Navigating Health Claim Regulation in Food and Drinks: Making substantiated claims in a changing regulatory environment

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

• Consumer attitudes
• Claims & corporate strategy
• Marketing strategy
• Product claims strategy

Chapter 1 - The impact of new legislation

• Summary
• Introduction
  • The new legislation will have a dramatic effect on the marketing landscape

• Overview of regulation # 1924/2006
• Introduction
  • The creation of stronger, clearer regulation
  • A “gold standard” approach is proving controversial
• Definitions and scope of the regulation
  • Definition of “food”
  • Definition of nutritional and health claims
  • Medicinal claims are beyond the scope of this regulation
• Articles 13, 13.5 and 14 - the heart of the regulation
  • Article 13
  • Article 13.5
  • Article 14
• Problems with the implementation of the regulation
  • Communication breakdown? Dossier insufficiencies and related problems
  • Interpretation of Article 13 and the “Gold Standard” approach
  • A need within a defined population must also be shown for a health claim
  • The costs of dossier compilation are harming innovation budgets
  • Direct challenges to EFSA' s opinions are risky and ignore the wider context
• Challenges the food and drinks industry must meet
• The future impact of the regulation

• Conclusions
  • The rationalization, and not the death, of nutrition and health claims
  • A narrow focus on the regulation will miss a vital piece of the marketing puzzle

Chapter 2 - Consumer attitudes

• Summary
• Introduction
  • A need to address the latest consumer trends affecting the market
  • Addressing consumer issues can lead to major rewards
  • A note on the following sections

• A major trust issue needs addressing
• Mistrust is the number 1 inhibitor of continued growth
  • The majority of consumers still need convincing before they will buy products
  • An independent expert approving claims is crucial
• Functional foods are favored over other food technologies
  • Clear benefits and low risk make functional foods more acceptable to consumers
  • The media and governments play a fundamental role in shaping consumers' views
• Regulation and corporate practices need to build trust
  • A lack of consumer control creates a clear need for regulation

• Consumer understanding needs to be improved
• Areas of misunderstanding
  • Claims should be concise and clear to avoid confusion

• Deep-seated food attitudes affect the marketing landscape
  • Introduction
• The process of food attitude formation
  • Steps to determining attitudes and behaviors in a category
• “Natural” products must also fit in with these attitudes
  • As a result, some ingredients are seen as more natural than others
• The carrier food for any ingredient is crucial
  • A logical connection between the carrier and ingredient is required
  • Staples, and products already seen as “healthy”, make the best carriers

• Risk-Benefit assessments
  • The prominence of “risk” in consumers' minds
• What are the risks on which consumers need assurances?
  • Education about regulation can help provide reassurances

• Differences by consumer groups
• Attitude towards the product is the key
• Demographic factors to augment attitudinal segmentation

• Attitude-Behavior discrepancies
  • Research needs taking into context - consumer research can be misleading

• Price and taste remain more important than claims
  • Claims are important, but the “golden rules” cannot be ignored

• Conclusions
  • A tough recipe for success

Chapter 3 - Claims & corporate strategy

• Summary
• A need to update current strategies
• Health-orientated businesses should re-examine strategies
  • Companies which simply wait upon EFSA' s decisions will fall behind
  • It' s not just a case of “carrying on as usual” once a claim has been approved
• Areas that should be strategically reassessed
  • Decisions to challenge EFSA will harm companies and industry in the long run
  • Research & development needs to focus on clinical excellence and “marketability”
  • Product pipelines and portfolios should be reassessed

• Next steps in corporate strategy
• Avoid distractions associated with the new regulation
• Adopting a pharmaceutical-style model for health brands
• Developing a corporate health brand
  • Case study: Danone, developing a corporate health brand
• New approaches in portfolio management
  • All health brands in the market need to offer highly credible health claims
• Research and development pipelines should be segmented by risk
• Where possible, make use of “stalking horses” when launching new ingredients

• Conclusions

Chapter 4 - Marketing strategy

• Summary
• Introduction
  • The advantage will go to those who are quick to update their marketing

