Consumer Insight:

Consumer Insight:
Moving Beyond Health Claim Fatigue
by Laurie Demeritt

In recent years, product packages have become mini-billboards as food andsupplement manufacturers try to think of more and clever ways to include healthclaims, especially those with the approval of a government agency, as the hookto lure consumers into purchasing their products. The prevalence of healthclaims such as omega-3 fats for heart health, dietary fiber for heart health,and calcium for strong bones and weight loss can be seen on a wide array of foodproduct labels up and down any given grocery store aisle. For instance, when theFood and Drug Administration (FDA) released the recommendation that fourservings of soy a day may improve heart health, manufacturers began putting soyinto everything from salad dressing to cereal.

With so much promotional hype, it isnt too surprising, then, thatconsumers express health claim fatigue with product labels, regardless oftheir FDA approval. This isnt to say that information on product labels isntimportant or that consumers dont read them. For marketers, what is importantis to understand how consumers at all levels of wellness involvement examineproduct labels, and what they read on the package, and to address the scope ofdriving forces that trigger consumers to seek out products with specificingredients, content claims or product attributes.

As we uncovered in the Hartman Groups 2005 study, Shopper Insights: HowCultural Occasions Frame the Consumer Experience, many of the decisions topurchase a product are controlled by events and forces occurring in the home asopposed to in the store. Likewise, while we find much of the actual activity oflabel reading occurs at the shelf, the cultural forces behind reading labels areheavily influenced by what is happening in consumers home lives and whetherthey are positioned in the core, mid-level or periphery in terms of the world ofwellness (Figure 1).

Factors at home that can influence what gets read on a package label includethe media, consumer lifestage, household structure, religion, health conditions,and diet and weight-management programs. An example of how a diagnosed healthcondition can act as a catalyst for more involved label reading is seen throughthis consumer comment: Reading labels is a necessity since we learned our sonis allergic to peanuts.

Consumers give a lot of lip service about spending time reading labels, butwhen our researchers are actually with them, what we find is that consumers arein fact looking to avoid certain ingredients (such as the consumermentioned above who is on the lookout to avoid any peanuts) or looking foringredients they want more of, as in the case of consumers who say, SometimesI look for the amount of fiber it contains. I heard that fiber keeps you fullerlonger so you lose weight.

Health and nutrition claims are generally ranked fairly low in importance byconsumers at the core and mid-level of the wellness world.The primary reasonbehind this fact is that consumers want to decide for themselves whethera product is healthy. In contrast to this reality are consumers at the periphery, who aresurprisingly willing in some cases to entertain specific health claims onproduct labels.

This does not mean that health and nutrition claims never resonate withindiffering wellness segments. Table 1 shows, by wellness segment, which of thesehealth statements, such as low fat, whole grain or high fiber, stand out as criticalto consumers. Overall, as consumers move toward the core, health claims become (generally)less believable and are viewed with skepticism. In particular, the term naturalis perceived dubiously by core consumers and may even function as anon-incentive. As one consumer said, Sometimes I buy a product thinking itsorganic only to get home and find that its just natural. Natural doesntreally mean much anymore. Its overused.

While also wary of the natural claim, some mid-level consumers willstill select a product marked natural and look for signs of naturalness,such as a short ingredient list or ingredient phrases that communicate naturalingredients like made with organic corn and sea salt.

All claims or messaging that seem unnatural are also a turnoff. Theseclaims are seen on substantially processed foods that are heavily fortified orenriched, giving the appearance that the wholesomeness was taken out duringprocessing and put back in artificially. Ill read the ingredient list for unfamiliar words or for bad fats likehydrogenated oil. The shorter the ingredients list the better. It means itsless processed.

What consumers look for on package labels varies depending on the lensthrough which they view a product, such as diet needs (e.g., wheat allergies,lactose intolerance), diet choices (e.g., low-carb diet) and their overallinvolvement with wellness. Perhaps in response to weighty media coverage, wholegrain is appealing to core and mid-level consumers and seems to be a new area offocus for those at the mid-level.

Selling on Health Benefits Alone May Be a Losing Proposition

Consumers are undisciplined; most tolerate the inconvenience of product useregimes (e.g., daily treatment of athletes foot with antifungal powder orfoot spray) only when there is an acute problem that a product claims to address. Barring a serious medicalcondition, consumers do not follow product directions for very long, if at all,and ignore them at the first convenient excuse. Even doctor-directedprescriptions fall into neglect at a surprisingly high rate.

This has some important implications for companies trying to sell productsbased on health efficacy. Consumers, in most cases, simply are not going to usea product in the way it was intended to be used. If you are relying on a strong impression of concrete benefits from yourproduct to bring in repeat sales, you may want to reconsider your strategy.While benefits may have been clearly evident in clinical trials for a specificingredient in your product, those benefits wont be apparent when consumersuse your product intermittently.

In addition to being undisciplined, consumers are also impatient, harshcritics. When a company makes a benefit claim, they will be looking for thatbenefit fastreally fast. However, they still wont stick to use recommendations. What happens? Consumers end up saying a product doesnt do what it says it will andare quick to jump ship for the next one that appeals to them.

A claim, from the consumer perspective, is a promise that it will dosomething. Consumers expect the promise, the commitment, to workto deliverexpected results. The problem, we find, is that too frequently food companiescant resist using quasipharmacological language or conducting clinical typetests and concepts to offer up a magic bullet functional food.

Since many claims have no basis in science, the evidence as to effectivenessis either lacking or left to consumers to fill in the blanks. On the surface,these claims make grandiose promises that are in fact meaningless. The onlypurpose they serve is to give credence to the old cliché, If it sounds toogood to be true, it usually is.

What Works for Consumers

So, if efficacy and health claims dont work, what does? Consumers reactmore positively to the absence or reminder of an ingredient, such as no addedsugar or high in dietary fiber than to a health claim stating, Mayreduce the risk of cancer, heart disease or elevated cholesterol levels.While consumers want to know what a product contains, too much added content maygive the impression that a food is highly processed. Yet, reduced or no language is believable since it is a simple deduction.

Speaking of avoidance, dont make promises you cant deliver. Themajority of consumers actively involved in the wellness market are not seekingcondition specific treatment solutions. Most consumers approach life with an Iwant to be healthy and live a healthy lifestyle outlook. Give consumersfactual and easy-to-find information.

It is critical that marketers dont over-define or over-promote the healthbenefits of their products and come off pretending to compete with OTC orprescription drugs.

Consumers arent likely to believe overly efficacious or specific claims.Forward-thinking companies might even consider letting consumers devise someelements of their marketing plan. This bottom-up strategy would lead to arenewed interest in products and help overcome health claim fatigue.

Laurie Demeritt is the president and chief operating officer (COO) of TheHartman Group, a leading consulting and market research firm. The Hartman Group (www.hartman-group.com) specializes in the analysis andinterpretation of consumer lifestyles and how these lifestyles affect thepurchase and use of health and wellness products and services. Their client base includes a number of Fortune 500 consumer packaged goodscompanies, pharmaceutical firms, and mass and natural food retailers.