The food pipeline is filling with a massive array of innovations and novelties. How are we preparing the public to understand and accept these new foods? This paper explores the opportunity to modify the Tech Transfer role to a broader, public facing responsibility
2. 1 | BUILDING MARKET ACCEPTANCE AND DEMAND FOR FOOD INNOVATIONS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Consumers expect to be ‘brought
along’ at the beginning of the food
production and development journey
as stakeholders in the food business
ecosystem. It’s about content, control
and confidence:
• Content — they want and expect
to be given opportunities to learn
and understand choices being
made.
• Control — they want to make
informed food selections for
themselves and their families.
• Confidence — they are looking
for ways to become smarter and
more informed about new and
novel foods during development.
Gone are the days of blind trust.
The industry lost that trust when it
assumed genetic modification was a
technology too complex or scary to
share, much less reveal, on a package.
We now know that consumers,
particularly millennials, are embracing
technology in food from production
to finished product. Their natural
skepticism remains high, however, and
it is coupled with a strong ‘need-to-
assess-for-myself’ driver. The more
unique and novel the food or the
process behind the product, the more
consumers expect to have ample time
and opportunity to learn, understand,
explore and evaluate the innovation
before the ‘big reveal’ on shelf.
Situation
LESSON LEARNED
3. | BUILDING MARKET ACCEPTANCE AND DEMAND FOR FOOD INNOVATIONS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Problem
Solution
The challenge before our industry
is one that has no playbook. The
demands of this Age of Transparency
are about to collide with two seismic
events. The first event is a tidal wave
of information and innovation about
to wash over the consumer at retail.
Blockchain-enabled technologies, data
stackers and aggregators will unleash
a treasure trove of information about
the foods and CPG products sitting
on store shelves — information never
before known or nearly impossible
to find.
For the investigative consumer, new
insights about how that product
was made may be unsettling at best,
disruptive at worst. A flood of tough
questions and possibly difficult ‘gotcha’
moments could ensue. Who knew
that canned tomato was washed in lye
before canning? Why are your spices
sourced from China and not the US?
What do you mean….? I had no idea…
and so on.
When the NLEA labelling act was
initiated in 1990, the entire food
industry shook with fear that the
revelations of fat and calories on labels
would decimate consumer confidence
and sink sales. No brand or company
could afford to divert marketing funds
to explain away new information
appearing on pack; nor did they want to
taint brands with any association with
concerns or criticisms. The industry
rallied to form the International Food
Information Council to literally prepare
and educate the market for what was
about to come. It provided context. It
provided comfort and confidence in
the products we’d grown to love long
before the new labels appeared on
shelf. It worked.
That was then, when trade associations
tackled the dirty work for food
industry members and the public
was receptive to information coming
The second event is a swelling
pipeline of innovative new products
constructed with new technologies,
processes and ingredients that defy
comparison with anything we know
today. Laboratory-grown proteins.
Insect flour. CRISPR cultivars. Taste-
changing modifiers. And so much
more.
In both situations we have created
zero foundation or CONTEXT for
consumer understanding. We are
about to surprise and potentially shock
the consumer marketplace with jarring
new information while giving little
thought as to how to properly prepare
the market. Laying a foundation
will prove critical to retain trust and
confidence in preferred brands and
products, and to generate receptivity
to new product innovations so
consumers will both hear and accept
marketing messages.
from third parties. Today, high-spin
education platforms and platitudes
from third-parties barely pass the sniff
test. Consumers have made it very
clear they want the truth and they
want it unvarnished from the food
manufacturers themselves. However,
our organizations and go-to-market
strategies are not designed to manage
this added burden.
The solution isn’t a bolt-on brand PR
campaign or a clever wave of paid ads.
We need to shift our thinking about
this situation from a one-off event
(like NLEA) to a new way to build
market acceptance and demand for
our products that starts from early
stages of inception internally and
continues once on shelf. It requires
rethinking the internal process from
pipeline to marketing as a system
versus a ‘hand-off.’
4. 3 | BUILDING MARKET ACCEPTANCE AND DEMAND FOR FOOD INNOVATIONS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
• New inputs (data)
• New collaborations
and connections
• New competencies and roles
• New structures and cultural shifts
• New way of looking at
enterprise-wide communications
as ‘permission builders’ tasked
with the role of preparing
the consumer to accept
and understand the new
information on shelf.
WHAT IS NEEDED
HOW TO DO THIS?
WHO DOES THIS?
A clear use-case exists within our food industry that provides an excellent
template to build upon. We know R&D embraces the ‘tech transfer’ role to
translate technologies into unique, relevant applications. The tech transfer
process has successfully demonstrated the value of mining the science and
its potential with a customer application or need-state in mind. The resulting
applications are customer-ready, relatable and valued. Those in tech transfer
are a hybrid mix of scientists with customer and consumer insights and a
sales mentality. Their unique translation and skill reimagines and reframes the
opportunities in ways that will sell and delight both customers and consumers.
What is needed is a Consumer Tech Transfer (CTT) role that reports to a Chief
Reputation Officer (CRO), formerly Corporate Affairs & Communications.
This role would be similar to a traditional tech transfer lead, but charged with
identifying new, misunderstood and emerging technologies that will soon enter
the product pipeline, and mapping the education and information groundwork
to prepare the market (both retailer and consumer). Working with a CRO, the
CTT will map the viable stories and curated content that can be plugged into
marketing initiatives based on consumer knowledge and acceptance. In this
new scenario, the CRO and CTT prepare the marketplace, influencers and third
parties long before consumer product marketing begins. They gauge when the
public is ready and map the ‘path to acceptance’ to guide marketing and ensure
greatest success.
