MARKETING: Food Execs Urged to Step Up or Be Left Behind in Consumer-Controlled Future
'YouTube Generation' Will Demand Accountability, Sustainability and Transparency From Food Manufacturers and Marketers
-- Restaurants & Institutions, October 8, 2008
(PRNewswire) Looking toward the year 2020, Lori Colman, CEO of Chicago marketing firm Colman Brohan Davis, urged international food industry executives attending the Healthy Foods Summit in London to step up their efforts around accountability, sustainability and transparency or run the risk of being left behind in the consumer-controlled future.
In her presentation, "Marketing to the YouTube Generation: Are you Scared or Prepared?," Colman discussed this new generation as well as insights from her firm's "2008 Future of Foods Panel."
"Kids who are ages 8 to 18 today -- the adults of 2020 -- will expect information instantaneously from shared digital networks, word-of-mouth and viral sources, social sites, smart phones or other devices," Colman said.
"They've grown up green and already express a point of view about healthy eating and sustainability. They and their networks -- not companies -- will control messaging about a brand."
She indicated food manufacturers and marketers need to communicate answers to five simple questions, sooner rather than later: What exactly is in this product? How is it made? By whom? How did it get here? What effects on the environment will it have?
Colman warned food executives to "act with due speed" based on findings from Colman Brohan Davis's "2008 Future of Foods Panel," representing a cross-section of food manufacturers, marketers, researchers and food service. Many executives surveyed still questioned the near-term value of
deploying information to fully empower consumer decision-making.
"A networked society is a transparent society that empowers consumers," she concluded. "Companies must act now to embrace that future or they will be left behind."
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