As 2014 comes to a close, nest year will finally bring the first crop from my Siberian sweeter varieties. As a crop emerges I need to consider product development.
Food Matters Live event exposed the concept that consumers are not interested in reading labels. They are looking for food and drink product that tastes great and is good for them. Why it is good for them is not relevant. It is the responsibility of the producer to ensure that this is credible. Social media has a capacity to spread the word as to what consumers think. Fact needs to be solid enough to stand up to sceptical dialogue. Product needs to deliver consistently to gain trust and build brand credibility.
So it was also interesting that Health Ingredients Europe also delivers a message that the days of fortified functional foods is giving way to natural ingredients. Using natural ingredients to fortify a product is more acceptable to consumers than just providing a nutrient to inject some “goodness” to provide functionality.
This brings back the concept of complexity and synergy. Natural products are multi nutrient carriers. The concept of fortifying with a single nutrient follows the pharmaceutical route. A single nutrient with science based evidence of providing a health benefit should be more credible than a natural ingredient which by its nature is difficult to analyse and define for health benefit.
But I would suggest that consumers are wary of processed foods. The western world has significant dietary problems. It would be too simple to say this is the result of too much processed foods. It is not, as there are social and economic issues as well. But perception is often as great a market leader as fact. Natural means a product of nature – not of human design. Interestingly Beehive marketing in the US stated at Food Matters Live that the concept of “natural” carries little weight in the US. But the UK and US markets are different.
So if natural is a strength in the marketplace, then this is a great time for sea buckthorn. The market trusts nature. The consumer expects healthy food and drink. Sea buckthorn is a natural product that for centuries has been recognised as delivering health.
The logic then is that sea buckthorn is the right product, at the right place, and the right time. The problem is that is a simple statement. At the Health Ingredients event in Amsterdam Julian Mellentin, a long standing and very well respected trend-spotter stated – “you cannot educate consumers about ingredients” – it is a crowded market. You have to “Find what they believe in and how they connect with it”. So the fact the sea buckthorn is healthy and natural does not guarantee success.
Success will come from understanding consumer concerns and matching them with what sea buckthorn can deliver.
I have been looking into analysis of sea buckthorn. What concerns me in this undertaking is that sea buckthorn is not a single entity. Each species; each sub-species; each localised environment; each commercial variety all offer different nutritional profiles or concentration limits of nutrients. Analysis will not deliver a generic answer.
The answer is tailoring product to consumer. Understanding that product must deliver specific requirements and being able to prove the pathway that ingredients within a product can deliver that requirement.
This is not easy. It requires time and resources. But without dedicating time and resources to prove that you know that a product matches consumer demand, how long will it be before your product is exposed by sceptical consumers who have multiple choices to select within the retail world.
Happy Christmas to all.