PulseConnect August Member Spotlight: Katrina Howard

This month, we spoke to Katrina Howard, a retail dietitian who works at Hy-Vee in Peoria, Illinois. Katrina also advises CrossFit athletes on their health & wellness. An active member since 2013, we asked Katrina a few questions to learn more about how PulseConnect adds value to her interactions with those whom she counsels.

Q: How do you use materials that you receive from PulseConnect?

A: I do store tours, recently they have been focused on weight loss, diabetes, and heart health. I give out coupons, samples, and educational materials to consumers during these store tours to encourage them to try healthy products.

Q: Could you describe a recent program that you found valuable and why?

A: I found the Del Monte materials very useful. I talk a lot about canned foods being as good as fresh, so it’s nice to have materials that support that.  The one issue with canned foods is that it has extra sodium. However, the materials I received from PulseConnect showed how rinsing the canned food made it much healthier by cutting down on the amount of sodium.

Q: What are your clients asking you about? What are topics that you discuss on a daily basis?

A: I get a lot of questions about GMOs and artificial sweeteners.  People hear from friends or the internet these terrible things about GMOs and artificial sweeteners, and a lot of it is just wrong.  Some people don’t know what GMOs are, but think that they need to avoid them entirely.  It just comes down to a lot of misinformation online.

Q: What do you like best about PulseConnect?

A: I really like the educational pieces that support the conversations I’m having during store tours. Having coupons and samples to hand out are great, and I love being able to share educational information with clients.

I also like being able to try products before I make a recommendation.  Sometimes, you hear about healthy foods and get excited, but then they taste like dirt.  I obviously don’t want to recommend products that taste like dirt.

Fighting Misconceptions About Health

A recent report found that 75% of Americans say they have a good diet.  So why are more than 70% of Americans over the age of 20 overweight?  Why is there such a gap between what people believe about their diets and reality?

The billions of dollars spent every year advertising junk food may be one cause, but it’s also true that many Americans simply don’t understand the basics of good nutrition. They don’t know what is healthy and what is not.

Education, as always, is the key. Consumers need to learn  what comprises healthy diet, how to read a food label, what to feed their children, and portion control.  The key is education, and the messengers are health influencers.  You are the front line to fighting misconceptions about health in America.

Why Digital Influencers Aren’t Enough

We live in a digital age, rife with social networks, digital publishing platforms, and online communities that tantalize marketers with a seemingly affordable and measurable way to reach large numbers of consumers. It’s no wonder marketers have flocked to digital tactics to support their brands.

But as the value of a digital impression has declined, due to ad blockers, bots, and a lack of consumer engagement, many marketers have altered their digital approach to focus on influencers as opposed to advertising. But are digital influencers like bloggers and social media darlings really an effective and compelling way to market to consumers?

Authors Ed Keller and Brad Fay think not. In The Face-to-Face Book, Keller and Fay conclude that real relationships rule in a digital age, with 90% of recommendations that lead to consumer action occurring offline. While the internet can deliver impressive scale, it is a mile wide and an inch deep, lacking the ability to deliver real engagement and real influence—the kinds of interactions that drive choice at shelf.

While digital remains an effective approach for building brand awareness and generating interest, a default reliance on digital influencers can be a mistake—particularly for healthy brands. According to the most recent IFIC Food & Health Survey, just  13% of consumers trust bloggers for accurate health & nutrition information. Turns out, these digital influencers have neither the trust nor credibility to effectively deliver healthy brand messages  or recommendations.   

Here is why face-to-face influencers deliver the results that digital influencers cannot:

1. Credibility

IFIC found that consumers trust dietitians/nutritionists and their own personal health professional more than other sources, including TV personalities, bloggers, and social media. Will your healthy brand messages be delivered to consumers by someone they trust?  

2. Appropriate Context

McKinsey & Company reports that the setting or context in which a recommendation is made is  crucial to the power of the message. Messages delivered within a tight, trusted network, such as that between a consumer and their health professional, have a greater impact than those circulated through dispersed communities.

3. Face-to-Face

There are 15 billion conversations about brands every week in America. With trust in traditional advertising down, and 90% of recommendations that lead to consumer action happening offline, marketers should focus on earning face-to-face recommendations from trusted influencers to cut through the clutter and maximize impact.

As Keller and Fay found, good marketing starts with conversations, and some conversations are more impactful than others. By all means, healthy brands should build awareness digitally.  But, if marketers want their brand to become part of a consumer’s everyday choices, they must have their messages the information delivered from a trusted source, in the right context, and face-to-face.

