Functional Food Product the Product

¶ … Functional Food Product

The product under consideration -- a potato chip style and shaped hard candy -- must be one that people both want and need, and the marketing of that product must be appropriate to elicit the proper response from the consumers who are going to buy it (Bass, 1993). An item that has poor marketing will sell poorly, regardless of its quality, and companies that are considering making a move into marketing a new and novel food product must thoroughly address the target market. Anyone in the food industry is certainly aware of the importance of marketing a product to a consumer.

A company cannot make the assumption that it creates a quality product and therefore the target market individuals will insist they have that product (Jain, 1990). The presentation of the item to the target market is equally as important as the item's quality, and is an area that most companies fail to concentrate on thoroughly enough to perform well in a new market. The food industry has to be prepared to deal with objections that might be raised when they put out a new product. Of course, there are test markets used in an effort to find out whether the packaging and other issues are appealing, but there are still no guarantees (Jones, 1991; Kotler, Armstrong, & Cunningham, 2002). However, a new product is much more than marketing.

Even if the right group is marketed to and the marketing campaign is a good one, there are still other issues to consider -- most of which have to do with the product packaging and nutrition claims, the labeling of the product, and the evidence that is used to support the claims that are used on the label (Cateora & Graham, 2002). Any new and novel food product has to be very careful about the nutritional claims it makes, and that is especially true of a candy. Candies of any kind are not generally assumed to be healthful, so if a company is making a health claim for a candy, the company needs to have very solid and verifiable data that backs up those claims. When products are new, there may not be studies to back up what they offer. If there are not studies already completed on the product, it is much better to leave health claims off the packaging (Labelling and Packaging, 2010).

Unsubstantiated claims are taken very seriously, and companies can get into a lot of trouble for claiming their product can do something that it really cannot do -- such as lower a person's weight or cholesterol levels, or improve their health in some other way (Labelling and Packaging, 2010). Nutritional claims and labeling are very valuable things for the consumer when deciding if he or she wants to eat the product, and the food industry knows that truth in advertising and package labeling is something that has to be addressed. If the label does not tell the consumer all the facts, it is possible the consumer could be ingesting something he or she really does not want (UK list of health claims, 2010). That is a vital issue with candy, because some people have adverse reactions to things such as sugar and caffeine -- or to artificial sweeteners that may be used to present the candy as something low-sugar and more healthful overall.