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[M534]Missing Ingredient For Good Health

by Herbert Dreyer, Her

I know. I know. Vegetables that are purple are in and you buy your purple passion asparagus farm fresh. None of that stuff that's transported 1250 miles on average from factory farms to reach the produce shelf, exhausted, at your market. Nope. You get the good stuff, organically grown, from the farmers market and cook it the only approved, right and correct way; you steam it (according to a recent study in the Journal of the Science of Food). Good.

Then you sample it and it tastes kina good. So, what's missing? Maybe, your chef suggests, you add a little Meyers lemon butter, some French sea salt and imported, fresh ground black pepper. Now it tastes really good, you gourmet with a personal chef. But something's still missing?

Now you read the fine print and find out most of the essential nutrient folate or vitamin B9 is just not all there and whatever was there was lost when you cooked it (according to the USDA). And to make matters worse, it doesn't matter where you bought the asparagus or even if it is purple, white or green. Because the only thing The United States Department of Agriculture knows for sure it that it probably does not have an adequate amount of folate for you in the first place. Read on.

All right. So folate is colorless, something you cannot taste and it is something you cannot live without. In fact you and I and whatever colored asparagus you're eating have something in common: none of us can live without folate (Andrew D. Hanson, Horticulture Sciences Department, University of Florida, personal communication). By deduction we know that the asparagus made enough for itself, but maybe not enough for you. So how do you know enough of it there or not there?

You don't, period. Science could tell you, but try and find that answer. Of course you could have a nutrient analysis done before cooking and after cooking and you would find out for sure. But that would set you back a lot of lettuce, if you get my drift. And the asparagus would not plate up very pretty and I would quit as your chef.

You say, so what? I knew that was coming. Your life without adequate folate or vitamin B9? If your primary source of folate was asparagus then you could end up putting yourself at risk for a host of devastating health problems. Here's the short list: heart disease, birth defects, retardation of development (in children) and low levels can lead to anemia in adults along with added risk for colon cancer. Oh, your body absolutely needs folate to make new cells and genetic material. Darn details.

But don't throw out the asparagus, yet.

As science built the story of this missing ingredient, study by study, and discovered what happens to us when it is not all there, the Federal Government stepped in to help fix the problem. But first science proved we were not getting enough folate from our natural foods. In fact about 50 or so years ago science proved that food richest in folate is (or was) asparagus, but it is also found in other green leafy vegetables, eggs and beans. All this has been published by the USDA and the FDA. However, in 1998 the Food and Drug Administration began requiring certain grain manufacturers to fortify their foods with folic acid, a synthetic form of folate.

And low and behold folate deficiencies are becoming rare, according to nutritionists (that's what most every licensed nutritionist you can contact would most likely say?contact a few and see).

But the levels of folate in our naturally occurring foods are still to low to sustain our health and we must have our diet fortified or suffer the consequences. We know this for sure because science has established it beyond doubt and with agreement of the Federal Government. In addition, no less an authority than Harvard University ( at Harvard's Department of Public Health) says fresh fruits and vegetables alone cannot provide us with adequate nutrition'we need supplements to fill in the missing ingredients in our foods.

So we now know there are ingredients missing from our foods that were there but are not now and we do not know why: the baseline for getting adequate nutrition from our foods has shifted.

As your chef I recommend it is probably best to eat your asparagus, steamed and sauced along and pop a vitamin supplement rich in folate (a daily dose of 400 to 800 mcgs is recommended by the FDA?check it out with your doctor before you start).

Of course, if you do not like looking for missing ingredients in your foods you can eat some cereal fortified with folic acid and other yummy ingredients.

We all want our websites to be more effective, and if you're like most business people you are constantly searching the Web for anything that will help. What you find is a cabal of experts armed with statistics, analysis, charts and graphs all pointing to how they can get you high-up on the search engines and drive more traffic to your site. The problem is that like Steven Wright's mechanic these guys are adjusting your horn when it's your brakes that need fixing.

There is little point in attracting more visitors to your site if your site has little of interest to say. Even if your site is jammed packed with useful products, services and solutions if it doesn't connect with your audience, they will never invest the time necessary for you to make your case.

When websites fail it's most often because they do not function effectively as your primary communication tool. The Web is overcrowded with options and unless you're prepared to deliver a compelling differentiating presentation you will be quickly dismissed as irrelevant. Let's face it; business is tough, probably tougher than it's ever been before.

Something is Missing

You've done all the technical tweaks and responded to all the research and analytics. You're blogging, micro-blogging, social networking, and search optimizing, but still something is not quite right, something is missing. What's the missing ingredient? You know it's out there, but you can't for the life of you figure out what it is.

You know the Web offers the potential to access new markets, find new customers, and reach new heights, but with all that opportunity, the results always seem just out of reach. If research and analytics were the answer you'd already be rich. Of course it was an over-reliance on research that brought us the Edsel, New Coke, and that wonderful Wall Street goody called Derivatives, one of the greatest investment boondoggles of our time.

