Freshen Up: Marketing Less Processed Foods

Today’s health-conscious consumers are in favor of fresh. While they may continue to buy processed foods, they consider highly processed products to be less healthy than less-processed alternatives. And other things being equal (cost and convenience), the less-processed option wins out.

More or less processed?
Consumer perception groups foods into two general categories: more or less processed. Consumers recognize all foods are processed. They know apples are washed and sometimes waxed and that even drinking water is filtered. That said, health-conscious consumers strongly prefer brands that fall into the less processed category. This category includes foods whose processing does not change the nutritional properties of the food. Highly processed foods, on the other hand, are perceived as containing ingredients (sugars, starches, fats, chemicals) designed to make the product more durable, accessible, convenient, ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat. What can a brand do to encourage consumers to consider it a less-processed alternative to other products? Four factors go a long ways towards convincing consumers of a brand’s freshness:

• Fresh packaging
• Rough, bumpy ingredients
• Fewer, simpler ingredients
• Fresh convenience

Fresh packaging
A brand’s appears fresher if its packaging:

1. Includes an inside view. Many fresh foods now sport a window in the package that allows consumers a look at what’s inside. Visibly recognizable ingredients (such as chunks of fruit, nuts and grains) convince a consumer to slot the product in the less-processed category.
2. Uses natural colors. Brands sporting neon pinks and greens will lose out in the battle for unprocessed food dollars. Packaging resembling the colors in which the food appears in its natural state can convince consumers of a brand’s less-processed status.
3. Shows food in its natural state. Even if the package does not allow the consumer to see the enclosed food product, a product can still convince consumers that the food is fresh by showing images of fresh food on the package.

Rough, bumpy ingredients
Food in nature is rarely ever smooth, so rough, bumpy surfaces seem more real to consumers. Consider the cracker that has bits of whole grain poking out, or the protein bar with nubby bits visible on the surface. Give consumers a bump here and a bulge there and they’re more likely to mentally slot your brand as “less processed."

Fewer, simpler ingredients
In addition to being rough and bumpy, less processed foods also contain fewer, simpler ingredients. Consider the marketing of Hagen Dazs 5, a product line whose brand story is built entirely on how few ingredients the ice cream contains (never more than five). Products that can’t get their ingredient list down to five, would still benefit from a visible listing of principle ingredients that are easily recognized and pronounced. Long, complicated ingredient lists are highly equated with heavily processed foods.

Fresh convenience
While buying less-processed food is the goal, if it takes mom’s time to turn foods into snacks, processed foods are still frequent winners. Fresh foods and convenient foods need to find a way to co-exist. Help mom select fresh by packaging food items in snack-sized bites and in snack-sized containers. Apples pre-cut into slices that are then packaged into a snack-sized serving are an example of a fresh food option that saves mom time.