The Brand Perspective on Influencer Marketing

Having spent over 15 years as a clinical dietitian before transitioning to the food industry, I recognize how important it is for brands and health professionals to work together to improve Americans’ eating habits. As evidenced by our growing rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and an aging population, it is critical that we work together to educate Americans on the role food plays in our health and longevity. 

At StarKist, our mission is to provide healthy food products for all Americans.  We understand that the vast majority of Americans consume less than a quarter of the recommended amount of seafood a week, and our aim is to provide healthy, convenient options to help overcome this.

We know from recent IFIC research that consumers are trusting of health professionals, especially Registered Dietitians Nutritionists (RDNs), to provide sound advice.  It makes perfect sense for food companies like Starkist to work with RDNs and provide them with information and teaching tools to help consumers understand the nutritional value of our products and how they can fit into their everyday lives.     

Educating health professionals about the nutritional value of shelf stable seafood while providing convenient and simple ideas for consumers to include it in their meals can help increase seafood consumption.  Whether providing recipes, tips for how to pair our products with different produce items to make a meal, or demonstrations on how to use our products, we work with RDNs in all areas of practice to get the message of “seafood twice a week” out. 

We like working with RDNs in the community because we know they are hearing firsthand what consumers struggle with.  They are the trusted resource for many consumers and can help us understand their clients’ concerns and nutritional needs so we can provide products and ideas to meet those needs.  It is a two-way street!   We need each other to improve the health of Americans.

Laura Molseed Ali, MS, RDN, LDN is the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist for StarKist Co.  She has over 25 years of experience having worked in clinical, retail and the food industry.  Laura is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Pennsylvania Dietetic Association, and is a former President of the Pittsburgh Dietetic Association.   She is an avid proponent that healthy eating is a delicious way of eating, and works with StarKist Co. to develop recipes and programs for consumers and health care professionals.

The Other Side of Complexity

One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said: “For the simplicity that lies this side of complexity, I would not give a fig, but for the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity, I would give my life."

I think about this quote frequently, but it came to my mind again earlier this month when I read a Reuters article about bite counters. These devices, worn on the wrist, use motion to track the number of bites people take while eating. While they won’t help you eat healthier food, these devices, according to the Clemson University researchers who developed them, could provide much needed self-monitoring and feedback to people looking to lose or manage their weight.

Reading about bite counters, it’s hard not to think of the monsoon of health & wellness information we are inundated with on a daily basis. Information that can be arcane, complex and often contradictory. For the average American who is simply looking to take small steps every day toward a healthier lifestyle, this information can be overwhelming—and often discouraging.  

Instead of contributing to the monsoon, why don’t we resolve to teach Americans the basics about nutrition and how to read a food label for themselves. Instead of promoting a fad diet or device, let’s teach them about basic cooking techniques and the value of a walk.  

Sure, teaching Americans the fundamentals of nutrition and physical fitness isn’t easy, nor is it particularly flashy. It requires expertise, patience and persistence. Many marketers may think that a compelling, but potentially misleading health claim or hitching their brand to a current fad is the better business move. But how has that worked out so far?

Let marketers know what you think, contact us at kevinm@pulseconnect.me to share your insights.

The 4 Keys to Patient Education

A local integrative medicine practice here in Chapel Hill offers regular seminars for their patients and the community. Last week, I attended one on the broad topic of integrative medicine and nutrition—a tough topic to cover in just one hour. But in addition to teaching me some new information, the seminar was beneficial in that it reinforced how challenging it can be to educate consumers about nutrition and health.

Translating often complicated science into easy-to-understand and actionable information for the layperson can be difficult. The seminar led me to reflect on how we create educational materials here at Pulse, and the four keys to effective health and wellness education that guide our efforts.

1. What is the need?

Far too often, health and wellness information is presented as universal truths applicable to anyone anywhere who wants to be healthy. The truth is that our health and wellness needs are incredibly personalized and unique. We may be seeking to simply lead a healthier life, but we may also be looking to prevent or manage a specific condition. The first goal of any health and wellness education should be to clearly and concisely define the need, providing consumers with the ability to determine if the information is relevant to them.

