Refresh

Some events just happen — whether we’re ready or not — and the arrival of the New Year is one of them. Gift giving is still a very big part of the holiday season, either as host/hostess gifts or for that person that somehow missed your first go-round.

Soul-searching is also there as we ponder the old year and contemplate our goals for the new one. So here are some ideas that might add some strength to our customers making resolutions on the wellness path!

• Think wellness for those last-minute or hostess gifts. There are gift baskets with assortments of natural soaps, lotions and other health and beauty products. Teas, coffees and beverages bundled with some whole grain crackers or granola set the stage for a healthier new year. For the person with a special diet, an assortment of gluten-free pasta and sauce, baking mixes or ready-to-eat goodies are welcomed. Assemble some herb and spice assortments and other lower-sodium flavor-adders with the theme to update your spice rack lower your salt intake! more…

More than 1.5 billion Americans visited food web sites this year. It’s a tremendous number, with huge implications for the food industry. The statistic, from a poll conducted by our friends at Allrecipes.com, notes that these consumers went through 11 billion pages of food-focused content — everything from recipes to discussion boards to coupon offers.

While that’s an impressive (even intimidating) number, the real hook for retailers comes from another stat. The Allrecipes.com survey found that 43% of home cooks with smart phones “used the device while grocery shopping to look up recipes, create grocery lists, conduct price comparisons and look up coupons.” We’ve reported on retailers that have implemented pretty extensive online coupon programs to take advantage of this trend.

To get a glimpse of the extent of consumer use, Allrecipes determined that page views of its site from a mobile device increased five times the rate of other devices — desktop, laptop and the like — in the past 16 months. In November alone, Allrecipes,com received more than 1 million visits from mobile devices. That’s a lot of people on the move, who still need and want access to information and offers.

Against this rose-pixeled picture, however, we have another report indicating that the industry itself has lagged in applying many consumer-friendly concepts to B-to-B applications, frustrating clients and trade customers. Technomic Inc., which tracks foodservice and restaurants, found wide-ranging complaints within the industry centered on the lack of specific product information, organization and assistance on a majority of vendor websites. more…

It’s good to give credit where credit’s due. And as we come to the end of this unsettling year, it’s nice to know there’s a retailer getting recognized for what’s arguably the most important achievement of all: healthy, happy employees.

In a press release out this week, Meijer announced that it had received three separate awards touting its employee wellness efforts. There’s the “Fit Friendly Company” designation from the American Heart Association, the “Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles” recognition from the National Business Group on Health, and the “Most Effective Plan Implementation” for its health care plan, awarded by Consumer Directed Health Care Solutions Magazine.

Whew. That’s quite a list, and it relects Meijer’s decision to focus on employee wellness and stick with it, even through trying times. In addition to its highly touted benefits package, the company offers the day-to-day perks that make a difference over time, like swapping healthier food into its vending machines and the “Wellness Wednesdays” promotion at its corporate office that encourages employees to get out and take a walk during the work day.

We’re not surprised at the accolades. Two years ago, we gave Meijer our own award — the “Whole Health Enterprise Award”. In his cover story, my colleague Bob credited the company for its savvy, sensible approach to health and wellness.

Doesn’t look like much has changed.

Food companies have tried their hand at making voluntary changes to the way they market many of their products to children. Now, it looks like regulators are ready to take the reins.

Earlier this week, a working group that included officials from the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and several other federal agencies met in Washington to propose standards for how manufacturers market to kids. According to the group, foods marketed to children “must provide a meaningful contribution to a healthy diet” and should contain limited amounts of sugar, sodium and saturated fat.

Although these standards would be voluntary, they still represent a big step. Indeed, it would be the first time the government has asserted itself in the realm of children’s advertising.

Retailers and manufacturers aren’t too happy with government involvement, especially since, to them, progress has been made. Back in 2006 a group of companies came together and formed the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. The group assured everyone that they would promote more healthful items and cut back on promoting unhealthful ones. And a report from the Better Business Bureau, the third party organization that’s monitoring the program, says the companies are living up to their promises, having reduced, for example, the amount of sodium in “many soups and canned pastas” by 20% and 30%.

But the coalition’s yardstick doesn’t seem to be what regulators are interested in. Another report from researchers at the University of Arizona asserts that the majority of advertisements from companies in the coalition were, after three years, still for “nutritionally poor” products. Healthy foods, meanwhile, made up less than 1% of all ads. more…

Are you seeing higher prices with every trek to your local market, or is it just me who has noticed prices creeping up over the past year on the “staple” items that I purchase on a regular basis?

I was able to justify these price increases last year when the economy was totally in the tank and the cost to fill my car tank made me shudder in disgust, but fuel prices have come down nearly a dollar since last year, so why hasn’t our food pricing followed the same trend?

Even many of the discount chains are trying to squeeze blood out of turnips by incrementally raising retails, thinking that their savvy customers might not notice. I learned from the master long ago that customers are smart and have a long memory. Now multiply that thought by all of us folks who are doing our best to get by and save money any which way we can: We are on the lookout to save a buck and actually remember the price we paid for a certain item was a year ago.

Case in point: A few weeks back I needed more of my natural liquid dishwashing soap, so I bought a bottle. When I got home to put it away, I noticed that the nearly finished bottle under the sink was marked $2.49 for 25 ounces, and this same size new bottle had cost me $2.99 — that’s a whopping retail increase from one shopping excursion to the next! more…

You don’t have to tell this analog guy farming is tough. I read Grape of Wrath; I watched Green Acres (how anyone could run a successful farm with Hank Kimball is beyond me). That’s why it’s fascinating to learn that Zynga’s virtual FarmVille game on Facebook currently has more than 72 million players tilling the online soil.

