learned, there is fierce competition in the rendering industry for raw material suppliers. Millennials will be a force in creating public perception in the community about your business. As urban pressure increases with population growth, they will drive zoning, air quality, water quality, and other decisions important in their neighborhoods and towns where renderers operate. These young adults are also the industry’s future workforce, the legislative advisors to Capitol Hill decision makers, and future officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Agriculture, and other federal and state agencies. They will write laws and regulations and be in the media. (For those attending NRA’s Washington Fly-in this June, keep in mind you’ll be educating many millennials in Congress on the challenges the industry faces.) Renderers have a true opportunity – and responsibility – to understand and communicate with these millennials about their industry. Renderers also need to communicate with them on their own terms, which are vastly different from previous generations. The good news is that NRA leaders reversed course several years ago and decided rendering could no longer be “the invisible industry.” They strategically aligned NRA’s funding and staff to start telling the industry’s incredibly powerful story about the vital role rendering plays in the US food chain and its contribution to a sustainable environment. NRA hired its own millennial, Dr. Jessica Meisinger, who holds a PhD in agriculture specializing in meat science from Colorado State University. She has an uncanny ability to understand technical scientific issues and translate them into tweets and blogs for the rendering industry. Millennials are the ultimate multitaskers, so NRA’s messages are competing against other things they are doing or thinking about. The more visual and quick the information is, the better. Consequently, NRA is developing infographics, colorful and easy-to-understand charts that tell the industry’s story. It is up to us to get the facts out in a compelling manner. A drumbeat offensive of positive news creates an overall positive impression and can inoculate the public against unfounded rumors or bad news. That’s where NRA comes in. So, who are these millennials? A new report, Millennials in Adulthood, from the Pew Research Center gathered new information about this generation’s thinking and attitudes based on a national survey in mid-February. It has profound implications for the future. Here are some findings. Millennials are digital natives – the Internet, mobile technology, and social media – and navigate the cyber world as easily as boomers do phone calls. They text each other in meetings, in bed, or anytime and anywhere they feel like it (much to the dismay of their bosses or parents). They are on Facebook, Twitter, social networks, blogs, and send “selfies” (candid self-pictures; the term became mainstream enough to be declared Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year in 2013). E-mail and telephones are becoming foreign to millennials, who seek instantaneous information how and when they want it. Seventy percent of them react to products, issues, business, and brands on social media and 54 percent post their opinions online. Television and print advertising does not hit the mark. To win support from millennials, rendering’s good-forthe environment and other messages must be meaningful and authentic. This group values real stories about real people that are relevant to their lives. It has to be personal and resonant to draw them in. Millennials are hungry for information and probably the best-informed generation to face marketing professionals. However, what they think they know may not always be correct since activists are adept at spreading mistruths and scaremongering about animal agriculture. The rendering industry has to reach millennials where they are, on social media, with images and messages compelling to them. Millennials are the most diverse generation in our nation’s history. Just under 60 percent of them are non-Hispanic 50 April 2014 Render www.rendermagazine.com
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