Keyword Nutrition Revisted
In January 2020, we wrote about the growth of "keyword nutrition"—the propensity for food companies to overwhelm their packages and marketing with all of the keywords they believe consumers want to see. Natural, non-GMO, sustainable, gluten free, artisanal, and so on.
Typically, this focus on keyword signifiers comes at the expense of substance—either innovation that truly enhances the nutritional value of foods or information and education that helps consumers understand why these products may be better choices for them nutritionally.
Unfortunately, we are continuing to see this occur. Recently, we heard of market research a company was doing to identify the single most effective phrase it could use with consumers to connote a food that was plant-derived. We all know that there is a significant trend toward plant-based foods and equally significant research to support a predominantly plant-based diet as a healthier way of eating.
But instead of focusing on how best to educate consumers about the benefits of plant-based nutrition, companies are still spending time, money and resources on identifying the right keywords to put on their packages and advertisements. As a whole, the food industry needs to rally to the cause—educating consumers about healthy nutrition with substance over style.
Here is our original blog post from January 2020:
Moving Beyond Keyword Nutrition
We thought we'd start 2020 by talking about a trend we've noticed over the past few years. It’s a trend toward what we call "keyword nutrition"—the effort to build a health & wellness halo for a brand based on what keywords you can get on the label. Whether it's non-GMO, natural, plant-based, sustainably produced, artisanal, small batch, organic, prebiotics, probiotics or any of a dozen others, these keywords are everywhere you look on the grocery shelf.
It appears the goal of many brands is to associate these keywords with health & wellness in the minds of consumers without ever really addressing what they mean, let alone how they contribute to a consumer's health & wellness.
The reality is that many of these keywords denote positive and beneficial attributes that consumers desire for the right reasons. Wanting products to be more transparent about how they are produced is a good thing. Wanting the food you eat to have functional benefits is a good thing. But it is also true that many, if not most, of these keywords are either not necessarily correlated with a healthier or more nutritious food or lack foundational, scientific support for the benefits they imply.
If brands are looking to build consumer loyalty and deliver real value to those that purchase their product, we believe they need to go beyond "keyword nutrition" through:
Innovations and reformulations that add meaningful nutrition to their products (e.g., more fiber, less sugar, fewer calories, more realistic portion sizes, less processing, etc.)
Marketing that truly supports consumer efforts to eat a healthier diet with nutrition education that explains the what and why of these keywords—while simultaneously providing much needed guidance on how to incorporate healthier, better-for-you foods into their diet. This type of education also provides a meaningful opportunity to talk to consumers about sustainable nutrition, transparency, and other topics of relevance and value.
2020 is already in full swing. We're dedicated to working this year to help healthy food brands achieve these two goals, and we hope everyone focuses this year on more substance and less keyword sizzle.