Does Your Healthy Brand Need a Specialty Agency?

The short answer is yes. In recent years, as marketing options have increased, so has the demand for specialty agencies. Think about it. Your healthy brand specializes in a specific category, so why would you trust an agency that doesn’t do the same?

When it comes to food and nutrition, finding a specialty agency that fits with your brand is especially important. Here’s why: 

1. Building trust isn’t as easy as you may think
When it comes to the food they put in their bodies, consumers naturally gravitate towards brands they trust. However, that trust can be hard to build, especially for food brands. Specialty agencies can help brands utilize their health halo and appropriate communication channels to build trust among consumers. 

2. Nutrition is complicated and consumers are looking for expertise
From baby foods to healthy snacks and nutritional beverages, the food industry is comprised of products to appeal to consumers of all kinds. Nutrition marketing agencies understand the unique needs of each different type of consumer, the messages that most strongly resonate with them and how best to reach them to build trust, credibility and brand trial.

3. The food and nutrition industries can be difficult to navigate
Whether your brand is an industry veteran or new to the scene, navigating the food industry can be challenging. What works in other categories doesn’t always work for food.  Working with a specialty agency affords brands the ability to leverage learnings across food categories and marketing channels. 

4. The grocery landscape is constantly changing
From changes in the ways consumers shop, to in-store initiatives, and new food retailers in the market, specialty food agencies make it easy for brands to keep up.  

The right combination of category expertise can help you shape your strategy and build your brand better than any generalist agency can.  If you want to add real value to your marketing efforts, from strategy to tactics to metrics, each piece of the puzzle should be designed to integrate across the right communication channels.

Pulse Health & Wellness has specialized in connecting healthy brands with consumers through face-to-face interactions with the health and wellness professionals they trust the most for 18 years. We can help your brand understand and navigate the landscape, all while adding value and support your current marketing efforts. Interested in learning more? Let us know!

Is Your Marketing Causing Consumers to Trust You Less?

Consumers are becoming savvier—particularly about healthy foods—and much of what marketers are communicating to consumers about their products may be causing them to trust those brands less. Nebulous claims, such as “natural” and “clean,” are increasingly viewed as dubious by consumers, who are looking for truly healthy products that can provide them with the features, benefits, and nutrition they seek.

This article in the Washington Post puts its finger on the crux of the issue:

“[Consumers] want to know what’s in their food, not what’s missing. They’re curious about where food comes from, how it was grown, and how it can impact their health. They want food companies to deliver accurate information in an honest way.”

Your brand is competing in a trust economy—now more than ever. Finding ways to offer consumers transparency while building trust and credibility is vital to the success of any healthy food brand. Consumers have spoken, is your healthy brand listening?

Health & Wellness 2017—The Year in Review

From gluten free, to dairy free, and plant-based, consumers continued to experiment with a number of food and health trends this year. While new trends are always emerging (and we’ll certainly see more of them in 2018), we’ve found that when it comes down to it, consumers are significantly more interested in improving their overall health and wellness than adhering to a trendy diet or eating pattern.

Around this time last year, we shared our recipe for success in 2017—brands should help consumers who want to get healthy, tap into the most trusted sources of health & wellness advice, and build trust and credibility. Our advice hasn’t changed. Rather than predicting which new trends will emerge in 2018, here’s a look back at the trends from 2017 that we believe will continue to have a lasting impact on the health and wellness world in 2018 and beyond.

Consumers Are Taking Steps to be Healthier
According to the 2017 IFIC Food & Health Survey, Americans are taking many steps to be healthy. Of those taking steps to be healthier, over half of people indicated that they do so to lose weight, protect their long-term health, or to feel better and have more energy. When it comes to taking these steps, consumers prefer approachable and realistic guidelines—drinking more water, eating more fruits and vegetables, consuming smaller portions, and understanding how healthier and better-for-you foods fit into their plan—all of which have seen a nearly 30% increase in consumer participation over the past year, according to the survey.
 
