CLOSE-UP
MARKETING
11E; agel breakfasts at
Burger King with your
choice of ham bacon or
sausage . . . Green
bagels, shamrocks and
leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day .. .
Frozen bagels in supermarkets from
Bangor to Boise . . . That ultimate
Jewish ethnic food — the bagel — has
been embraced by America in Wonder
Bread proportions.
In fact, Americans will consume
an estimated two billion bagels worth
$600 million in 1987. That's not chop-
ped liver .. .
For many, the modern-era bagel —
the frozen, multi-flavored, pre-sliced,
fit-in-your toaster variety — is
synonomous with the Lender family
of New Haven, Conn. The Lender boys
— Murray, Marvin and Sam — have
been dancing across television
screens, smiling at point-of-purchase
displays and on plastic freezer bags
for years, tempting non-Jewish
America to try their peculiar, boiled
concoction of flour, yeast and
fla,, „, ings.
But it's been the breadstick-thin
Murray lender whose marketing sav-
vy and promotional flair have earn-
" 'm the title of Bagel King . . . the
man who took the most ethnic of foods
and made it as American as . . . well
. . . English muffins.
Though the Lenders sold their
burgeoning bagel empire in 1984 to
Kraft — of Philadelphia Cream
Cheese and Parkay Margarine fame
— Murray Lender still stumps across
America's heartland, touting the pro-
duct as its official spokesman.
So Murray Lender is a busy man.
Add to this his foray into a budding
chain of family restaurants (which
center on the bagel, of course) called
S. Kinder, the launching of a bagel
baking business for his son in Miami
and a host of Jewish communal in-
volvements, including chairing the
building committee for a new Jewish
community center in suburban New
Haven, and one would think he'd have
little time for other pursuits.
Wrong.
Murray Lender is also heading an
importing company called PAM
(Israel/America) that will purchase
and resell Israeli products to super-
markets across America.
Can Murray Lender do for Elite
Chocolates, Osem crackers, Yarden
turkeys, Beit Hashita vegetables,
Sunfrost frozen vegetables and Dag
Shan frozen fish what he did for
bagels?
"This is not much different than
what we did with bagels. There was
nothing more Jewish than bagels in
1962, when we started freezing
them?' Murray Lender said following
a recent presentation to the American
Israel chamber of Commerce of
Michigan. "I was against marketing
bagels as ethnic food and thought of
it as a general product that could be
in every home. I didn't care if the per-
son was Jewish, Christian, Moslem,
black or white. You didn't need a
special palate to enjoy it.
"We want to allow Israeli products
to make it on their own merits,
without ethnic perception getting in
the way. With the bagel, we motivated
trial. 'Whether you were Jewish or
not, try a toasted bagel and you'll en-
joy it.' We'll say the same thing about
olives, soups, vegetables and candies
. . . think of it for what it is because
if it's enjoyed, it will be bought again."
The marriage of Israeli products
with the American marketplace has
been spotty and, for the most part,
limited to the New York metropolitan
area where they could rely on a heavy
concentration of Jews to make up for
lack of sales and marketing smarts.
There have been some successes,
such as Scitex, which markets com-
puterized design and imaging pro-
ducts and recently signed with Con-
tinental Can to develop systems for
package designers and manufac-
turers. But Israeli businessmen often
are accused of submitting bids which
are too late — missing out on signifi-
cant contracts — and not meeting
delivery schedules when they are
selected.
In the food products area, Murray
Lender believes Israelis don't under-
stand the American marketplace and
try to "sell" instead of "market?' As
a result, Israeli food products are
often poorly packaged, incorrectly
priced and found on shelves in small
"ethnic" food stores rather than in
supermarkets.
Murray Lender's involvement in
PAM can be traced to two significant
economic events: the signing in April
1985 of a free trade agreement bet-
ween the U.S. and Israel and the for-
mation of Operation Independence in
December 1985 following a request
from then-Prime Minister Shimon
Peres to Detroit's Max Fisher to in-
volve Diaspora businessmen in yen-
tures that would strengthen the
fragile Israeli economy.
The free trade agreement allows
Israeli businesses to export goods and
services to the U.S. without govern-
ment tariffs. Virtually all tariffs and
subsidies are to be eliminated by
1995, with most wiped out by 1989.
The recently announced trade
agreement between the U.S. and
Canada is patterned after the U.S.-
Israel accord.
The easing of restrictions has
helped Israeli imports to the U.S.
reach $2.5 billion in 1986, according
to the U.S. Commerce Department, an
increase of nearly ten percent from
1985. And as Israelis discover the
American marketplace (the European
Economic Community has a free
trade agreement with Israel and,
therefore, has been an easier market
to penetrate), the volume of imports
is expected to grow exponentially.
But it was the launch of Opera-
tion Independence, and the efforts of
a food products subcommittee headed
by Paul Borman of Detroit-based Bor-
man's Inc., that helped lead to the
creation of PAM and the recruiting of
Murray Lender to head it.
Fisher was joined by Charles
Bronfman of Canada, Morton
Mandell of Cleveland and Lord Mar-
cus Sieff of Great Britain in laun-
ching Operation Independence, accor-
ding to Allan Wurtzel, president of
Operation Independence of North
America.
Wurtzel said three committees
were formed (capital goods, invest-
ment goods and consumer goods)
under the Operation Independence
umbrella with a food products sub-
committee formed through the con-
sumer goods committee. This subcom-
mittee commissioned its own research
and concluded an importing-
marketing company should be form-
ed. Wurtzel said Murray Lender was
approached and agreed to head the
company.
"I feel I have a little dues to pay?'
Lender said regarding his decision to
create PAM. "I can't think of a bet-
ter or more productive way to pay it
back than staying in an area I have
enjoyed my whole life . . . the food
industry.
"If there is a way I can help Israel
and the economies of Israel and the
U.S. in such a positive way as trade,
then I will do it. This was thoroughly
thought out with my family and my
ARTHUR M. HORWITZ
Associate Publisher
CAN
MURRAY LENDER
DO FOR
ISRAEL
EXPORTS
WHAT
HE DID
FOR THE
BAGEL?
STAY
TUNED
TO YOUR
TOASTER!