INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE SERIES

SUMMER 2010

The impact of science and systems on the way we grow, consume,

market, fortify, manage, purchase and interact with what we eat.
PAGE 4 PAGE 10 PAGE 22 PAGE 25
When it Comes to Intelligent 10 iPhone Apps What’s Keeping
Food, Why Must Dialogue for Foodies You Up at Night?
“Tech” Be a Four- Q&A
Letter Word?

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2 | PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0
 Introduction
FOOD 3.0
How is technology changing our relationship with food? How
do science and systems impact the way we grow it, consume it,
market it, fortify it, manage it, purchase it and interact with it?

The short answer: The changes are significant – and the impact
is growing.

The complete story is far more complex.

What’s a marketer to do? And what are the major

communications challenges and opportunities as Food 3.0
continues to evolve?

Porter Novelli leaders and experts weigh in on Food 3.0 in this issue
of Intelligent Dialogue.

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 3

 MARY CHRIST-ERWIN
Partner
Porter Novelli Public Services, Washington, DC
Contact Mary at Mary.Christ-Erwin@porternovelli.com or 202.973.3601

WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD

WHY MUST
“TECH”
Be a Four-Letter Word?
ACCORDING TO THE LATE COMEDIAN SAM KINISON, “ THERE WOULDN ’T
BE WORLD HUNGER IF PEOPLE WOULD LIVE WHERE THE FOOD IS!”

The outrageous stand-up was no futurist, but
he had a point, and years later, cutting-edge
technology speaks to it: While hunger persists
around the globe, innovations have begun to
dramatically improve people’s ability to grow
and access food. Technological innovations are
also enhancing food safety, boosting nutrition
and maximizing yield.
Sound like progress? I certainly think so.
So, why – for so many – is “tech” a four-letter
word when it comes to our food supply? Some
critics focus on agriculture or manufacturing,
others are skeptical of innovation related
to functionality and fortification, or
nanotechnology. Some fret over projections of
what genomics may bring, while others worry
about environmental impact or even increased
variety and abundance.
Food techno-resisters have a real voice in the
food-supply conversation, yet their counterparts
in other sectors are considered behind the
times. When was the last time you heard a
manufacturing boss cry foul at tools that assist
his business in completing a job better, faster
and more efficiently?

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“FUNDAMENTALLY, TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES US.
WE DEPEND ON IT. WE CRAVE IT.
IT HELPS US LIVE WELL.”
Why is there such reluctance to combine the
need for food with the power of technology?
I believe in large part it’s a communications
failure, based upon the few framing the
dialogue for the many.
Fundamentally, technology enhances us. We
depend on it. We crave it. It helps us live well.
Perhaps some products are ahead of their
time – early attempts to include more
healthful items on fast-food menus are good
examples. And sometimes products exported
from one region or country to another don’t
translate culturally. For example, probiotic-
enhanced yogurt took significant time and
communications effort to gain traction among
both health professionals and consumers in the
U.S., while Europeans – who have consumed
probiotic foods for years – looked on in
amazement.
At the most basic level, nutrition research
demonstrates that most people suffer from
nutrient inadequacies – calcium, fiber,
magnesium, potassium. In response, food
scientists have found ways to include whole
grains in cereals, to add cholesterol-lowering
stanols and plant sterols into orange juice or
baked goods – such as Minute Maid® Premium
Heart WiseTM or VitaTops muffin tops with
CoroWiseTM plant sterols – and to creatively
deliver calcium, a challenging mineral to
work with.
PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 5
 So why all the uproar? The widespread
movement for organic, sustainable and local
food has begun to associate itself with the
desire for “non-engineered.” But the truth is,
nearly every food is processed on some level,
first and foremost for safety.
With the multitude of choices available, most
consumers can now choose how processed
they want their food to be – from minimally
processed whole fruits and vegetables to
packaged versions intended to deliver servings
in novel ways. Talk to parents of picky eaters
about the important role of Wonder® Bread,
Apple & Eve® FruitablesTM, Dannon®
Dan-o-Nino® or spaghetti sauce enhanced
with vegetables in getting nutrients into
children without an argument. When the
priority is ensuring children consume
nutrients, sometimes the technology sneer
falls off the radar.
The reality is that food performs for us at
multiple levels, offering both nutrition and
desirability. Consumers are savvier than ever,
and they demand a lot. So what is a food
manufacturer or marketer to do? Innovate, but
don’t talk tech?
Manufacturers have numerous
communications tools at their fingertips,
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but not all of them are working to their best
advantage. They’re hindered by legal and
regulatory limitations and the call by public
health advocates to limit the manufacturer’s
marketing voice.
A tool with significant promise – and very real
challenges – is the opportunity manufacturers
have to speak about new nutrition research,
as well as technological innovation that offers
enhanced nutritional value. The dialogue over
what food labels should include is contentious,
and the regulations are a moving target. Yet,
globally, functional foods sales are projected to
reach $109 billion this year, according to Global
Industry Analysts.
The head of Porter Novelli’s global regulatory
work, Peter Pitts, who previously worked for
the Food and Drug Administration, offers
food for thought: “The debate over functional
foods has, to date, focused on the functionality
given a product by Mother Nature. Today, a
functional food is a product that has been given
additional nutrition potency through science.
What hasn’t changed is the regulatory definition
of a functional food, and what types of health
claims can be communicated to consumers.
That’s not good for consumers and not good
for business. This lack of clarity has had the
perverse effect of holding back responsible
“WHEN THE PRIORITY IS ON ENSURING
CHILDREN CONSUME NUTRIENTS,
SOMETIMES THE TECHNOLOGY SNEER
FALLS OFF THE RADAR.”