Health Professionals Are Still the Most Trusted Source
Though consumers are taking steps to be healthier, when it comes to health and wellness, they still need more educational information on how to do so. Unlike websites, the news media, and traditional advertising, health professionals build trusting relationships with consumers by engaging with them through face-to-face counseling interactions. Regardless of all the different sources of information that consumers have access to, year after year, health professionals remain their most trusted source of guidance. 
 
Print is the Preferred Information Vehicle
To deliver this guidance, health professionals trust the tried and true value of printed materials. In fact, in a survey of PulseConnect members, more than 7 in 10 health professionals indicated a preference for printed materials over digital resources. Printed materials better meet their needs—they are customizable, convenient, and ensure that patients and clients leave an educational interaction with the information they need in hand.
 
Face-to-Face is Most Effective
While it’s easy to track metrics, clicks, and page views, the value of a digital impression continues to fall, while the value of a face-to-face interaction is on the rise. Face-to-face communication with health professionals continues to be consumers’ preferred, and most trusted, method of communication. Unlike digital communication, face-to-face interactions foster trust while helping to establish and build relationships between consumers and their most trusted source of information.    
 
Food Retailers Want to Help
Health professionals aren’t the only ones invested in consumer well-being. Food retailers have also acknowledged an increase in their shoppers' interest in health and wellness and, as a result, have accelerated their investments over the past few years as well. According to this 2017 FMI report, 96% of retailers surveyed indicated a commitment to expanding health and wellness programs in their stores going forward. These retailer investments have grown significantly over the past three years and we can expect to see them continue to grow for the foreseeable future. From good-for-you products to shopper engagement activities and in-store health professionals, food retailers are working to make it easier for consumers to live and eat healthily. 
 
Food Companies Are Reconsidering Their Approach
Food companies also want to help meet the changing health and wellness needs of consumers, but they’ve had to reconsider their approach. There’s no doubt that healthy brand name products have a health halo advantage over their private label counterparts, but consumers still remain skeptical about many of the claims being made. We’ve seen this evolve over the past few years as power has shifted from the brands to the consumers. As this transition has occurred, traditional marketing methods have become less effective, and brands have turned their focus toward high-quality interactions and earned media to meet consumers’ demands for transparency, authenticity, and engagement.
 
As the new year quickly approaches, it’s easy to get caught up in predicting the latest and greatest food trends, but those trends can fade away as quickly as they emerge. When it comes to health and wellness in the new year, these are the trends that will continue to have a lasting impact.   

FNCE 2017 Recap

The Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics celebrated its 100th anniversary with a jam-packed Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Chicago last month. As always, Pulse was in attendance, visiting with clients and dietitians, and getting a feel for emerging trends in the nutrition world.

Unlike other years, however, our key take-aways had less to do with food or ingredient trends, and more to do with shifts in how food companies are using FNCE to engage with registered dietitians.

Education Taking a Back Seat?

FNCE has always represented an excellent opportunity for food companies to educate dietitians about their products. As attendees flood the expo floor between educational sessions, food companies can conduct presentations at their booths and engage dietitians in one-on-one conversations. That’s certainly still happening at FNCE, but this year more than most, we saw a larger percentage of exhibitors focusing on “infotainment” or high-volume sampling as opposed to education. Granted, a large convention with more than 12,000 attendees is not the optimal setting for education, but the value of building a relationship of trust and credibility between dietitians and healthy food brands cannot be understated. Education is the foundation of this relationship. So whether at FNCE or through direct outreach throughout the year when many of those 12,000 attendees are busy counseling consumers, we prefer to see healthy brands focusing on education, and we know that’s the type of engagement health professionals prefer.

