Trust Truth and Transparency

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Platform of Trust Trust is food companies’ anchor for success, making its pursuit and retention a missioncritical goal. According to a recent survey performed by The Center for Food Integrity (CFI), A Clear View of Transparency and How It Builds Consumer Trust, the responsibility for demonstrating trust-building transparency in the most important food-production areas rests first and foremost on the shoulders of food manufacturers – not farmers, grocery stores or restaurants. Areas of greatest concern to survey participants are food’s impact on health, food safety, the environment, labor and human rights, animal wellbeing, and business ethics. Food companies earn trust when they consistently, authentically and proactively live up to their healthyproducts commitment in all aspects of their business, and remain in lockstep with consumers’ evolving priorities. In the process, they can positively influence purchase decisions and become strategically positioned to excel in the healthy-food sector. However, with the rise of technology and social media, and the empowerment they bestow on consumers, particularly on Millennials, maintaining consumer trust requires more than tried-and-true engagement strategies. Here are three top reasons why: 1. There is greater consumer diligence when investigating the extent to which food companies live up to their healthy-product claims. Consumers are also being more empowered in their research each year by the Internet, social-media networks and smart-phone apps that can range from HarvestMark and ShopNoGMO to True Food and GoPure. 2. Consumers’ investigative efforts are reaching beyond food company backgrounds to include product ingredients, labeling, sourcing methods, consumer feedback, and other social and environmental issues. 3. Digital “soap boxes” now serve as vocal and influential platforms from which consumers are broadcasting their own opinions as well as those of public-health activists, watchdog groups, media pundits, celebrity nutritionists, and self-appointed gurus and evangelists. The outcomes are rewards for food companies’ perceived “good behavior” and punishment for perceived “bad behavior.” “Brands that meet customer expectations for product information, and deliver that information instantly, develop a new dynamic of convenience, trust and long-term value.” – 2016 LABEL INSIGHT FOOD REVOLUTION STUDY Best practices for building consumer trust in an environment seemingly overrun with skepticism and doubt are founded on both the security consumers experience from full ingredient disclosure and a kinship with the company that is formed through shared values. In fact, internal sustainability groups are winning as much applause from food companies as they are from consumers. These groups respond directly to consumer diligence and help guide food companies as they continually meet health and sustainability commitments. Additionally, food companies are expanding their compliance departments to ensure they are in sync with regulatory demands and marketplace changes, and offering more consumer-engagement opportunities to demonstrate transparency. 4 | THE RISE OF A NEW FOOD INDUSTRY MANDATE: TRUST, TRUTH AND TRANSPARENCY
Good for Business, People and the Environment Each year, food brands launch better-for-you products that gain both significant consumer traction and loyalty as well as brand awareness. These brands are usually mission-driven in their marketing and consumer messaging, which often resonates with consumers. In the process, brands are able to grow from the competitive opportunities and financial rewards that the healthy-food sector has to offer. Though each food company is unique in its product offerings, market-entry strategy and goals, they all share a universal DNA – the ability to understand and meet the complete range of consumer expectations, from health and nutrition claims to animal and environmental protection. The following three companies stand as real-life examples of how transparency, and the consumer trust that follows, can be catalysts for growth, success and corporate citizenry. KIND KIND, whose products are better-for-you fruit and nutsnack bars, was founded in 2004 with eight bar varieties and now offers more than 22 bars and six Healthy Grains snackable clusters. KIND has taken a number of steps that have led to strong performance and market differentiation, including using transparent packaging so that consumers can see the contents of the product when displayed on store shelves. The company also focuses its branding and marketing efforts around the KIND belief that “there’s more to business than just profit.” For example, rather than rolling out a traditional product-sampling strategy, KIND selected brand ambassadors who distributed coupons to the public in a wide range of US cities. Members of the public could then redeem their coupons for KIND bars as a reward for their random acts of kindness. The marketing strategy was an unequivocal success. It not only honored kindness, a principle on which the company was founded and named, but also emboldened the authenticity of the KIND brand. Although KIND remains privately held, in 2012 it reportedly generated $120 million in revenue, with private equity investor VMG Partners selling its minority position for approximately $200 million in 2014. THE RISE OF A NEW FOOD INDUSTRY MANDATE: TRUST, TRUTH AND TRANSPARENCY | 5
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Trust Truth and Transparency

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