2. What solution is being recommended and how does it work?

Once the need is clearly defined, we want to introduce the solution—or in many cases, solutions. More importantly, we want to explain the “why” and “how” behind the solution. We call this the “biorationale” and the need for this explanation comes from the fact that once a consumer has their health awareness heightened, they want more information, not less. Providing a cogent and understandable explanation that translates complicated science into easy-to-understand language is critical to driving real and lasting behavior change.  

3.  How is the solution applied?

In other words: how much, when, with what, and so on. This key focuses on helping the consumer understand how to incorporate this solution into their daily life and the specific parameters required to achieve the desired positive health benefit. Frequently, this key involves consulting a health professional, which is why face-to-face interactions between a health professional and a consumer are a great way to share this type of education.

4. Which brand and why?

Last, but not least, we want to ensure that we are providing a specific and compelling brand recommendation that will be reinforced by the health and wellness influencer. Here we can focus on a brand’s features and benefits, and its points of differentiation, to ensure we are driving the path to purchase. Year after year for more than 17 years, health and wellness professionals have told us that their patients and clients ask for specific brand recommendations. Providing this information meets the needs of both the professional and the consumer, as I saw at the seminar last week.

Once the topic of essential fatty acids was discussed, a hand popped up from the crowd. “What does that look like… Are there brands that you would suggest?” The host of the seminar answered with a branded recommendation and explanation. As she attempted to continue her speech she was interrupted by another attendee, “Is that at [a local grocery store]? Can I get it through Amazon?”

These are the questions that you, the health and wellness influencer, are asked everyday.  Our goal is to give you the tools you need to answer them.

A Battle Cry to My Dietitian Colleagues

I spent the first decade of my professional career working as an advertising executive. People loved giving me suggestions for future ads or asking why pharmaceutical commercials involved people running in fields while a soothing voiceover announced scary side effects. At no time did I ever encounter anyone actively trying to do my job.  When I decided to pursue becoming a dietitian, I noticed one shocking and disturbing fact: I was hustling for years going to school full-time, taking the proper route toward becoming a credentialed Registered Dietitian, yet there were people who had never taken a single nutrition course touting themselves as “Wellness Professionals” doling out nutrition advice all across cyberspace.  The hardest pill to swallow is that people actually listened to them!

These days, the letters after your name don’t seem to matter as much as the followers you have on social media.  Your “influence” now determines your level of expertise—or at least the media has decided this is the case, given the exposure celebrities and bloggers with large followings receive.  However, the recent IFIC Food & Health Survey reveals that 83% of Americans have little or no trust in advice given from celebrities about food and diet, and named Registered Dietitians as the most trusted source of nutrition information.  So why aren’t dietitians getting the exposure commensurate with this level of trust?

This, my dietitian colleagues, is where I ask a favor of all of you.  It is time we SPEAK UP and BE LOUDER about our knowledge and expertise.  From your immediate social circles, to the community, social media channels, and beyond.  It’s time we, the Registered Dietitian Nutritionists, become THE go-to nutrition experts.  Whether you blog, ‘gram, tweet, or counsel patients face-to-face every day, be the voice of sound science among the nonsensical clutter. Use your influence to empower consumers to make smarter choices when it comes to their health, and make sure they mention it was a Registered Dietitian who helped them.  

We must continue seeking allies and endorsements about our expertise from respected medical professionals in the media and elsewhere.  We need to continue partnering with manufactures and marketing companies to become influencers in the food/beverage/health industry and among consumers.  Dietitians are more than just nutritionists with higher education and clinical experience.  We are THE health and wellness experts, and it is time we make our influence known.  

PulseConnect July Member Spotlight: Kelly Wolschon

This month, we spoke with Kelly Wolschon, a Registered Dietitian in Redondo Beach who works with both dialysis patients and pregnant women. An active member of our network for more than 10 years, Kelly spent a few minutes to talk with us about the way PulseConnect factors into her day-to-day work with patients.

Q: How do you use materials that you receive from PulseConnect?

A: I use the materials sent from PulseConnect in both settings that I counsel patients in. I also share this information with my coworkers if they are having relevant conversations with the people whom they counsel. I want to make sure the information gets into the hands of the patients who could use it.

Q: Could you describe a recent program that you found valuable and why?

A: I received two programs recently that were very valuable—Barilla and Clif Bar.

The Barilla materials were extremely informative as far as the glycemic index information.  It also helped me in becoming more aware of the different varieties of pasta that are out there. The materials educated me about what the marketplace is offering.

