Tapping into the latest food trend, provenance, free-range poultry producer The Free Ranger has launched new packaging and a marketing campaign dedicated to sharing the stories of its chickens, raised on farms in Victoria’s Gippsland and Mornington Peninsula, South Australia’s Riverland, and South-East Queensland.
As Australian consumers continue to seek local produce with greater traceability, transparency and sustainability, provenance has emerged as a top food trend, focused on communicating more information about where food comes from and how it’s been farmed.
The Free Ranger said provenance goes further than spotlighting the locality of production, to sharing more about a product’s history and story, adding that ‘free range’, ‘locally farmed’, ‘organic’, were buzz words that had become synonymous with the brand and its products, but there was growing demand to really understand what underpins the labels.
Recent Roy Morgan research found four in five (86 per cent) of shoppers believe buying Australian-made is important; the 2023 Retail Sustainability Spotlight report by Australian Consumer and Retail Studies at Monash Business School said 64 per cent of consumers said locally produced was an important factor when making a purchase, while 62 per cent placed importance on products being ethically produced, and 51 per cent named sustainability as a key factor.
The Free Ranger’s new packaging highlights the locality and provenance of where the chicken being bought was raised, through large text labelling and a map of Australia – with farm locations including Mornington and Gippsland, VIC; South-East QLD; and Riverland SA.
The packaging also highlights the key benefits of buying the brand: free range; no added hormones; RSPCA approved, and raised without antibiotics. It’s cross-channel campaign features ads, recipes, social media influencer partnerships, broader digital advertising, and point of sale activity.
Inghams GM of consumer led growth and innovation Helen Tang said the marketing campaign aimed to strengthen understanding for consumers about where food products were coming from.
“We understand that people are looking to learn more about where their food comes from, and to make better choices – both in relation to sustainability, animal welfare, quality and nutrition.
“The Free Ranger is a premium Australian free range chicken product, and by sharing more information about where our free-range meat-chickens are raised, and how, we aim to bolster understanding of this category-leading product and help people make a more-informed choice,” said Tang.
The Free Ranger chooks are raised on free-range farms where they are free to range during the day and sheltered in climate-controlled sheds overnight and in bad weather, with free access to food and water with nutrition from grains including wheat, barley, legumes and soybean meal.
The Free Ranger range includes fresh whole chickens, breast fillets, thigh fillets and drumsticks, available at Woolworths.
