According to a recent CNN Money article, “Americans don’t trust the food industry’s nutrition claims, but that doesn’t stop them from paying up to eat a little healthier.”
The article sites a recent poll conducted by Nielsen, an information and measurement company. Nielsen polled 30,000 people online in 60 countries, and discovered that in North America, 56% of respondents don’t trust health claims.
This lack of trust is a function of the Food Industry being comprised mostly of big fat liars.
Despite their understandable lack of trust, Americans’ demand for “natural” and “organic” products continues to skyrocket…as more and more people realize that eating the OPPOSITE of organic is a f#%ked up way to eat!
Now more than ever, consumers are craving the opportunity to buy from trustworthy companies – i.e., those who can take off the corporate mask and be REAL with them.
Anything you can do to be more trustworthy will only help you in the long run.
To me, trustworthiness is about 3 things:
- The company that “tells it like it is” can be trusted. Those who tap dance their way around an issue, or people-please their way into making a point, are highly suspect.
- The company that shows its HUMAN side can be trusted. To be human means to have emotions, to have reactions, to have personality quirks. Those who are overly robotic, overly polite, overly corporate, hiding something, or holding back – are not to be trusted.
- The company that delivers what it promises can be trusted. At the end of the day, this is what matters most. Promise less and deliver more.
The average American seeking to eat healthier is saying to themselves, “I don’t trust half the shit these people are saying, but I’m at least gonna make an effort to do my best.”
That’s why they will LATCH ON to a trustworthy company, once they find it.
Be that company and reap the rewards.
Michelle Lopez is a writer, editor, and copywriter with a BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder.