Nowadays it’s easy to find ‘100% organic,’ ‘locally grown,’ and ‘GMO-free’ foods on the shelves of every grocery store—and why not? We all want to be healthier. But for food manufacturers their interest in our health is not as transparent—especially when the healthy food market is a whopping $600 billion industry. Now that sustainability has been forecast as the biggest food trend for 2017, and given that half of consumers make purchases based on sustainability alone, the health food market is only set to grow. But what’s really healthy? Is an organic banana better than a locally grown one? Are free-range eggs healthier than pastured ones? Luckily there’s HowGood, an independent research organization that created an in-store rating system to identify industry leaders in healthy food. HowGood awards the best products, empowering consumers to make fast and better informed purchasing decisions. In 2007, HowGood was launched by brothers Alexander and Arthur Gillett and today they with Randi to discuss the healthy food market and its trends.
“We rated 200,000 food products on their environmental impact.”
“We tell the truth about your food. From packaging to eating.”
“When you look at 2 eggs you compare the difference between cage free and free roaming.”
“Labels are impactful so people create something similar to that.”
“If you want transparency, scan the food with the HowGood app.”
“I moved back to London and didn’t know what the good products were. If I had this much trouble others must have been struggling. The idea was born.”
“We both tried to do everything. We were ignoring the jobs no one wanted to do. So we gave each other ownership of different areas.”
“There’s a trust we have with each other.”
“Palm oil creates the biggest emotional debate. Deforestation and biodiversity.”
“Palm oil is in everything. It’s in all sorts of health oriented breakfast bars. Anything that would’ve had butter or lard.”
“Canola oil is liquid at room temp. Palm oil is the go to.”
“Palm oil grows in areas that haven’t had enormous amounts of agriculture.”
“Good is best 25%, great is 15%, best is 5% of all products we rate.”
“The impact of water usage in upstate NY is different than central CA.”
“Different states legally allow different rates of pesticide usage.”
“The goal is our created matrix where upper quadrant foods are rewarded.”
“The food system is so complex so the rating system is complex.”
“Grocery stores want their experts to look at our standards and research team and that’s normally when they come onboard.”
“If you can move toward fresher whole food that’s a big step. For fish and meat, organic, grass fed are better than not.”
“Avoid ingredients you can’t pronounce besides yogurt.”
“What you’re grandma would recognize as food is a good place to start.”
“America has better labor standards than other places. Though we still have a way to go.”
“There’s no perfect store. Whole Foods got sued and lost the case for falsely renaming sugar.”
“We have a team that helps train people shop with a nutritionist.”
“We asked ‘if we created sustainability ratings would you put them on your shelves. ‘The grocery store owner was like ‘Sure!’”
“We built a widget on Firefox over 7 years ago that gave scores for companies but it was hard to see an impact.”
“The best rated products see an increase of 31%.”
“You’re voting with your dollar. That’s the mission of the company.”
“We only did dairy on the first trial. The results were amazing.”
“If we’re not in stores, ask for us!”
The most buzzed about experience at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show came from the ‘thinnest, most powerful messaging system’ out there: The greeting card. American Greetings won CES over with their #DeviceLikeNoOther campaign, which reminded us that connecting with others is best done offline. To discuss the importance of analog appreciation was American Greetings Executive Director of Marketing Alex Ho.
“We decided to come to CES to make a product announcement. Ours wasn’t a 2 year-old product. Ours was a 2000 year old product: Paper.”
“We set up a experiential space. We had a stylus for our device, which was of course a pencil.”
“I admit I was nervous. We had a tactic, it was a parody. We had to do a build up without saying why were there. People were instant converts.”
“Whether you’re a hardcore tech head or not, we’re all just human beings and need to communicate.”
“People asked us if greeting cards were dying. What we saw over the past 10 years is our business is steady.”
“People use digital communication for speed and ease but they’re overwhelmed.”
“Millennials are actually our biggest demographic in greeting cards buyers.”
“Millennials are more connected with others so greeting cards are a part of that.”
“Our message at CES was that the right occasion calls for the right technology. There’s a time for a text and a time for a greeting card.”
“Authenticity and the real world calls for greeting cards.”
“Nick Offerman was there for the actual reveal of the greeting card. His comedic delivery was right for that initial phase.”
“Nick Offerman was able to share his own story of greeting cards in his own life.”
“All the visitors to our space had a story about a card that they kept.”
“It’s amazing to hear how greeting cards are an emotional milestone and conduit to stories.”
“I’ve been at American Greetings for 5 years. Before that I was Progressive auto insurance when they launched their online financial service.”
“American Greetings became the category leader in our industry. We sell more greeting cards than any other of our competitors.”
“Our company purpose is to make the world a more thoughtful and caring world.”
“Gratitude is like a greeting card. Both the sender and receiver benefit.”
“95% of Americans believe we are ruder now more than ever. 87% want to do something about it. That’s how the #ThankList was born.”
“I have so much fun here. I am so inspired by creative people and we have such a creative staff that does everything in house.”
“Every American Greetings card you find in a Target store is specifically done for Target.”
“Just Wink was a greeting card launch just for Millennials. It had curse words and everything.”
“We’re always looking at ways to become more mobile.”
“Anything that creates a more meaningful connection are interesting places for us.”
Join ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ next week when she sits down with Indiegogo founder Danae Ringlemann. Only on SiriusXM Business Channel 111 at 12m ET.
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