010701 Smithfield to Try Large-Scale Brand MarketingJuly 3, 2001Smithfield, VA - Smithfield Foods has become the world's largest pork company with buyouts in recent years, but it's hardly a household name. The company wants to change that by committing more marketing funds to support its brands, says Joseph W. Luter, Smithfield's chief executive officer. The company also has hired, for the first time, a corporate vice president of sales and marketing, giving the job to Robert A. Slavik, a meat industry veteran. Slavik, 55, worked for 38 years at Hormel Foods Corp., from which he retired in December as vice president of meat products. “We must build leading brands and greater brand awareness among retailers and consumers,” Luter said in a statement this week. Smithfield Foods long has been a below-the-radar kind of company. It sells about 65% of its products -- including hot dogs, ham and bacon -- in an “unbranded” way. It sells directly to restaurants, sports stadiums, grocery stores and other large companies, with the retail customers often never knowing that they're buying a Smithfield Foods product. Smithfield has some brands. The Smithfield brand, with its Smithfield Hams, is known in many parts of the country. But for the most part, the company's brands don't extend beyond small regions of the country and are not well known nationally. Slavik plans to travel across the country in hopes of building two or three brands into dominant consumer brands. “We'll figure out which brands make sense to nationalize and which ones don't,” Slavik said. “Our advertising will talk about the value and consistent good taste of our products.”
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