Honest Beef uses 100 percent recyclable packaging to ship the company's products.
Spreading the message
Figuring out the logistics of the business was a challenge, but getting the word out about Honest Beef also proved to be a formidable task in the beginning. Raudsepp was able to get help in this area too. “At first, we did a little bit of digital marketing,” Raudsepp says, “and that worked OK.” And then CNBC came calling.
“We were fortunate to have been featured on CNBC … on one of their lunchtime programs,” she says. “That was awesome for us.” It turns out that media reports on Honest Beef became the leading marketing channel for the company with word-of-mouth recommendations coming in a close second.
“I attribute that to the fact that we’re based out of Boston and to be able to pitch to a media outlet: ‘Hey, check out what we’re doing; you can crowd source a cow and here’s the pedigree of your steak’; It just sounds interesting in a market that’s not used to hearing that language,” Raudsepp says.
News of the Honest Beef Co. has attracted a diverse customer demographic that is much wider than Raudsepp would have expected. “In talking to customers that have purchased, it ranges from city dwellers in Manhattan, New York, to people in Tennessee that maybe used to live in Nebraska and they miss the beef.”
Beef tenderloin shares are the most frequent purchase from Honest Beef Co. because of the popularity of the cut itself, Raudsepp says. “If someone orders a tenderloin package, they’re also going to get round steaks,” she explains. “That’s how we can most economically utilize all of the animal. With a little bit of education and a little bit of ingenuity, there’s a lot that can be done with the outside meats.”
This is why Raudsepp also works hard to ensure that the humble skirt steak gets some love, too.
“Part of my mission is to tell people about the skirt steak and how amazing skirt steak is when it’s prepared the right way,” she explains. “So, a lot of what I do is education about how to prepare certain cuts.”
Raudsepp says Honest Beef is willing to pursue relationships with other small-to-medium producers and processing facilities outside of Nebraska once the company’s existing supply is exhausted. But for now, Raudsepp and crew are focusing on perfecting core business processes. Overhead has been relatively low because of the crowd sourcing business model, and so far the business is going well.
“We’re excited and sort of overwhelmed by the sales that we’ve done,” Raudsepp says. “The numbers look good.”
No discouraging words
Raudsepp emphasizes that “all beef is good.” She says she has great admiration for all the stakeholders in the industry, and she hopes that consumers can come to trust the beef products they buy and feel good about eating beef. So, don’t expect to hear her bad-mouth her fellow beef producers and processors. Thou shalt not speak ill of other beef producers or production methods.
“All in all, all beef is good,” she explains, “and I just want the families who are working so hard to produce beef…to have a livelihood and be able to pass this down to the next generation. That’s the heartbeat of America, in my opinion.”
