As legislation affects more and more areas of business, the packaging industry
is the latest to feel its effects. The Food Standards Agency's proposed traffic
light labelling system has spurred ongoing debate amongst the grocery trade and
manufacturers regarding alternative design formats, and consideration really
should be give to how such changes will affect food packaging and its current
use within brand promotion. Ultimately, we should be asking: What will such
legislation do to brands?
With most brand owners currently leveraging the promotional properties of
packaging and utilising it as a sales driver, such legislation could prove
critical to brand success. While subtle or cleverly applied labelling of health
advantages can prompt consumer selection and offer a point of differentiation,
confused messaging and inconsistent signage could prove detrimental to some
brands.
Mixed messages around what consumers should look out for on pack and varying
symbols and colour codes could, if we're not careful, act as barriers to
consumers rather than benefits, causing confusion and potentially restricting
selection if purchasers don't understand what the labelling means.
As well as the effect such confused messaging my have on a brand and the way
consumers perceive it, further threats lie in just how far such legislation is
likely to develop. Should legislation around
and content warnings escalate, following in the footsteps of the
tobacco industry, brand owners could soon find they have lost a valuable
marketing tool - namely their point of sale promotion.
As the tobacco industry has demonstrated, such labelling requirements have the
potential to spiral considerably. If nutritional information becomes a required
percentage of a pack's design, on-shelf differentiation will become increasingly
difficult to establish. Brand owners will need to look at alternative and often
more costly, promotional solutions to keep their brand at the forefront of the
consumer's mind.
It is important that a single consumer-friendly standard is agreed upon amicable
that also leaves room for brand messaging. The grocery sector and brand owners
need to work with the Food Standards Agency, rather than generating resistance,
to agree on something that works for everyone. Otherwise brand owners may find
themselves at the mercy of government legislation - and suffering as a result.
Pictures Of Traffic Lights
The survey found that 80% of 17,000 parents backed the traffic lights food labelling system which offers a simple red, amber and green guide to nutrition. The findings come as the British Medical Association announced its backing for the traffic light idea and The National Heart Forum said that the GDA markings are complex and misleading.
GDA supporters say their system provides people with more detailed information and that the traffic lights are too crude and simplistic. Many in the food industry prefer giving the GDA for things like calories, sugars and fat.
Cathy Court, a director of Netmums, said the strength of the traffic lights scheme was its simplicity. She said some of the parents who responded to the survey stressed that the easy-to-use nature of the scheme made it ideal to use with their children. She said: "An important thing nowadays is to get your children to understand what healthy food is. People could actually use it to teach their children about healthy food, and work out healthy options together."
Dr Vivienne Nathanson, BMA head of science and ethics, said: "It is absolutely essential that it is simple, that you don't need to sit down and start trying to work out what that percentage means. And the traffic lights system is something you can even see from a distance, so you can start to hone in on the foods that are predominantly green or green and amber, and just cut down on the foods that are marked red."
The independent watchdog the Food Standards Agency has also called for the wider industry to adopt traffic light labelling. Rosemary Hignett, FSA head of nutrition, said the evidence so far pointed to that consumers not running scared of red markers, as feared by critics of the traffic light scheme. She said: "They are using the information to balance their shop. They are not interpreting the red as "don't buy". They are interpreting it as "high in fat, salt or sugar - therefore don't eat too much of this product. So they are using it in a very sensible way, in fact."
Tesco have insisted that they are not seeking any competitive advantage by sticking with GDAs and that it was convinced that its approach was better for working out a balanced diet through the day. It also said traffic light labelling might appear simpler at first, but that the GDA approach was more likely to change customer behaviour, and encourage a switch to healthy products.
However, supporters of both methods of Nutrition Information delivery think that their schemes encourage healthy eating.
Both Tony Kwenns & Chris Marshall are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Tony Kwenns has sinced written about articles on various topics from VOIP, Computers and The Internet and VOIP. For advice and guidance about label printing, visit - the UK's experts in labels and labelling.. Tony Kwenns's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.
Chris Marshall has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health, Anger Control and Credit Cards. . Chris Marshall's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.
