Your Food Labels Must Highlight Your Benefits

_{Ian Renton  | 18/07/2014 | Food Labels}

Being in the food business brings with it obvious responsibilities. There are certainly government regulations regarding the manufacture of your food products. And there are also government regulations about what must be included on your food labels. But leaving aside the legal aspects of your food labels, let us consider marketing.

Of course, without the right sort of marketing, the whole reason for you being in business can be in jeopardy. So when it comes to food labels and marketing you need to think of the benefits. In fact, there are gurus in the marketing world who will tell you that you should never sell the actual product but instead you must sell the benefits of that product.

So step one is to make a list of the benefits of your food products. Then, your next task is to list these in order of priority. Or, if you intend to have different labels for different consumers, then you need to list the benefits according to the preferences of your customers. Secondly, define your customers. This is a crucially important aspect of marketing. Unless you know who your customer is, creating a marketing program becomes guesswork. So, defining your customer could see them in some or all of the following categories.

• budget
• health-conscious
• fitness fanatic
• time poor

If you decide that you have a group of potential customers who are not flushed with money then you will work on your food label to promote the benefits of the cost of your food. If, for instance, it is canned food, you can extol the benefits of price as opposed to the same product as fresh food. But then there will be potential customers who are super careful about what type of food they purchase. Because your food products are lacking in so-called bad items but rich in so-called good items, your label will want to broadcast such a claim. Then there are the fitness fanatics, people who exercise to a large degree and are super keen about maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Because your food product is ideal in promoting good health, your food labels will trumpet this information. And finally, because of a busy lifestyle, there are many people who simply do not have the time to prepare meals the way previous generations did. But your food products are simple to prepare, there is very little time involved.

This being the case, your food labels will strongly emphasise this fact. Of course, as with all product labels, there is mandatory information to include on your food labels. This includes the brand, the name of the manufacturer or grower and country of origin. For food labels, a list of ingredients including information such as calories or kilojoules is also important. You may also be required to include the chemical composition of any food additives. Always, seek legal advice as well as marketing advice before you print any labels pertaining to food.