Continuing the Conversation

We also noted that many exhibitors had spent significant time and money on their presence at FNCE with little thought given to how they would continue the conversation with dietitians once the convention floor empties. FNCE is a great way to connect with registered dietitians, but it is only three days each year. Consistently, year after year, dietitians tell us that it’s the engagement throughout the year, and not just at FNCE, that makes the biggest difference in what they recommend to patients and clients. FNCE offers an opportunity for them to learn about and sample new food brands—and learn about new products and innovations from companies they are already familiar with—but for food companies to add real, lasting value to the conversations dietitians are having with patients and clients throughout the year, they need to provide a drumbeat of education, resources, and information that dietitians can directly share with their patients and clients during face-to-face counseling.

It’s hard to beat the exposure and goodwill a healthy food brand can generate by exhibiting at FNCE. But it’s just one piece of the puzzle. We remain committed to meeting the needs of health professionals and healthy brands by bringing the two groups together the other 362 days a year.

When it Comes to Activating Mom, Education is Key

From birth on, every conversation between a pediatric professional and Mom is a unique opportunity for education. Parents come into these conversations loaded with questions and ready to learn, but when the topic is nutrition—a topic you and many of your colleagues may not have received dedicated training in—the interaction has the potential to leave you and Mom unsatisfied.

How can pediatric professionals educate and motivate Moms to make healthy food choices for their little ones? Here are four keys that can put you on the right path:

1. Deliver the right information at the right time

That Moms can get overwhelmed is the understatement of the century. Not only are they focused on their little one day and night, but they are being bombarded with information about what to feed their child—from a variety of credible and incredible sources. You’ve told us that delivering the right information in bite-sized chunks when it is most relevant helps keep Mom from getting more overwhelmed than she may already be. At a six-month well visit, that means starting a conversation about first foods. As a child reaches school age, that means starting a conversation about healthy snacking.

2. Make it easy to understand and actionable

When it comes to educating Moms about proper nutrition for their child, no information is too basic or fundamental. Tools and resources that focus on the basic building blocks of nutrition are highly valued, and can help Mom begin to instill healthy eating habits from a very young age. Moms also love suggestions, meal plans, and recipes—ideas that are actionable and spare them having to sort through the thousands of choices they face at the supermarket. That’s why we encourage healthy food brands to be part of these conversations between you and Mom.

3. Harness your credibility and build trust

According to the 2017 IFIC Food & Health Survey, health professionals like you are consumers’ most trusted source of food information. As a pediatric professional, your recommendations are highly influential. That’s why it’s important to be knowledgeable about products in the marketplace and what recommendations are appropriate for meeting the varying needs of your patients and their parents. You and your colleagues tell us that gaining a high level of nutritional knowledge about a product—and having a personal experience with it—are keys to your recommendations to Moms. That’s why we encourage food brands to include educational materials, samples, and free trial coupons for you and your patients in all the programs we conduct through PulseConnect.

4. Offer solutions that are accessible and positive

Moms are busy and life with a little one can get frantic on a regular basis. That’s why it’s important that the solutions you recommend to Mom are easily accessible and achievable. Recommending foods and options widely available at the local store can help show Mom that there are plenty of healthy choices to be made that are accessible without significant effort or cost.

We know you spend your days helping Moms make the best choices they can for their children. When it comes to nutrition, that conversation can be aided by healthy food brands that want to educate both professional and parent—and offer healthy solutions.

If you’re interested in receiving resources and materials to educate and motivate your patient parents to make healthy food choices for their little ones, join PulseConnect!

The Saying is True—You Are What You Eat

We have all heard the old saying “you are what you eat.” While you shouldn’t take the saying too literally, the message behind it is true. What you eat has a significant impact on your overall health and how your body functions. According to an article published by Harvard Medical School, your diet even affects your emotions and behavior.

“The burgeoning field of nutritional psychiatry is finding there are many consequences and correlations between not only what you eat, how you feel, and how you ultimately behave, but also the kinds of bacteria that live in your gut.”

— Eva Selhub, MD

According to the article, 95% of your serotonin, the neurotransmitter responsible for mood regulation, is produced in your gut. The amount of serotonin produced is influenced by the good bacteria in your gut. These good bacteria are found in natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as well as probiotic supplements.