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 7

 “GLOBALLY, FUNCTIONAL FOODS SALES ARE
PROJECTED TO REACH $109 BILLION THIS YEAR,
ACCORDING TO GLOBAL INDUSTRY ANALYSTS.”

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players while emboldening fringe elements.
If we want to truly drive better health through
better nutrition, the government must become
both clearer and more dynamic in its efforts
to clarify nutritional health claims over a wide
variety of foods.”
The battle over food claims in the European
Union is, if possible, even more contentious.
Keith Taylor of Porter Novelli London
encapsulates the challenge: “The mismanaged
EU health-claims process has exacerbated
consumers’ uncertainty when it comes to
food. Manufacturers and retailers face quite
a challenge in marketing health and nutrition
benefits in ways that consumers do not feel
are being shoved down their throats.”
FOOD TECHNOLOGY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DELIVER MUCH
MORE. Take a look at the topics included in the July 2010 meeting of the
Institute for Food Technologists:
• Designing macronutrient ingredients
for enhanced satiety
• Nutrigenomics, nutritional phenotype
and delivery of personalized nutrition
• Processing impact and bioavailability
issues of botanicals
So what’s needed to cut through the rhetoric
and offer consumers what they want – clear,
delicious, safe choices that meet their
individual needs?
The right conversations. The right balance.
Places of agreement – among stakeholders,
among consumers, among us all. A
celebration of our varied needs and wants and
the technologies that deliver against them.
We need to bring to a halt the all-or-nothing
discussion on food science and technology
and identify ways to make all manner of
agriculture, production and manufacturing
work in concert. Let’s build the toolbox, not
break it.
• Novel processes and food safety
for military and space feeding
• Translating overseas health
and wellness trends for American
consumers
PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 9
 Intelligent Dialogue

10 | PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0

WHAT ARE THE GREATEST CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES FOR MANUFACTURERS IN
COMMUNIC ATING THE BENEFITS OF NUTRITION–
ENHANCING FOOD TECHNOLOGIES (E.G.,
FORTIFIC ATION, FUNCTIONAL INGREDIENTS,
INNOVATIVE FOOD FORMATS, SENSORY APPROACHES)?

BILL KOLBERG
Managing Director
Porter Novelli Los Angeles
Contact Bill at Bill.Kolberg@porternovelli.com or 323.762.2480

The biggest challenge is simply that Our challenge is to simplify consumers’

consumers don’t ‘eat’ nutrition;
they eat food ­– flavors and textures.
Therefore, communication about fat
from calories, dietary fiber, nutritional
values, etc., doesn’t resonate very
strongly with the typical consumer.
We work with a local registered dietitian
on behalf of a foodservice provider.
understanding of the nutritional quality
of the food they eat. We feel the real
opportunity is not to lecture people about
the dos and don’ts of what they consume,
because it’s never that black or white.
What we’ve found is that behavior changes
can and should be subtle and simple, like
adding or subtracting an ingredient from a
recipe versus discarding it altogether.

SHEILA WEISS
Account Supervisor
Porter Novelli Public Services, Washington, DC
Contact Sheila at Sheila.Weiss@porternovelli.com or 202.973.2943

In a word – taste. The food has to

taste good, or consumers won’t buy
it. Obvious, I know, but true. From a
stakeholder perspective, the greatest
challenge is balancing the messages
to ensure that they are persuasive and
informational, yet within the regulatory
framework.

