Phil Lempert, food trends editor of the “Today Show” and founder of SupermarketGuru.com wrote a piece the other day on his website in which he suggested new year’s resolutions that the food industry ought to adopt. Since Lempert isn’t just a barometer of what consumers are thinking, but also an opinion-shaper, we asked him for permission to reprint his list of suggestions for the food industry:
• Do what you say you are going to do. We constantly read food companies’ or fast food chains’ press releases saying all the terrific things they are going to do to improve the taste or nutritional profile of their products…in 3 months, or 6 months. By then they’ve received the press clips, and the idea is on the backburner until they use up the existing packaging and just sometimes that new and improved version never seems to get to us the consumer.
• Watch, listen and read your own ads. What ever happened to food advertising being about food? Enough pseudo-celeb ads implying and endorsement that just smacks of too much money being paid to someone who is out of work and we know never even tried your products. Refocus in 2006. Tell us about your food! How it tastes, the nutritional benefits and why we should buy it!
• Pay attention to ME – the shopper. With all the resources at your finger tips there is no reason to introduce food products that no one wants or buys. Understand how customers - young and old, loyal or brand switcher, Black, White or Latin, educated or not, acculturated or not, online or not — are different. Ask yourself, what are the products for each of group? How you can best communicate your message? We are not a nation of middle aged white men anymore, and you had better understand that if you want to survive!
• Test EVERY cow. The potential of mad cow disease keeps me up at night. Please, do what Japan and other countries do…test every cow for mad cow BEFORE they enter our food supply.
• For every new product you introduce – eliminate one. Have you been into a supermarket lately? Too many me-too products. Same price, same taste, same, same, same… ‘nough said.
• Make “dollar menus” illegal. It's not that I don’t want people to save money…it's just that having these low prices falsely inflates the success of fast food chains that are headed for failure. Change the menu, unbolt the seats from the floor, move your restaurants into the areas where people actually are. I'm not saying you should go “100% health food” – but hey, isn’t it time to realize that not everyone who is time pressed, hungry and wants value has to have a fat-loaded, white bread encased hand held delicacy that was designed to taste like it's full of artificial flavors?
• Be nutritionally correct. We have enough research that supports the fact that Americans are too fat, too out of shape and on the verge of a serious health dilemma with increases of heart disease, cancers, diabetes and osteoporosis. Time to look at those recipes and get out the added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, artery clogging fats, sodium and all those other ingredients that are responsible for setting us in this downward spiral. And by the way…one additional benefit might well be the cleansing of the American Palate, and we can once again discover that all foods are not sweet and loaded with fat.
• Understand technology. We do, and that means that soon we will be scanning every item BEFORE we buy it with a handheld device and can read in a nano-second everything we want (and need) to know about your product. When it was made, where it was made, where it came from. We will even be able to tell YOU what those secret codes on bottles and cans actually mean. And by the way, what’s up with the check-out? Have you ever used a Mobil Speed Pass or EZ Pass toll device? It’s time.
• Do what you say you are going to do. We constantly read food companies’ or fast food chains’ press releases saying all the terrific things they are going to do to improve the taste or nutritional profile of their products…in 3 months, or 6 months. By then they’ve received the press clips, and the idea is on the backburner until they use up the existing packaging and just sometimes that new and improved version never seems to get to us the consumer.
• Watch, listen and read your own ads. What ever happened to food advertising being about food? Enough pseudo-celeb ads implying and endorsement that just smacks of too much money being paid to someone who is out of work and we know never even tried your products. Refocus in 2006. Tell us about your food! How it tastes, the nutritional benefits and why we should buy it!
• Pay attention to ME – the shopper. With all the resources at your finger tips there is no reason to introduce food products that no one wants or buys. Understand how customers - young and old, loyal or brand switcher, Black, White or Latin, educated or not, acculturated or not, online or not — are different. Ask yourself, what are the products for each of group? How you can best communicate your message? We are not a nation of middle aged white men anymore, and you had better understand that if you want to survive!
• Test EVERY cow. The potential of mad cow disease keeps me up at night. Please, do what Japan and other countries do…test every cow for mad cow BEFORE they enter our food supply.
• For every new product you introduce – eliminate one. Have you been into a supermarket lately? Too many me-too products. Same price, same taste, same, same, same… ‘nough said.
• Make “dollar menus” illegal. It's not that I don’t want people to save money…it's just that having these low prices falsely inflates the success of fast food chains that are headed for failure. Change the menu, unbolt the seats from the floor, move your restaurants into the areas where people actually are. I'm not saying you should go “100% health food” – but hey, isn’t it time to realize that not everyone who is time pressed, hungry and wants value has to have a fat-loaded, white bread encased hand held delicacy that was designed to taste like it's full of artificial flavors?
• Be nutritionally correct. We have enough research that supports the fact that Americans are too fat, too out of shape and on the verge of a serious health dilemma with increases of heart disease, cancers, diabetes and osteoporosis. Time to look at those recipes and get out the added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, artery clogging fats, sodium and all those other ingredients that are responsible for setting us in this downward spiral. And by the way…one additional benefit might well be the cleansing of the American Palate, and we can once again discover that all foods are not sweet and loaded with fat.
• Understand technology. We do, and that means that soon we will be scanning every item BEFORE we buy it with a handheld device and can read in a nano-second everything we want (and need) to know about your product. When it was made, where it was made, where it came from. We will even be able to tell YOU what those secret codes on bottles and cans actually mean. And by the way, what’s up with the check-out? Have you ever used a Mobil Speed Pass or EZ Pass toll device? It’s time.
- KC's View:
