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Stake Your Claims

Although they suffered a small dollar sales decline in 2009, health- and wellness-focused foods and beverages in the United States experienced growth in 2010 and 2013. A May report from Euromonitor, London, notes that as the economy continued to recover, more consumers were able to afford health- and wellness-positioned foods and beverages — such as gluten-free and organic items, which typically cost more than their standard counterparts.

And as the economy continues to improve, disposable incomes will increase, allowing for greater consumer spending in health and wellness categories, the report says. This reality, coupled with the expectation that young consumers (ages 15–30) will purchase more functional beverages (including better-for-you options) and parents will purchase more healthful foods and beverages for their children, means dollar sales are expected to increase even further through 2018.

But given the tough competition on shelves, retailers have their work cut out for them when it comes to growing sales of store brand products in the health and wellness arena. Therefore, they need to make sure packaging sports claims and messages that effectively communicate its contents.

Retailers should consider the following tips when developing packaging callouts for health- and wellness-focused foods and beverages.

1. Think like a health- and wellness-minded consumer

Before a retailer can decide on what health- and wellness-related claims to print on a package, it must first think from the perspective of a consumer — and understand the various motivations one might have when seeking a specific health-and wellness-focused product, says Allan Meyerson, senior vice president and executive creative director with Group360 Worldwide, St. Louis. Motivations could include the desire to lose weight, the desire to take better care of oneself, and the desire to make good decisions for one’s family.

“Once a marketer has a handle on exactly what the shopper/consumer need state is, they can begin to craft messages that actually speak to them in a relevant, meaningful way — and, as a result, [packaging] will truly resonate at the shelf,” he explains. “Shoppers are complex creatures, to be sure, but they can always be counted on to respond to products and messages in one of two ways: rationally [or] emotionally.”

To get shoppers to pick up a package, retailers need to capture attention emotionally, Meyerson states. The way to do this is by “selling hope” — by developing messages that respond to shoppers’ concerns with hopeful messages. Concerns include the hope that a product tastes good, the hope that a product is truly effective in helping to lose weight, and the hope that one can “stick with” a product to improve one’s health.

2. Keep the front simple

To keep shoppers from becoming overwhelmed with information on first glance, retailers should make messaging on the front of packaging simple and easy to understand. On the front of food packaging, for instance, basic nutrient claims such as “low calorie,” “low carb, “low fat,” “low sugar” and “low glycemic index,” are particularly popular and resonate with consumers looking to maintain a balanced diet, says Alexandra Goff, account manager for ALDI brands with Kaleidoscope, Chicago.

Some basic free-from statements also carry emotional weight with consumers. As an example, Goff lists “no artificial anything,” a quick and to-the-point statement that means a product has no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, etc. “Free from the eight most-common allergens” also carries weight with consumers.

“Rather than listing out that this product is ‘free from dairy,’ ‘free from gluten,’ etc., if you can make this claim on the whole, please do,” she states. “It will reassure allergy-sensitive buyers and help them to quickly navigate the category.”

Jim Lucas, director of global insights and strategy with SGK, Des Plaines, Ill., notes that several retailers do a good job in creating simple, easy-to-understand claims on the front of packaging for their health- and wellness-focused brands. For example, he points to Minneapolis-based Target Corp. and its Simply Balanced brand: The front of a pack of its Spinach & Garlic Chicken Sausage communicates that the sausages have 12 grams of protein per serving, 80 percent less fat than cooked pork sausage and no artificial ingredients — and are minimally processed and fully cooked.

“First impressions are important, since shoppers scanning a shelf spend only a few seconds looking at a given product — unless it strikes their fancy,” he says, noting that 58 percent of shoppers compare products when deciding on a purchase — something retailers should keep in mind when developing claims.

Still, retailers should get more specific on the front of packaging for some products. Goff points to emotionally focused claims calling out that a product is free from certain harmful ingredients.

“Triclosan, parabens and formaldehyde have all been associated with cancer and should be called out as ‘free-froms,’ especially in highly scrutinized categories where these ingredients can be found,” she says.

But whatever the health- and wellness-related claims are, retailers need to be careful when printing I them on packaging. Glenn Pfeiffer, executive creative director with Galileo Global Branding Group, a division of Stamford, Conn.-based Daymon Worldwide, notes that health- and wellness-related claims are being increasingly scrutinized.

3. Give details on the back

While the front panel appears to be the most effective place to pique curiosity and facilitate comparison and evaluation from shoppers, the back panel allows the retailer to share more information, Lucas states.

On the back, for example, retailers could get more specific about the “free-from” ingredients that cannot be easily explained by the nutrition facts or ingredient panel alone, Goff says.

“List out all of the artificial additives this product is free from; list out the allergens this product is free from; [and] list out the chemicals this product is free from,” she states.

Retailers also could detail a backstory or “reason to believe” mission statement, Lucas states. Turning to the Simply Balanced example again, in addition to the nutrition panel, Target prints its “simple promise” that Simply Balanced products “take the guesswork out of eating well.”

And if a retailer is looking to incorporate more information than space allows, it should consider following the example of Target’s Simply Balanced sausages: A peel-back label on the back of packaging is used to print recipes and instructions about how to prepare the sausages, according to the Global New Products Database of Mintel, a global market research firm.

4. Be clear and purposeful

Consumers tend to trust simple, comprehensible claims much more than they trust vague, complicated or unnecessary ones, says David Luttenberger, Mintel’s global packaging director. This is true with both claims about better-for-you foods and beverages and better-for-you packaging.

For example, Luttenberger notes that he recently saw a better-for-you frozen meal with packaging stating that its tray was free of bisphenol A (BPA). However, polypropylene — the tray’s plastic — naturally does not contain BPA.

“I’d never imagine that BPA is in this tray, so why are you telling me that? It gives me pause; it gives me concern that maybe I need to check into this more thoroughly,” he states. “You have to [determine if] that is a concern to the consumer. … By putting the claim on the pack, have you given them cause for concern and, therein, given them cause to deselect your product and go on to something else?”

Pfeiffer offers a similar recommendation in terms of product claims, noting that a label on a bottle of spring water that reads “our 100 percent spring water contains no milk, soy or wheat” — ingredients that would never be in water to begin with — could insult consumers’ intelligence and turn them off.

Lucas adds that the term “cholesterol-free” can be confusing. Although it appeals to folks who are trying to avoid foods that contribute to a high cholesterol level, the association between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol is “controversial,” meaning the term could raise more questions than it answers. He also states that “no sugar added” often is mistaken for “sugar-free,” meaning retailers should consider making clearer statements on packaging.

5. Think outside the package

Many store brand health-and wellness-focused lines are based on a philosophy or point of view, Lucas states. And while some of this point of view can be communicated on packaging, it often is augmented by a fuller backstory online or via social media. Examples here include The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, and its Simple Truth website (www.simpletruth.com) and Simple Truth Facebook page (www.facebook.com/simpletruth).

“This not only allows shoppers to better understand the underlying purpose of these product lines, but also aids the discovery process of other relevant products in the line,” he says.

And it’s especially important for retailers to use these sites and pages to invite shoppers to share their product experiences via reviews. Lucas reminds retailers that advocacy is probably the best way to affect other shoppers’ path to purchase.

Harvest and sourcing stories that incorporate a place of origin — published online — also can help engage the consumer and educate him or her about a product’s journey to the shelf, Goff states.

“Telling the story about where a product comes from — farm, geographic region, etc. — as well as who made and/or harvested it helps paint a picture for the consumer, and could show them that this product was not genetically modified and processed in a factory like others sitting next to it on shelf,” she explains. “It can also help establish a connection with the consumer, building loyalty.”

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