Initial studies suggest that a diet rich in foods that contain these good bacteria may be able to prevent depression, reduce anxiety, and even improve your perception of stress. Think about it. It makes sense. In order for your body to function at its best it’s important to supply it with nutritious food. 

Though nutritional psychiatry is still an emerging field, it has the potential to change the way we use food. Will health professionals start prescribing specific diets instead of medicine in the future? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, consider encouraging your patients to experiment with the way different foods make them feel. Small dietary changes could make a big difference.

Health Professionals Weigh in on Print vs. Digital

Living in the increasingly digital world that we do, your patients have access to an overwhelming array of health information. From social media to food bloggers and health websites, the internet is overrun with health information, much of it of questionable validity and value.

That’s why it’s reassuring to know that health professionals remain the most trusted source of health and wellness guidance for consumers. More trusted than websites, social media, and media personalities.

So when it comes to educating Americans about living a healthy lifestyle, we’ve learned to trust health professionals as well, and health professionals tell us—consistently and passionately—that they prefer printed educational materials over digital resources. In fact, in a recent survey of PulseConnect members, more than 7 in 10 health professionals say they prefer sharing printed educational materials with their patients and clients.

Here’s why:

Printed materials last.

A single counseling interaction can provide a patient or client with a lot of valuable and important information. Unfortunately, if they leave the interaction empty-handed or solely with the hope that they’ll later visit a website, they may not have that important information when they need it most. Whether that’s the next day or a month later. Printed materials ensure that your patients and clients leave their counseling interaction with the information they need in hand.

Printed materials are customizable.

PulseConnect members tell us that as health professionals, they like to customize the information they share with patients and clients. One size does not fit all. Printed educational materials enable them to personalize guidance by making notes on, adding to, or subtracting from the information being shared. The added benefit of this approach is that customization increases retention by patients and clients since the material is now specifically focused on their needs.

Printed materials are convenient.

Given the pace and intensity of the healthcare environment these days, health professionals don’t have time to sort through dozens of websites for the right information or the resources to download and print web-based materials all day. Unlike many office workers, health professionals don’t spend the day sitting at a computer connected to a high-volume printer. Ready access to quality printed educational materials better meets the needs of health professionals than any URL can.

Do digital resources have any place in face-to-face interactions between health professionals and the patients and clients they advise? Of course they do. The reach and impact of the digital world is undeniable, and new technologies are emerging every day that will enhance Americans’ healthcare.

But when it comes to the basic building blocks of education, print remains not only the preferred format for health professionals, it’s the superior choice for delivering valuable and actionable health and wellness guidance.

We’re working with brands every day to provide all kinds of health professionals—dietitians, nurses, nurse practitioners, pediatric professionals, and more with printed patient education materials to use during their conversations with patients and clients. Not receiving our materials yet? Join PulseConnect!

The Changing Face of Health & Wellness at the Grocery Store

As living a healthy lifestyle has become more and more important to a growing number of Americans, consumers have turned to a wide range of sources for guidance. Health professionals remain the most trusted source, but grocery retailers are investing more dollars in an effort to become a bigger part of the health & wellness equation.

Just how much are retailers investing? More than you might think. The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) regularly conducts surveys among food retailers to understand how they are contributing to health and wellness. Their 2017 survey delivered some interesting—and surprising—results:

• Food retailers have accelerated their investments in health & wellness. 89% stated that they have an established health & wellness program for customers and employees. For comparison, only 54% of retailers had these programs in 2014.

• They’ve hired experts. 71% have a dedicated health & wellness team, while nearly 90% have dietitians on staff at the corporate, regional, or store level.

• They’re providing in-store resources. 81% offer store tours focused on healthy eating. 

• They’re supporting the in-store experience with online resources. 93% have websites dedicated to health & wellness, including healthy recipes, educational content, and nutrition Q&As.

• They’re partnering with trusted health professionals. 79% have plans to partner with local hospitals or healthcare networks within the next year.

