• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 5, 2009

The trends toward providing greater transparency in food and beverage labeling and making a product's origin and background a marketing asset are gaining even greater momentum as a result of peanut product recalls and other recent scares, according to Margaret Kime, director of innovation with brand-building consultancy Fletcher Knight.

"Consumer awareness of and interest in being intimately informed about their food has never been stronger," says Kime. "As the organic, fair trade, local and artisan food movements grow and food contamination scares persist, consumers are demanding more detail around the origins of a product and each of its ingredients. Faceless or 'orphan' ingredients will be viewed with increasing suspicion."

Fletcher Knight's research for various clients points to proof of the provenance of a product and all of its ingredients as being increasingly important signals or brand-markers for quality and value. "Brands can leverage this to establish an 'ownable pedigree' that provides a point of differentiation from their competition," Kime points out.

Approaches to "transparent provenance" include emphasizing purity, wholesomeness, cultural authenticity, trustworthy local or global sourcing, artisan skill and in some cases a family's or individual's intimate involvement in a brand's reputation and quality standards.

"We're seeing products celebrating a detailed geographic source of origin or purity of ingredients in categories ranging from potato chips to salt," Kime notes. "Other products, like beer and yogurt, are emphasizing the specifics of artisan skill that goes into every product."

Naked Juice--whose name encapsulates its brand message of being a line of completely natural, 100%-juice products--is one example of the purity approach, while Michelob's "Crafting a Better Beer" brand theme and campaigns epitomize the artisanal approach, Kime says.

Furthermore, a growing number of major food brands are rolling out labeling that empowers the consumer by providing nutritional detail that goes well beyond regulatory requirements. One visible example is Mars Snackfood U.S.'s late-2008 (pre peanut-scare) move to begin including "what's inside" boxes on its candy brands that show calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium per serving and the percentages they represent in relation to Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA).

Major brands recognize that such transparency is important in "blunting" growing competition from niche brands that benefit from natural, sustainable, artisan origins as these attributes gain increasing resonance with consumers, adds Kime.

She stresses, however, that big brands must be particularly vigilant about making sure that all origin claims can stand up to scrutiny. "The messages must not only feel authentic, but be authentic, or the brand's credibility is at risk," she says.