Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

No bits please, I’m a kid

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

No matter where in the world we have worked with kids on various food and beverage projects, inevitably we are tasked to learn from young people about texture. Product developers and marketers, in their desire to add excitement to products and to differentiate, often try to play around with the texture. Inevitably this generates ideas that add texture – often in the form of ‘bits’ or particulates – to the product.

Though intellectually this seems a good idea, it rarely works. Why? Because no matter how hard we’ve tried, the vast majority of kids just don’t like bits (particulates) in their food. I have seen kids stare in horror at food products that look as if they MIGHT have bits (though amusing to see, it does not make product developers or marketers very happy at all!).

There MAY be one exception to this – but it involves providing a mechanism that allows the child to control the ‘bits’ and put them into the product him/herself. Examples of this are the yoghurt products that have a separate cup or tray with pieces that the child then blends into the product – but even in these products I have seen many children eat the yoghurt and the particulates separately.

This is a physiological phenomenon – young babies have been observed spitting out particulates in food. This is believed to be an innate behavior driven by safety – some think to protect against choking; others think it is because in our distant history, seeds and particulates may have been poisonous. But whatever the reason, the observed behavior remains the same: kids prefer smooth textures, with no potential of bits or even the perception of bits.

Recurring truths are incredibly interesting. And though I always want to give every product and every idea a fair chance, I suspect that it will be unlikely that kids will learn to love bits in the food – at least in my lifetime.

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If this is wellness, I’ll stay sick

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

We are frequently commissioned to invite consumer groups to participate in conferences. For this particular conference in the US we arranged for a small group of Prime Timers (our name for consumers aged 55+) to present their thoughts to delegates from the food and beverage industry on a range of products.

We spent the day prior to the conference, working with the group of ‘Prime Timers’. One of the sponsor’s of the event, Mintel’s Global New Products Database, kindly arranged for the shipment of a wide range of products from around the world. As one of the research activities, the Prime Timer group was tasked to evaluate the products, and determine the good and bad things about the products.

Each participant was asked to comment on the suitability of the product based on their own desire to purchase it if available in the US market. They would present their thoughts to the conference, as well as outlining suggestions for improvement of each product. This is an excellent activity, and one we use in many of our research projects to explore a category with consumers. Our aim is to push the boundaries of unfamiliar products – to determine the ‘must have’ attributes, and also the ‘watch outs’. And for the conference, the attendees learned a great deal from the Prime Timers’ presentation and subsequent Q&A period.

One woman was particularly colourful in presenting her thoughts. She had very strong opinions, and helpfully, very strong suggestions for how to build and improve some of the products for the US market.

There was one product though that did not do so well. It was ‘Wellness Water’ from Nestlé, and a product that was specifically targeted to women, apparently over the age of 50 years. On the day prior to the conference, I recall seeing this woman looking at the packaging, and showing a great deal of interest in the idea. She rather enthusiastically opened the bottle and poured some into a glass. The look on her face told it all: she clearly did not like the product at all.

When she presented her reviews of a number of the products, she pulled no punches. She praised many, criticized a few, and then she referred to the image of Wellness Water on the projector behind her. She didn’t say much about the product, but got her point across effectively:

“If this is wellness, I’ll stay sick!” she growled in deeply New Jersey accented tones.

A lesson that many companies offering nutritional and nutraceutical products to aging consumers (and to everyone else) should learn, if not, at their peril. (Interestingly, when I have subsequently tried to find out more about the Wellness Water product, I can’t find any information – I can only assume it is no longer on the market.)

I guess our Prime Time presenter challenged the old adage: “if you have your health, you have everything”. Perhaps, in the context of nutritional food, it needs to be “if it tastes good, you have everything”.

Just doesn’t have the same ring to it…

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Learning from learners how to teach

Monday, August 24th, 2009

In the late nineties we worked on a ground-breaking study which lasted just over six months.

The key was to understand young people’s comprehension and perception of nutrition. To our knowledge, no such study had ever been done before.

We had designed a framework in which the participating kids were tasked to create nutrition education programmes for other students their age and younger. We wanted to follow their progress as they researched the topic of food and nutrition. As they found aspects of interest they developed a nutritional education programme and then ultimately tested it on other kids.

Interestingly, three months after the research project was completed, we went back and tested the knowledge and behavior of those participating students. We also tested similarly aged students that had not participated in the project. The students that were part of the project had 3 times the accurate nutritional information, and had changed their eating behaviours in some ways. Most importantly, they were more aware of their choices, and no longer saw food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and could more easily balance their diets with accurate knowledge.