• Investment in health & wellness is only going to grow. 96% stated that they are committed to expanding health & wellness in their stores.

These health & wellness programs are all designed to reinforce and support the efforts of health professionals like you. Though each retailer is different, there are a few common trends that stand out. How can your patients and clients benefit from these trends? Keep reading.

Good-for-You Products

Food retailers are making a conscious effort to offer good-for-you products. This includes offering healthier prepared foods too. Not only do food retailers offer these good-for-you products in their stores, they also help customers identify them. In-store signage, front-of-pack labeling on private label products, store tours, and shelf call-outs are just a few ways retailers are making it easier for shoppers to add healthy foods to their shopping carts.

Shopper Engagement Activities

Retailers are doing more than simply providing their customers with healthy foods. They’re also showing them how these healthy products fit a healthy lifestyle through weight management programs, food safety education, and cooking classes. Many retailers also provide healthy recipes, developed by dietitians, for shoppers to prepare on their own at home.

In-Store Health Professionals

Many food retailers have in-store dietitians and pharmacies. According to the report, 32% of retailers have invested in in-store clinics as well. These in-store clinics and pharmacies serve as a convenient way for patients to receive immediate care for simple, routine wellness procedures such as immunizations and health screenings.  

There’s no doubt that food retailers are taking their investment in health & wellness seriously. These initiatives serve as an excellent resource for both you and your patients, but many people aren’t aware of all that they entail. Educating your patients and clients on the health & wellness value to be found at the neighborhood grocery store is a great way to enhance your conversations and help them take small steps toward better health. After all, there’s no one-stop-shop for health & wellness.

Food Waste Is Costing Americans $1,500 a Year

If Americans weren’t confused enough by the Nutrition Facts label, it appears they are equally confused by food expiration date labels. According to this recent Food Navigator article, confusion over food date labels costs the average American household nearly $1,500 every year. That’s a lot of waste over a simple miscommunication.

Members of the Consumer Goods Forum, which is made up of food manufacturers from around the world, have recognized the prevalence of this issue and want to do something about it. Their plan is simple: create a standardized labeling system. Perishable items would indicate a set “use by” expiration date, while non-perishable items that typically have a much longer shelf-life would utilize a “best before” food quality indicator system.

“Simplifying food date labels is an important step forward in preventing food waste, and will help end the confusion related to ‘sell by’ dates.”

— Maria Fernanda Mejia, Kellogg's Senior Vice President

Of course, even if all goes well, a change of this magnitude would take years to implement. In the meantime, a bit of basic education about the difference between “sell by,” “use by,” and “best before” could save your patients and clients some of their hard-earned cash.

Why Aren’t We Talking About Nutrition?

Nutrition is an essential part of overall health and wellness, but according to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association just 12% of office visits include counseling about the patient’s diet. If proper nutrition is so important, why aren’t more health professionals talking about it?

According to the article, only 25% of medical schools offer a dedicated nutrition course. As a result, many physicians feel as though they have inadequate nutrition information. Additionally, time constraints during office visits make these conversations difficult.

““Physicians report inadequate nutrition knowledge and low self-efficacy for counseling patients about diet. In addition, time pressures, especially in primary care, limited opportunities to counsel on nutrition or address preventative issues beyond patients’ acute complaints.””

The importance of nutrition education is becoming more apparent, however, and additional emphasis is being placed on nutrition during a physician’s training and in their practices. Community resources are also becoming more widely available to help combat physicians’ time constraints.

We can help too. At Pulse, we understand the importance of conversations about nutrition. That’s why we’re working with brands every day to provide all kinds of health professionals—dietitians, nurses, nurse practitioners, pediatric professionals, and more with resources to help start and guide their conversations about nutrition with their patients. Our programs are centered around these specific conversations and they provide professionals with educational tools and materials they can share with their patients and clients.

Nutrition is a key aspect of overall health and wellness, one that should play a key role in a physician’s counseling interactions.  What’s the first step to making this happen? Simply starting the conversation.

This content brought to you by PulseConnect.