With the Clif Bar program, there was a lot of detail in the materials that I can use to share with my patients. Most notably the materials highlighted the nutritional content of the food. The detailed information is really useful for when I make brand recommendations.

Q: Does pointing to a specific brand help with the recommendations that you’re making?

A: For sure. If I can put something specific in people’s reach or in their focus, they will go for that. They really respect the recommendations and they want it to be clear cut.

Q: What kind of things are your clients asking you about? What are topics that you discuss on a daily basis?

A: There are a lot of questions about different beverages, the health importance of all the different drinks out there, such as the different types of water, flavored water, electrolyte enhanced, etc. There’s so many different options it can be overwhelming and they’re not sure what to believe. 

I often talk about label reading, and I’m just trying to get them to make smarter decisions.  I advise them on how to kind of read through the labels to understand the actual health benefits. 

We often discuss the science behind claims. The people who I counsel are not afraid to get a little bit of science background to help them better understand the claims.

Q: What do you like best about PulseConnect?

A: I appreciate that the materials are written very specifically and targeted toward health professionals. The language is very understandable and helpful for us and usually written by another health professional. It’s very refreshing to get to the point—that’s what we are looking for. It is great that because of PulseConnect, I don’t need to weed through a lot of extra information that’s really not important.

I’ve been really happy with the information that I’ve received over the past 10 years. Everything I’ve received was useful in my practice. 

Celebrities as Health and Wellness Influencers

Earlier this month, we learned that Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, has plans to launch a new health and wellness start-up that will provide content contributed by celebrities and bloggers.

The increasing overflow of health and wellness information (and misinformation) has led consumers to be much more skeptical of health advice provided by anyone but a professional. So why are marketers still using celebrities as influencers?

Given the mass confusion surrounding various health topics and the growing distrust in celebrity’s opinions, we wonder if using celebrities and bloggers as sources of health and wellness information is the best choice for Huffington’s new venture.

As we’ve discussed before, trust in experts and health professionals for health information is continuing to grow, while trust in bloggers and celebrities is plunging. Results from the recent IFIC Food & Health Survey revealed that 83% of Americans have little or no trust in advice given from celebrities about food and diet.

While there once was a point when an A-list celebrity could influence consumers, it’s clear that times have changed. As for marketers, it is important now more than ever to provide consumers with the genuine, face-to-face interactions from the sources they trust most.

PulseConnect June Member Spotlight: Gina Crome

Earlier this month, we spoke with PulseConnect member Gina Crome, the founder of Lifestyle Management Solutions in Glendora, California.  As an RD, ACE Certified Personal Trainer, and health coach, Gina regularly counsels patients on health and wellness issues including weight management, diabetes education, heart disease risk factors, and a variety of other general health and wellness concerns. 

We asked Gina a few questions to learn more about how PulseConnect adds value to her interactions with those whom she counsels.

Q: How do you use materials that you receive from PulseConnect?

A: Since I do a lot of public speaking, the materials we get from PulseConnect have been a great resource to hand out at my talks. I also attend a lot of health fairs and community health events, so having materials ready at all times to distribute at our booth has been extremely helpful. And of course, it’s been great to get the materials for free, especially because a lot of my work in the community is pro bono. Whatever I don’t use in a classroom or at an event gets put to good use at my office. 

Q: Could you please describe a recent program that you found valuable and why?

A: We recently took the box of Clif Bars that we received to an event and it was a huge hit! A lot of people we counsel have children, so having the Clif Kids samples to give out along with educational information was perfect!

I also received a Smart Balance kit, which was very well received by my clients. I’ve found that clients really like it when they are given information with a meal plan or a recipe and then also have a coupon for the product. 

Q: What kind of things are your clients asking you about? What are topics that you discuss on a daily basis?

A: We do a lot with weight management, so clients often ask us for foods that are portion controlled, fat reduced, and lower in sugar. Recently, a lot of people have been asking us specifically for diet beverages that don’t use certain chemicals. 

We also do a lot of diabetes education, so we get a lot of diabetics looking for products low in sugar and high in fiber. Fiber is another big thing that a lot of clients are looking for to maximize their fullness. However, with the recent changes to the nutrition label, I think we’re going to see a lot more people concerned about added sugar.

Q: What do you like best about PulseConnect?

A: Through the network, I’ve discovered new products, and it’s nice to have that first hand knowledge and be able to try the product. For me, that’s the part I like most about the network itself because I find it really hard to make a recommendation if I don’t know anything about the product or haven’t tried it myself.