In this approach we learned so much about their perceptions and mis-conceptions, and then we worked with them to learn about nutritional topics, so that they could include proper information in their own education programmes.

The learnings were shared with the sponsoring food and beverage companies, with the view that they would be able to implement new strategies as they developed more nutritional foods for kids. But more importantly, we learned that the process of involving kids to put together programmes to teach other kids complex ideas was an excellent teaching tool.

Those groups of young people accomplished an amazing feat – and as a result of their efforts, we met with representatives from the UK government, the US National Institutes of Health and other agencies to suggest a plan to better teach young people about this abstract, difficult topic. We were told that we influenced the re-design of the Food Pyramid.

A few years later we were invited to present a paper at an international academic conference on nutrition and physical activity. We have even been asked to teach doctors learning to be pediatricians about kids and their perceptions (and misperceptions) of nutrition.

As I reflect back on that project in the light of today’s desire to move towards more healthful eating, I see that those learnings are still sound and relevant. Our hope, in the end, is that this model becomes the way in which kids are taught this subject. Even though this was 10 years ago, I still have my fingers crossed – but even if nothing further happens I am exceedingly proud of the work the kids did and how much we learned from learners how best to teach.

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Best meal ever

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

We were working with young people in tribal communities in southern Africa. The experience was quite memorable in that we had worked with the same group of young people for a project that had spanned several days.

From the beginning, the group was quite remarkable. We were working in a school, and though to our standards the school was in pretty shabby shape, the students seemed to thrive. They were committed. Many travelled over two hours to get to school – part by foot, part by taxi – and they showed a real dedication to participate in all that school had to offer. Many of the windows were broken, and there was little in the way of supplies, books or other things that we are so accustomed to seeing in school situations.

The young participants in our project were young teens, and they were working to help us develop and test new ideas for food products. They spent some time evaluating the existing market, developed new ideas, and tested their ideas among the other students at the school. The ideas would then be further tested quantitatively by our client, but the initial test instigated by the students served as a good screening to help narrow down ideas and find areas in which to build.

Our final day had arrived, and the students wanted to do something to thank us for choosing them to work with and for spending the whole week with them. They had slaughtered some chickens from their families’ holdings, and spread the blood of the chickens over the grave of their ancestors. The latter was a rite reserved to show honour and was usually used for special occasions like weddings and unique heroic acts.

As the group told us what they had done for us, and then cooked the chicken for us over an open fire, the feelings we felt went far beyond a typical research project. The vibrancy of the young people, and the potential that they represented, was powerful, moving and memorable. And though we had learned a great deal for our client on this project, I personally learned much more.

When we shared the feast they had provided, I was humbled. These teens had so little, and yet they were giving us a gift – a gift worth far more than the cost of the food; a treat worth more than eating delicacies in a fine restaurant. Yes, it was just fire roasted chicken – but it was truly my best meal, ever.

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Kids talk old, but eat young

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Everyone is obsessed that kids are getting older, younger.

In some ways that may be true, but in reality, kids are following similar patterns as previous generations – the difference is that modern life has more stimulus, and their reaction to this stimulus makes them more savvy.  And since kids aspire to be older than they are, they are always looking forward to see what things and privileges older kids get – they feel that if they get those things, then they are indeed older.  The principle of aspiration hasn’t really changed, the world has.

Whilst we need to talk to kids (via communication in all its forms) as if they are 1 to 3 years older than they are – what kid wants to be talked down to and treated as if they are younger, “like a baby”? – there are time when kids still want to be younger.

I remember working with a group of 14 and 15 year olds, we were discussing growing up, and how sometimes they felt patronized.  “We aren’t kids anymore!”, they proclaimed.  They taught me that they really want to be treated more like adults, and less like kids.

They talked about things that they did when they were kids, things that they still do.  An interesting pattern emerged, they all agreed that they would go back to playing with specific toys when they wanted to “feel like a kid again.”  This occurred predominantly in times of stress or frustration, when they wanted to slow down, take a step back, and feel nurtured.  In these times they would take out their old Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels – and play.

Food was another important connection to their childhood.  They like to eat ‘kid’s food’ – perhaps not when they are with their friends, but when they are alone or within the safety of their family environment.

I can relate to that.  Though I haven’t recently pulled out my Hot Wheels, I still enjoy foods that I have had since I was very young.  It makes me wonder – how much of kids’ food is actually eaten by kids??

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