• A framework for marketing strategy
• Strategies can, and should, be based on consumer insight
• A tool for assessing products' consumer appeal
  • Assessments of product appear should be based upon consumer insights
  • Market analysis can also be layered on top of consumer appeal assessments

• Marketing strategy and tactics
• Make claims clear, specific and benefit-focused
  • The temptation to continually add claims should be avoided
  • Wellness positionings should also be avoided for specific products
• Market benefits first and provide the science as back up
  • Naming specific ingredients is a powerful tool in marketing communications
• Safety of products is a tricky issue
  • Marketing should reassure consumers about safety

• Improving communications
• Commercializing science and educating consumers are key
• A flexible blueprint for global marketing is crucial
• Companies must take the lead in responsible communications

• The Natural Perspective
• Natural positioning should be used where possible
  • Determining just what is “natural” is not an easy task
  • Natural positionings must meet consumers' expectations as well as regulation
  • New “natural” sweeteners highlight the power of a natural positioning
  • Marketers will need to decide how overt to make any natural positioning

• Conclusions

Chapter 5 - Product claims strategy

• Summary
• Introduction
• Scope of the chapter
  • Analyzing the last year of new launches provides insight into latest strategies
  • Scope of the data

• Claims analysis
• Claims by type and by industry
  • An average of 2.6 claims is made by a product making any claim
  • Beverages focus on “positive” nutrition, but food focuses on avoiding the “bads”
  • Innovation is greater in North America and is more focused on positive nutrition
  • Why should positive nutrition be more popular in the US?
• Most popular claims by industry
  • “High”, “low” and “no” positioning still dominate
• The natural angle
  • Natural positionings are of fundamental importance
  • American products heavily focus on natural benefits
• Most popular functional claims by industry
  • Most functional claims are not specific
  • Functional claims are much more prevalent among North American launches
• Leading countries for new claims
• Leading manufacturers for new claims
  • Private Labels are providing competition to brands

• Conclusions

Chapter 6 - Appendix

• Bibliography
• Index

List of Figures

• Figure 2.1: The top-down process of food attitude formation: a hypothetical example from the yogurt category
• Figure 3.2: An initial framework for segmenting product development portfolios by risk
• Figure 4.3: Framework for assessing product strengths and weaknesses
• Figure 4.4: Fewer, clearer claims make a product more, not less, compelling
• Figure 4.5: Pistachi Oats: The Heart Healthy Cookie. A credible product proposition for European consumers?
• Figure 4.6: Actimel uses a consistent set of key messages to clearly and succinctly explain product benefits

List of Tables

• Table 2.1: Percentage of European and US consumers who find health and nutritional claims on food and drinks “trustworthy”, 2008
• Table 5.2: % share of different claims being used, by type, in North America and Western Europe, in new product launches between April 2008 and April 2009
• Table 5.3: % share of different claims being used, by type, in North America and Western Europe, in new product launches between April 2008 and April 2009
• Table 5.4: Most popular claims made by new product launches that feature health or nutrition claims (% of products with any claim), by industry, in North America and Western Europe, April 2008 to April 2009
• Table 5.5: Ranking of the most popular claims, overall and by industry, for new product launches, in North America and Western Europe, April 2008 to April 2009
• Table 5.6: Most popular claims made by new product launches that feature health or nutrition claims (% of products with any claim), by industry, in North America and Western Europe, April 2008 to April 2009
• Table 5.7: Percentage of new product launches that feature health or nutrition claims which make a specific functional claim (% of products with any claim), in North America and Western Europe, April 2008 to April 2009
• Table 5.8: Percentage of new product launches that feature health or nutrition claims which make a specific functional claim (% of products with any claim), by region, April 2008 to April 2009
• Table 5.9: Leading North American and Western European countries by the number of new product launches featuring health and nutrition claims launched between April 2008 April 2009
• Table 5.10: Leading manufacturers in North America and Western Europe, based on new product launches that feature health and nutrition claims, April 2008 to April 2009