Meat + Poultry - September 2005 - 74

PERSPECTIVE

How can the food system successfully fight
consumer misperceptions?

Rick Berman

Robert Giblin, APR

Jonathan Bernstein

Trent Loos

Executive director
The Center for Consumer
Freedom
■ In recent years, a group
of trial lawyers and food
activists has set its sights on
one of our most basic
rights: the freedom to eat
and drink what we choose.
To fight their war on food,
these "food cops" offer
outrageous proposals such
as sin taxes, tobacco-style
lawsuits, and, most recently,
warning labels on soda.
The Center for Consumer
Freedom educates the public about the tactics and
objectives of these radical
groups and addresses industry antagonists like the
Center for Science in the
Public Interest. To effectively prevent consumer misconceptions, the American
people must be informed
that groups like CSPI use
junk science and inflammatory rhetoric to pursue
their agendas.

Senior counselor,
Research director
Morgan&Myers
■ Test the disconnect. We
can't always assume there
is a misconception just
because it's different from
our own policies, beliefs or
goals, or that all opposing
facts or viewpoints are
false, inaccurate or
misleading. Conflicting
information still may be
accurate, and experts offer
varying interpretations.
Know the expectations. To
be successful, we need to be
vigilant in understanding
consumers' needs, desires,
emotions and value systems, and how they impact
consumer behavior. When
we communicate, ensure
that our information is accurate and relevant to consumer needs and desires.
Engage constructively. We
also may benefit by engaging with other stakeholders
- including opponents -
more effectively and meaningfully. We all get messy in
a food fight, but engagement strategies can result
in a win-win-win for our
industry, other issue stakeholders and consumers.

President
Bernstein Crisis
Management LLC
■ Firefighting is far more
expensive than simply preventing fires. The food system must use these tactics
to prevent or minimize
damage from consumer
misconceptions:
* Educational and goodwillbuilding proactive communications - e.g., publicity,
community relations.
* Vulnerability assessment.
Anticipate the most probable types of misconceptions
and ensure that communications at the consumer
level neutralize concern
before it germinates.
* Ensure that customerservice responses are
tracked for trend data that
is shared with PR staff.
* Internet monitoring.
There are many locations
where consumer misconceptions may be viewed.
* Create a rapid-response
system. The slower you
respond to damaging information, the worse the
problem gets. Finally, if you
have to say it 10 times to
be understood, it's not the
listener who's at fault.

Agricultural spokesperson
Loos Tales
■ We may live in the information age, but, based on
the huge disconnect between consumers and producers, I believe it is time
we move into the "credible
information" age. We
encourage consumers to
make their purchasing
decisions based on sound
science, but who has time
to read a 17-page science
report? We have to provide
the information in a concise, user-friendly and
personal manner. People
trust people. That is why it
is time to put the human
element back into food
production. Today's consumers have more choices
than ever, and we must
accept the challenge to
make sure those decisions
are fact-based. Because we
are all experts at what we
do, if the 23 million Americans involved in food production would simply start
sharing the story of how
we contribute to the
world's safest food supply,
we would be well on our
way to properly educating
our target market.

Editor's note: Consumer
misperception is a problem, and the food system must be proactive
in the battle against it.

8 FSI

FOOD SYSTEMS

ınsıder

SEPTEMBER 2005
Meat + Poultry - September 2005

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