We all know how habit-driven we all are as consumers and how difficult it is to change our behavior. Well, in recent months I have seen my behavior change and I wanted to share the experience with you.
I used to be a Starbucks fanatic and a visit there every morning became one of my daily rituals…and daily addictions!!! But for the past year, I have been visiting less and less. The reason? The new calorie labeling laws in New York State that require fast food restaurants to display calorie counts on each of the products that they sell. All my favorite breakfast items contained close to 400 calories, which quite honestly freaked me out. A similar picture exists at McDonald’s (my airport breakfast ritual) where most of the breakfast items are 400+ calories.
So I was delighted to read earlier this week that the recently approved health care legislation extends calorie labeling nationwide into over 200,000 eating establishments as well as vending machines. I am quite sure that this initiative will infuriate some privacy advocates (everything does) but I applaud the move on the basis that starting to solve America’s weight problem will need a number of small but meaningful nudges rather than one nation-changing event. And I see calorie labeling as a really good nudge.
My Starbucks experience also highlighted the fact that I didn’t know exactly what my daily calorie count should be – I could tell you the range but not the specific number. So a phone call and an appointment later, I leave my doctors office deeply disturbed. Given my age, height and weight, my recommended calorie count was 1500 per day. Now there’s a behavior changing statistic. And hence my goodbyes to muffins, lattes…and a lot of other things as well. As an aside, I was also shocked that of the 25 people that I randomly talked to in our office, only one knew their daily calorie count. Hardly scientific but interesting.
This whole incident though got me thinking. As a nation, we are in danger of literally exploding and we have to find ways to get us all slimmed down. And while proposed action of any type seems to create an irrational reaction – calorie input would seem like a really easy and logical place to start. And if I had anything to do with it, I could envision a national calorie count program with a three-step rollout:
*Â Â Â step one would involve extending the current NY and CA calorie labeling nationwide. Yay! Step one is now in progress.
*   step two would be to make available on-line and in doctor’s offices, health clubs, supermarkets etc the way to calculate one’s daily calorie input.
*  step three would be to attack packaged goods and move the calorie count for all relevant snack items to the front of the pack and away from the so-called “nutritional facts” panel
It’s also amazing what a little information will do to open peoples’ eyes. I have to believe that the more visible and widespread the communication on calorie count, the more that consumers will notice it and the more that some, like me, will be motivated to act. Some of those who do take notice will permanently change their behavior and those who do not, like smokers, will over time begin to feel a little ostracized and increasingly uncomfortable.
In personal issues like weight, it is always difficult to find the right balance between being effective in the marketplace and at the same time respecting individual freedom. Providing clear bold information at point of purchase for all food and drink establishments nationwide seems to me to be really effective progress. At the same time, those companies most impacted will be inspired to innovate and introduce more healthy solutions to meet the new emerging demand. You can only imagine that the R&D departments in the major confectionery companies such as Mars, Nestlé, Kraft and Hershey are all upping their budgets in a bid to find the new tasty, low calorie candy bar.
And outside of the restaurant business, as a brand owner, I would be taking a very proactive approach to this calorie count opportunity – Coca-Cola is a good example of a company who is doing just that, along with firms like Nestlé in Europe, both of whom are putting the calorie count in LARGE type on the front of their packs. But like any problem/solution issue, raising the profile of calories will definitely produce conflict and managing the trade-offs is the challenge that we all face in the battle to change consumer behavior generally and specifically the expanding waistline of the average American.
Simon Williams
Tweet this | Tags: Calories, Coca-Cola, health, Nestle, packaging
