FROM THE PUBLISHER
Our Moment of Truth
SPECIALTY FOOD
ASSOCIATION MEMBERS:
Discuss this topic in the Solution
Center on specialtyfood.com
T
rust is an essential driver of today's consumer decisions. In his Super Session presentation at
the 2018 Winter Fancy Food Show, Dave Donnan of A.T. Kearney shared that 55 percent
of Americans have very little or no confidence in big business or big brands. That research ref lects
a 19 percent drop in just five years.
Chris Crocker
Senior Vice President, Content & Marketing
ccrocker@specialtyfood.com
Confidence in big brands was driven by the idea that
they got big by being good. They got bigger by being big:
They had the power to build perceptions through advertis-
ing ... around being good for you, around being cool, around
teaching the world to sing. They dominated our awareness,
they choked out challenger brands in media, on the super-
market shelves, and in regulatory efforts.
As consumers of a certain generation, we bought what
we were programmed to buy: Reliability, consistency, con-
formity, popularity.
Our kids, not so much. Unfettered access to informa-
tion has eroded trust in authority. "Because I said so" is a
parental statement that today falls on deaf ears.
Enter the specialty food trade, an industry of upstarts,
counter-culturalists, and artisans who have been swimming
upstream for decades. We finally have our opening. New
paths to market have emerged. To try something new is not
dangerous. To be different is to be normal. Buying small is
good. Heck, even the big brand owners are pretending to
be small.
Today, the provenance of what people eat affects what
they buy ... and how they feel about what they eat. And that
For a free download of Dave Donnan's Whitepaper,
go to specialtyfood.com/donnan (requires email)
is creating opportunity for the specialty food industry—
if we listen to the demand of the consumer.
We are at risk when we address opportunity with
opportunism. Tissue-thin or wholly invented origin sto-
ries, marginal health claims, and thready cause market-
ing promises are inevitable in this business environment.
But the market will reward a pattern of transparency, not
deception. Trust is no longer implicit, it is earned.
SPRING 2018 5
Tissue-thin or wholly invented
origin stories, marginal health
claims, and thready cause
marketing promises are
inevitable in this business
environment. But the market
will reward a pattern of
transparency, not deception.
