Dive Brief:
- A new fleet of influencers, including public health activists, celebrity nutritionists, politicians and food bloggers, have become integral to marketing efforts for food and beverage manufacturers.
- Beyond traditional media, other sympathetic outlets such as social media, consumer websites and the fast-growing subset of alternative news outlets are giving these influencers a voice and wider platform to share their message.
- Manufacturers looking to reclaim control over their brand's public image and reputation can work with this pool of influencers to highlight the characteristics of a brand and its products that consumers demand today. That might include a product's impact on health and the environment in addition to factors like flavor, texture, appearance and price.
Dive Insight:
These influencers rose in part out of consumers' distrust of food and beverage companies, particularly larger manufacturers and producers of legacy brands that don't always meet their health-centric demands. Nearly three-quarters of American consumers believe most manufacturers are more concerned about profit than consumer health, according to the Natural Marketing Institute. A recent Mintel study found that millennials were especially more likely to distrust major food companies.
Consumers are turning to a wider variety of sources for information on food, but these sources aren't always reliable. Top sources for millennials include personal healthcare professionals; friends or family members; health, food and nutrition bloggers; and U.S. government agencies, according to a recent survey from the International Food Information Council.
Food and beverage manufacturers can control some of the conversation in terms of their own marketing and packaging messages, where consumers prefer to access certain types of food information. Companies can also partner with some of these sources, such as food bloggers and celebrity food activists, to influence the messages shared about their products.
Manufacturers do have to be careful here, as consumers may distrust industry-funded research and industry-backed food activists, as Coca-Cola and the American Egg Board learned in the past year. Transparency is key to these efforts in terms of building trust and exposing any conflicts of interest that could devalue those messages.