Maybe it’s just me, but I find it\u00a0interesting to surf around some of the trade publications and articles examining industry trends.\u00a0 These provide\u00a0me with new perspectives\u00a0about how and why certain products are marketed.\u00a0 It’s a\u00a0peek behind the curtain, so to speak.\u00a0 I’m a “science” person, after all…and – in its purest form – science is about creating new knowledge and understanding.\u00a0 So it’s fascinating for me\u00a0to see how the subject I’ve dedicated so much of my adult life to is used – and abused – to generate $$$.<\/p>\n
The “Superfruit” craze is a case in point.\u00a0 Paul and I have written about this before, but mostly from the consumer side of things – evaluating the claims for existing products.\u00a0\u00a0But the superfruit market is like the proverbial hydra…deal with one product, and\u00a0a new one\u00a0pops up to take its place.<\/p>\n
Despite the claims, however, it’s not nutritional science that’s driving this phenomenon…instead, it’s straight out of Business Econ 101.<\/p>\n
Superfruit success not grown on trees, say authors 14-May-2008 – Superfruits are created by progressive product strategy and have little to do with the far-flung location in which they might be grown or even their nutritional payload, according to a new book.<\/font><\/p>\n “People think superfruits are found just growing in an exotic forest somewhere. That’s just not true – you can create a superfruit,”<\/em> says one of the authors, Karl Crawford, who is business leader for health food at New Zealand-based food researcher HortResearch.<\/font><\/p>\n The book, called “Successful Superfruit Strategy – How to build a superfruit business” <\/em>is co-authored with food industry analyst and consultant, Julian Mellentin, and points to the superfruits category as one with near unlimited potential.<\/font><\/p>\n Yet only a few fruits have crossed over from whole fruit commodities to genuine ‘superfruit’ status, despite overall growth of 40-100 per cent at a time when fresh fruit sales such as apples and pears are stagnant or falling in many countries.<\/font><\/p>\n Goji, mangosteen and acai are some of the more high-profile superfruits that have established a strong presence in western markets. Usually in the form of fruit juices, they can command price premiums 20 or times that of staple juices such as orange, apple and pineapple.<\/font><\/p>\n The book highlights keys to succeeding in the superfruits market that include fruit quality, science, marketing, IP protection and understanding the broader consumer environment.<\/font><\/p>\n The book itself<\/a> will be released this month.\u00a0 Now, I have no intention of buying it (I’m interested, but not THAT interested).\u00a0 Rather, it’s the breathtakingly open cynicism that impresses me: it’s ultimately about how\u00a0information –\u00a0including scientific information –\u00a0is presented in order to “command price premiums” that are\u00a0grossly inflated\u00a0relative to everyday, ho-hum staple products.<\/p>\n In other words, perceived value trumps actual value (in terms of nutrition\/health benefits\u00a0and production costs), when it comes to the price you pay.\u00a0 And marketers\u00a0pull out all the stops to\u00a0make sure your perceptions\u00a0benefit their bottom line.\u00a0 Science isn’t just being used as a tool to discover which\u00a0fruits are worthwhile;\u00a0it’s\u00a0also being used as a post hoc justification for\u00a0jacking up\u00a0product prices.<\/p>\n In this case, superfruits are just an example: there’s a whole spectrum of supplements and functional food products out there offering various health benefits.\u00a0 Some of them may even be worthwhile.\u00a0 But the existence of books such as the one above underscores the point Paul made earlier, about how “natural” food\/supplement marketers are driven by the same motives as “Big Pharma” and other “bad guys.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s all about the money, honey.\u00a0 Thus, a little skepticism is in order when it comes to evaluating claims, as it’s clear that marketers have a vested interest in seeing you jump on the latest bandwagon.\u00a0 Remember that when the next “Superfruit” hits the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maybe it’s just me, but I find it\u00a0interesting to surf around some of the trade publications and articles examining industry trends.\u00a0 These provide\u00a0me with new perspectives\u00a0about how and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,15],"tags":[1854,726,808,967,1567,1569,1573],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7974,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/7974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>By Shane Starling<\/font><\/p>\n