Every Member Dollar Invested in GAPP Yields More than Twenty-Eight Dollars in Marketing Impact

For each dollar invested by the Wild Alaska Pollock industry into its marketing organization during the past two years there was a return of $28.04 in Wild Alaska Pollock fillet and Wild Alaska Pollock Surimi revenue back to the industry, the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) announced today. The GAPP Board is committed to a data-oriented, results-based approach to stimulating demand for Wild Alaska Pollock and so far so good, said renowned expert at the second-ever Wild Alaska Pollock Annual Meeting held virtually today and attended by over 200 industry thought leaders.

GAPP is early in its journey to build the brand behind Wild Alaska Pollock and this aptly-termed “Return on Investment” study, conducted by Dr. Harry Kaiser of Cornell University, is a critical tool to keep the organization honest, drive best-return activities and measure impact in the marketplace.

“Dr. Kaiser’s work helps organizations like GAPP in two significant ways: First, the data provides those who pay into such marketing organizations independent, verified information relative to their investments,” said Craig Morris, GAPP CEO. “Second, and perhaps more importantly, such data advises organizational leadership, like our GAPP Board of Directors, about which specific activities are best to invest in over time.”

Kaiser is a renowned econometric evaluation expert who regularly performs such studies for various commodity marketing and promotion organizations. The GAPP-commissioned study was used to simultaneously evaluate various impacts affecting Wild Alaska Pollock demand and supply. These studies are thought to be the best “science” available for evaluating demand impacts of commodity marketing expenditures and are credited with improving the effectiveness of commodity marketing organizations over time.

“For example, many marketing organizations have moved away from television advertising over time due to demonstrated and established return on investment for such campaigns and more towards investments in research and insights for the betterment of the entire food supply chain,” noted Kaiser.
Dr. Kaiser explained the exhaustive methodology used to evaluate other Wild Alaska Pollock demand factors over time including but not limited to: volume sold, volume of competing products, exchange rates, consumer income, Federal support, and more.

“This study found a very significant effect from the recent record purchases of Wild Alaska Pollock by the U.S. federal government that equated to a lift of 4.8% in the value of wholesale frozen fillet block price,” said Dr. Kaiser.
Dr. Kaiser also compared the ROI for GAPP with the ROI of other commodity organizations he performs similar research for.

“When you look at the data, the investment in GAPP has yielded an ROI almost double the median and greater than well-recognized commodity marketing organizations like pork, soybeans and beef,” said Kaiser.

Investment in such a study was especially important given the 2018 Board-approved increased industry investment in GAPP. Critically, GAPP will use this information to communicate the return on investment to the industry, but more importantly, to help guide its projects and initiatives for the future. GAPP will continue to invest in such studies to keep its programs as impactful as possible.
“It is incredibly valuable to see how GAPP had previously allocated its resources and the return on such allocations and to have a long-term perspective on the opportunities for us to be more efficient and effective—and ultimately deliver a higher return for the industry—with our future marketing campaigns, research and partnership programs,” said Morris.

The second-ever Wild Alaska Pollock Annual Meeting was held today, virtually. Sponsors for the event include: American Seafoods, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Clark Nuber, Garrigan Lyman Group, Glacier Fish Company, Global Seas, Golden Alaska Seafoods, Starbound, Sysco Seattle, Trans-Ocean Products, OneforNeptune and UniSea.