Unless we are talking about fine dining, most consumers are driven by convenience, influenced today by price, captured by taste and kept loyal by customer experience and to some extent, creative promotions and third party endorsements.
I do believe that most consumers have been unswayed by fear of weight gain and obesity ... because obesity doesn't really kill unless you're piano case obese. Remember the story of the guy who was so big he needed to be buried in a piano case. He died at the age of 32, weighing 1,071 pounds. He wasn't actually buried in a piano case, but instead a coffin the size of a piano case.
As Americans we are too distracted by the here and now and so if it's not going to kill us tomorrow, it's not as high on my priority list. How do I know that to be true? When the report came out that peanuts were bad and people had died, we watched the immediate drop in sales of peanut-related products. Same happens when word spreads of mad cow disease or some meat-related death. All of a sudden consumers take their health and consumption seriously.
I do feel there is an underground movement taking shape, gaining in volume around what is actually healthy. In the early 20th century, were consumers really counting calories or fat. Do we think the percentage of natural products in the marketplace was higher then than say the late 20th century. Better believe it.
I am increasingly concerned these days that regardless of whether a message is stealth or visible, it's not necessarily the right message. I think that's another blog entry for another day.
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