PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – A food industry expert says canola people are doing an abysmal job of promoting their product.
“You have to be more aggressive,” Bob Messenger told delegates attending the 37th annual Canola Council of Canada meeting.
“You have to learn how to talk to the consumer.”
Messenger, who publishes an on-line food industry newsletter called the Morning Cup, lambasted the council for its lacklustre website and scolded delegates for not spreading the canola gospel by extolling the product’s numerous health-related benefits.
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“Get on the Oprah show. Talk to Doctor Phil,” said the American analyst who has been commenting on the food industry for more than two decades.
Industry promoters should be contacting North American food editors and creating consumer-friendly web-sites showcasing helpful recipes because that’s what the competition is doing.
“The soybean people are out everywhere,” he warned.
Another speaker at the conference agreed with that assessment.
“In the United States, canola oil has been a well hidden secret,” said Theresa Nicklas, professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
“It is underutilized and the potential health benefits have not been adequately communicated or marketed to the American public.”
Messenger said there couldn’t be a better time to be pitching the canola message. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 60 percent of Americans are overweight. The Heart and Stroke Foundation says the problem is worse in Canada, where 66 percent of people are battling the bulge.
It has become a North American epidemic that is spurring an “irreversible trend” toward products offering wellness benefits to consumers.
One only has to look at the low carbohydrate diet explosion to realize the sales potential of this trend, said Messenger. Subway is making an Atkins wrap, H.J. Heinz is selling low-carb ketchup and Anheuser-Busch’s low-carb beer has experienced the most successful launch since the company introduced Bud Light.
The “hysteria” over trans fats is especially good news for the canola industry, which should be aggressively promoting its new high stability oils containing no trans fats.
“You people are perfectly positioned to help the food industry meet this need,” he said.
More than 40 percent of all the products on grocery store shelves contain trans fats, with the main offenders being cookies, frozen breakfast foods, salty snacks, cake mixes and cereals.
Food manufacturers and restaurants are looking for ways to reduce the level of trans fats in those products and canola provides them with the perfect solution.
Messenger challenged the council to provide more leadership in developing new products, step up its interaction with food media and develop a better internet presence because the existing canola council site is “boring, boring, boring.”