I mean, in a digital world where you can play games that pit you against the Mob, space aliens and even terrorists, how could much fun could harvesting make-believe strawberries be?

The answer is plenty, if the latest numbers are correct. According to various sources, FarmVille has become the most popular game application on Facebook. Players purchase land, seeds and equipment, maintain the farm and are responsible for getting crops harvested before they start to wither and die. In some ways, “playing” farmer is just as real as a flesh-and-blood farmer. There are pests to deal with, neighbors to help and crops to harvest. Each fruit and vegetable only stays fresh for a set amount of time before it starts to go bad, so participation requires vigilance and good timing.

The game is two-dimensional, but an awareness campaign launched very recently by the Animal Agriculture Alliance is helping to make farming very real. The group has released a video that depicts what it’s really like helping to feed the masses. more…

Give consumers some credit — they know a lot about sustainability, and they like to know when they’re shopping a store that’s doing it’s part to make the world just a little bit greener.

It’s the retailer’s job to fill them in, of course. And that’s no easy task. How do you explain the new refrigeration systems in marketing language? What about that energy-saving doohickey that heats the front doors? Do you tell them about that?

Supermarkets have been shy about talking directly to their shoppers about sustainable design. Many just put out a press release and let us do the rest. But then there are those like Food Lion that really step up. The Salisbury, North Carolina-based retailer made headlines this week by opening its first “green” store in South Carolina — but for months, ever since it broke ground on the site in July, the company has been providing construction updates and education on its website.

Click over to their dedicated page, and you’ll find an interactive menu with tips, pictures, a video, and even a quiz aimed at promoting the new store. Take the quiz to discover that the store uses 20% less energy than a typical supermarket, has LED lights in its refrigeration units, uses low-flow water systems that conserve more than 140,000 gallons of water a year, and more. Didn’t score 100%? You should be ashamed of yourself. more…

With $5.5 billion in sales and representing 1.6% of store profits, the front end isn’t something health and wellness marketers should ignore. The problem is, how do you incorporate better-for-you products into an area typically reserved for anything but?

A new study of the checkout aisle sheds some much-needed light on the subject. The report, funded by a group that includes Masterfoods USA (Mars), the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company (which recently completed a merger with Mars) and others, outlined best practices that might help change the rules a bit.

First off, researchers from Dechert-Hampe & Co. make the point that the front end is the one location in the store that everyone passes. What’s more, consumers typically spend 5-7 minutes on line at the checkout. In other words, there is plenty of time for the impulse itch to get scratched (as evidenced by the lines at a Costco, pictured here). The study concludes that improvements in merchandising could yield retailers an additional $2 billion in sales.

What role could health and wellness play in a successful front end? Take a look at the current top sellers purchased by the study sample over the past year: Gum/Mints (63%), Candy (58%), Magazines (34%) and Soft Drinks (29%).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, health-minded items like nutrition bars, lip care and oral care were pegged as “low penetration/low frequency purchases.” more…

Consumers are looking to stretch their dollars, making it no surprise that coupons have once again become an integral part of the shopping experience. But what may be unexpected is just how strategic consumers are getting when it comes to coupon use.

According to a recent study we conducted as part of our Mambo 2010 Outlook trends survey, 70% of natural and organic (N&O) consumers use coupons when planning their grocery lists. It’s a clear indication that coupons are not only driving brand buying decisions but overall meal planning as well.

Moreover, consumers are going beyond newspaper inserts to supplement their coupon supplies, with two in three actively seeking out grocery coupons online.

In other promotional activity, we found that a whopping 93% of consumers would like better access to coupons for health and wellness products, demonstrating that coupon use has evolved beyond the grocery list.

That finding is supported by similar research from Inmar and The Nielsen Company which found that non-food coupons for general merchandise, household items and personal care drove growth in coupon redemptions up 45% in the third quarter over the same period a year ago. By comparison, food items were up 26% over the same period last year.

Not all coupon savings are going back into consumers’ pockets either. Six in ten N&O consumers reported that they were reinvesting those savings back into healthier food for their families. This is a key reason why health and wellness sales have remained as strong as they have during the past year.

There’s considerable talk about the ways the Food and Drug Administration might change the rules on nutrition labeling. The agency said in October that it would review front-of-pack labels for violations, and there’s good evidence that it will implement a universal system.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest — one of the more vocal critics of the current, disorganized labeling landscape — just weighed in with its recommendations. You’ll recall that back in 1990 the CSPI successfully campaigned for the legislation that brought us Nutrition Facts. Now, the group says, the Facts aren’t as useful as they used to be — food companies have figured out ways to skirt them and mask what’s really in products.

To ensure complete transparency, the CSPI recommends several changes to the Nutrition Facts panel. First off, make the type showing calories and serving size bigger. Second, provide context for servings of fat, sodium, cholesterol and so on by indicating high content percentages in red. And rather than list ingredients by prevalence, separate the major ingredients from the minor ones, and group these together so consumers can see the different types of sugars, oils and so on.

The group also wants the FDA to get stricter on claims like “Strengthens Immunity” and “0 Grams of Trans Fat” that it says can be deceptive. more…