There is something artificially comforting about putting your faith in seemingly logical yet unfathomable solutions based on indecipherable scientific modeling and over-hyped research analysis, all brought to you by computer scientists and mathematicians who never ran a marketing department or launched a new product or business.

Business leaders have adopted the attitude that, "It must be right, because I sure as heck don't understand it." And when it all goes wrong, or results are anemic, well, "What are you going to do? It's not my fault, it all looked good on paper." Ad agencies and Wall Street have been getting away with this kind of bunkum for decades, and look at the mess they've made of things.

What's It All About, Alfie?

Business success is all about your ability to engage your audience with a message that compels them to action. Simply put, your business relies on your ability to communicate. Eureka!

And your website is the best communication vehicle you have. The question is how do you use your website to communicate your marketing message in the most engaging, compelling, and memorable manner? What is the missing ingredient that will turn your scientifically sterile online cookie-cutter presentation into something that cuts through the massive sameness of Internet clutter, and makes a statement that your audience will respond to?

Finding Your Emotional and Psychological Value Proposition

One of the hardest things for tough-minded business people to accept is that sales and marketing success is based on the subconscious emotional and psychological appeal of a brand. That's the reason, reliance on feature selling rarely works, and only tends to commoditize a product or service - the guy with the most bells and whistles for the least amount of money wins, and why would you want to play that game?

Even the most casual market observer must recognize that all leading brands have one thing in common, no matter what they sell: the promise of their brand is based on a concept that is established through an emotional or psychological appeal. Apple is about thinking and acting creatively without the worry of technical issues; Starbucks is about reconnecting to the original coffee break ideal of a relaxing oasis away from the hustle bustle of everyday life; and Ikea is about stylish living on a budget. Each concept appeals to the deep-seated desires of the targeted audience. It is this singular concept that makes each of these companies special and different from their competition; it is the message that all their marketing, advertising, and promotion is based upon, and it is the true value they offer their audience that attracts interest, holds attention, and delivers promise.

Implementing Your Emotional and Psychological Value Proposition

In order to implement a company's emotional and psychological value proposition, we use a process called the ConceptCreator. It starts with various sales' points that need to be covered. Based on the supplied information, we develop a focused marketing concept using the Law of Dissatisfaction that enables us to discover the experiential human subtext of why people will want what you sell. The presentation concept is boiled-down to a movie-style logline that states the brand story to be presented in the Web Video campaign.

How Much Is A Concept Worth?

"Wait a minute - did he say a movie-style logline? That sure doesn't sound business-like, and I never heard any corporate CEO or MBA talk about movie loglines." Maybe so, but think about it. Hollywood studios spend enormous sums of money to produce a movie with the potential of making hundreds of millions of dollars, and each financial investment starts with someone coming up with a clever logline that captures the imagination. Television commercials can cost ten thousand dollars a second to produce and without a guiding conceptual premise they become DOA when implemented. So why wouldn't you start your Web Video campaign using the same proven formula.

The logline, mission statement, or elevator pitch if you prefer needs to state the characters, goals, obstacles, differentiating factors, and resolution within the context of a story scenario.

For Instance…

If it works for the movie industry will it work for the advertising and marketing industry? Let's take a look at one of the most successful, popular, iconic marketing campaigns of the last number of years, The MAC versus PC campaign.

Example Logline Concept: A stylish, pleasant, mild-mannered young man verbally spars with his geeky competitive opposite (characters) in a series of humorous, relatable incidents (story scenario) that illustrate the people-friendly advantages (resolution) of the brand compared to its rigid, unbending competitor (differentiating factor) whose sheer size dominates the market (obstacle) in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the computer buying audience (goal). - The MAC Versus PC Ad Campaign.

"The Time Has Come The Walrus Said…"
- Lewis Carroll from 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There,' 1892

The time has come to realize that Web Video is the best communication tactic available to deliver your marketing message to a worldwide audience; an audience that craves answers and resolution to their every need, concern and desire. It is not good enough to list a bunch of features and hackneyed bulleted points or even to dump pages and pages of search engine optimized hard-to-read text, especially when it's aimed at an audience raised on television, movies, music and video games. We must learn to speak the language of the audience, and use the appropriate communication tools they can understand in a way that connects on a human level.

It all starts with finding the emotional and psychological value proposition your product or service promises. In a world of frustrated, cranky, attention deficit consumers, the onus is on you to present what you offer in a way that relates to the human elements that make your brand relevant.

Article Source : Energy Bar Nutrition Facts

About Author

Both Herbert Dreyer & Jerry Bader 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.

Herbert Dreyer has sinced written about articles on various topics from Food and Drink, Nutrition. Herb Dreyer is the critically acclaimed chef at , home of fine American foods and a writer on the controversial baselines in American food.. Herbert Dreyer's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.

Jerry Bader has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Branding, Marketing and Computers and The Internet. Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit ,. Jerry Bader's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.