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 11

 BRAD McCORMICK
Executive Vice President, Global Digital Director
Porter Novelli Austin
Contact Brad at Brad.McCormick@porternovelli.com or 512.241.2240

One of the biggest challenges for food
manufacturers is providing a variety
of products that meet the needs of
the increasingly diverse palate of the
American eater, while also turning
a profit. Increasingly, the economies
of scale don’t apply. So many big
manufacturers’ business models were
built on a one-size-fits-all premise.
Because technology is empowering
consumers, they have greater freedom
to demand what they want, leading to
market fragmentation.
What this means is that small, niche
food manufacturers suddenly have more
relevance in the food industry. And big
food manufacturers are taking notice.
That’s why Kellogg’s purchased a smaller
niche food company like Kashi, and why
Perdue would launch a small niche brand
like Harvestland.

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“BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY IS EMPOWERING
CONSUMERS, THEY HAVE GREATER
FREEDOM TO DEMAND WHAT THEY WANT.”

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 13

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HOW ARE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
CHANGING CONSUMERS’ RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD­ –
AND IMPACTING THEIR PURCHASES?

KEITH TAYLOR
Director
Porter Novelli London
Contact Keith at Keith.Taylor@porternovelli.com or +44.1295.224588

Mobile technology is tapping into Users have all the information they could
the desire for convenience, driving possibly want or need, right in their
more informed choices and enabling pockets. Most also have a network of
more spontaneity. Here in the U.K., people offering or asking for suggestions.
online delivery service Ocado lets Purchases may be less planned, but
iPhone users order and pay for they’re better informed than they were
grocery delivery. Shopping lists can even a year ago.
be built gradually, and items can
be bookmarked as favorites. Other The business implication? Manufacturers
grocery-related apps let shoppers and retailers must ensure that they
compare prices, so they can make become part of the conversation – and
more informed purchasing decisions. part of the purchasing decision. If you have
a major food brand and you don’t have a
People are using their phones to community manager, hire one now.
look up recipes as they grocery shop.
Perhaps one of the most interesting
apps is StickyBits. Users can annotate
information (notes, video, photographs)
to a bar code. It shouldn’t be long
before a user scans a label on a
tub of ice cream and receives the
manufacturer’s recommendation for
optimal toppings. The opportunities for
consumer-to-consumer and retailer-
or manufacturer-to-consumer
dialogue are boundless.

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 15

 ISRAEL MIRSKY
Executive Vice President, Emerging Media and Technology
Porter Novelli New York
Contact Israel at Israel.Mirsky@porternovelli.com or 212.601.8314
Recent research indicates that
consumers globally are becoming
more concerned with calories than
with organic or healthy eating choices.
As consumers share information
with one another about what matters
to them when it comes to staying
healthy and eating right, the best-
substantiated wisdom – count your
calories – seems to be bubbling to the
top. Put simply, the Internet is helping
consumers get smarter about what
they eat.
Mobile applications like Calorie
Counter and Food Tracker/DailyBurn
help people track the calories they
Google Search Trends on Food
16 | PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0
ingest and burn more easily than ever
before. The apps are consultative (Should
I have the chicken salad or the salmon
with risotto?). Food diaries have been
found to be one of the most effective
vehicles for developing and maintaining
healthy eating habits – a food diary that’s
easy to use and carry is likely to have a
strong impact on your eating habits.
Apps that help identify responsibly
sourced foods are proliferating – witness
Seafood Watch, which helps identify
whether the sushi on the plate is
ocean-friendly or not, aiming to inform
consumers at a glance whether they’re
contributing to overfishing.
PORTER NOVELLI:
PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD
FOOD 3.0
3.0 | 17
 JOEL JOHNSON
Executive Vice President, Integrated Planning Director
Porter Novelli New York
Contact Joel at Joel.Johnson@porternovelli.com or 212.601.8322
Social commerce or socially enabled
e-commerce is now mobile enabled. In
Germany, Barcoo links products with
customer reviews right at the shelf
through a mobile app for smartphones.
The data possibilities are virtually endless:
from user reviews and ratings to price
comparisons or even allergy information.
But, it’s impossible to look at the impact
of mobile technologies on our purchase
decisions without first understanding and
acknowledging that consumer demand for
information about food, food technologies
and even the environmental or cultural
impact of “eating” are driving a broader
conversation. As A.G. Lafley of Procter &
Gamble has stated, “consumer is boss.”
The implication is that consumers are
defining the relationship they want to have
with producers, retailers and marketers
of food – the purchase funnel is the
battleground, and mobile technology is
likely to be the bridge between the product,
consumer and brand.
Mobile technologies are transforming the
purchase funnel. Though it was never really
linear (anyone or anything could interrupt a
purchase decision, enabling consumers to
skip whole steps), smartphones empower
18 | PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0
consumers to make more informed
decisions as they move from say, trial to
loyalty. For example, tasting a fine wine in
your wine shop doesn’t have to be the last
step before trial – in fact, it could be the
first step in establishing a relationship with
the brand through conversation. In addition
to enabling a mobile information search,
smartphones might help a consumer
to “like” the wine on Facebook, tweet
the tasting or bookmark the wine to a
“favorites” list.
In other words, mobile allows consumers to
capture the experience in a social network,
start a dialogue with the producer or note
it for consumption later. On the brand
side, the producers can leverage a single
experience into a broader shared one with
fans, followers and even critics in online
conversations (providing, of course, they have
the earned media assets to do this –
a community, a community manager and
branded social network activity). The brand
can now keep the consumer engaged in a
conversation about its product, whether that
consumer has purchased the product or not.
A third player in this conversation is the
expert out there who might influence a
consumer’s relationship with the wine on
 “THE BRAND CAN NOW KEEP THE
CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A CONVERSATION
ABOUT ITS PRODUCTS.”

