Supermarkets Must Send a Clear Health and Wellness Message

GEORGE ELLIS

When it comes to eating healthy, consumers are often confronted with too much information presented through government labeling, manufacturers' claims and a host of other nutritional information sources. Supermarkets have a responsibility to cut through the information overload.

Stores must avoid confusion, said Maryellen Molyneaux, president and managing partner at Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, Pa. She noted that proliferating nutrition ratings systems can wind up clashing with one another in a store environment.

“Multiple ratings systems could really detract,” she said. “If you look at Hannaford's Guiding Stars program, that's part of that overall messaging, part of that consistency across the store, which might make it more successful. But there's too many manufacturers doing their own seals and such. As you start to look at it by category, you're going to have to watch: Is it helping or hindering?”

One company that distills messages down to a consistent presentation in the retail environment is Vestcom International, Little Rock, Ark., which has the distinction of being Hannaford Bros.' execution partner for the Guiding Stars program. Vestcom's approach provides a channel for brand or retailer messages to be delivered to the consumer consistently across all store communications.

This can help reduce store labor costs and free up staff to provide more service, said Carol Nelson, the company's director of marketing strategies.

“Our retailers are telling us they need to spend more time selling groceries than placing tags on a shelf,” said Darrel Risberg, vice president, sales, at Vestcom.

Vestcom has added a nutritionist to its staff to work with retailers that wish to integrate consistent health and wellness communication to consumers down to the shelf level.

There are two distinct kinds of nutritional information that consumers are looking for, said Anissa Buckley, Vestcom's senior nutrition specialist. On one side of the spectrum are chronic illnesses: heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity. On the other side is prevention, emphasizing foods such as antioxidants, probiotics or omegas that may contribute to an overall high quality of well-being. Baby Boomers, who have a propensity to avoid taking medication and look more toward food as a solution for some of these chronic illnesses, are said to gravitate to the preventive side.

Vestcom has structured a base program that includes natural, organic, gluten-free, heart-healthy and low-sodium elements. The system uses a “sugar aware” tag that allows parents to identify those items that have 6 grams of sugar or less.”

The program is fully integrated, Buckley said. “We do this in many cases, where we can help with merchandising planners to start at the top of what's the nutritional theme for the week, and that will be executed through [editorial] columns, websites and featured items, all the way down to the shelf, tagged with that same theme.”