different fronts – quality, price and taste, real-time connection of products to social
come to mind, but it could easily be affinity networks for approval, not just information
too. Perhaps the motivational trigger for (which may be better gleaned from advertising
one consumer is recommendations by other or the wine shop owner).
wine lovers who prefer biodynamic wines or
wines that come from vintners with best-in-
class labor practices. In that case, mobile
technologies benefit consumers by providing

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 19

 “MARKETERS [WILL] STRUGGLE WITH
INCREASED SCRUTINY FROM
CONSUMERS DEMANDING
MORE TRANSPARENCY.”

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HERE’S WHAT WE’RE GOING TO SEE IN THE NEXT YEAR
OR TWO IN MOBILE THAT WILL IMPACT THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN CONSUMERS AND THE FOOD THEY EAT:

• More mobile apps will connect • Retailers will move to act as

consumers at the shelf with their
social network and affinity groups.
• More producers will enable their food
products to be scanned and uploaded
via mobile, images, QR, bar codes
and augmented reality readers.
• The growth of mobile food trucks that
• More brands will try to influence
consumers at the shelf through
location-based services like Gowalla
and FourSquare.
• In the U.S., we’ll see more FCC, FTC
and FDA involvement in claims from
user reviews, comparison data and
other “recommendations.”
middlemen, with their own mobile
technologies helping to influence the
consumer at the shelf — which sets
the stage for a potential marketing
conflict of interest between individual
brands and producers.
rely on social media technologies to
alert followers. Trucks are increasing
in popularity due to the economic
downturn, Millennials’ impact on
lifestyles and an increasing public
interest in food culture.

• PR crises will sprout up around

food, as marketers struggle with
increased scrutiny from consumers
demanding more transparency
(either through mobile social
networks or mobile commerce).

PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0 | 21

 10 iPhone Apps
for
FOODIES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 BIGOVEN 7 URBANSPOON
170,000 recipes, with color photos of Turns the iPhone into a slot machine to
the finished products help find a place to eat. There’s a reel
for the neighborhood, one for cuisine
2 LOCALEATS type and one for price
The best 100 restaurants in each of
the 50 largest U.S. cities 8 YELP
Uses the phone’s GPS capability to
3 POCKET COCKTAILS deliver information and candid user
Photos of hundreds of pretty cocktails reviews for nearby restaurants, bars and
with step-by-step recipes other businesses

4 FAST FOOD CALORIE COUNTER 9 VEGOUT

Nutritional info for 6,000 menu items Uses the iPhone’s GPS to find nearby
from the 55 top fast food restaurants vegetarian restaurants

5 COOKIT 10
Alerts users when it’s time to start
cooking specific parts of the meal
(when to boil the pasta, roast the
potatoes or take bread out of the oven)
BARISTA
Guides users through the process of
creating a latte, cappuccino, americano,
mocha, and other delightful espresso
beverages

6 TIPULATOR
Computes a tip based on a check
total, and splits it among the people
in the party

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24 | PORTER NOVELLI: FOOD 3.0
 What’s Keeping
You
UP AT NIGHT?

At Porter Novelli, we thrive on communications challenges. Give

us a call, and let us take a crack at the challenges keeping you
up at night. We’ll assemble a team of experts for an Intelligent
Dialogue discussion focused on you.

Contact Porter Novelli CEO Gary Stockman with your challenge:

Gary.Stockman@porternovelli.com or 212.601.8114.

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