The greatest thing since sliced bread!

I never did understand the big hoo-ha about sliced bread. I mean sure, I understand that by having it pre-sliced one saves considerable time and energy; a huge BONUS for any working parent. I can understand the uses and need for pre-sliced bread in our current society. I cannot however, really understand how it became such a huge success as quickly as it did in the 20s when it was first introduced. At this time, I find it hard to believe that housewives were particularly interested in convenience items. I may be wrong, I don’t really know anyone who was a housewife in that time period, so I’ve never asked. But this does make me think about the part that marketing has to play in the peddling of foods in the marketplace. It’s such a huge influence; it clearly succeeded in making people believe that they should shell out money to purchase bread that was sliced when they could purchase a loaf for much cheaper and slice it at home for free.

I think an understanding of marketing is essential for anyone in the nutrition field even if we’re not dealing with food marketing directly. I’m taking marketing courses to fulfill my marketing minor, and so I pick up a few tid bits of information here and there. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that for marketers, it’s not about marketing a product that people need, rather it’s the other way around: creating a need for a product so that consumers will feel that it’s vital and imperative that they purchase it. And, in this society, marketers seem to be succeeding quite well. I always love to use the example of Listerine and other similar mouth wash products. Marketers, when pushing this product banked on the knowledge that the general public seem to put their trust in anything that claims to be a cure or remedy for a disease or medical condition. For this reason, they invented ‘halitosis’; sure, it sounds like a real condition. In reality, it’s just a fancy name for bad breath. Saying ‘Listerine cures Halitosis’ is much more impressive than ‘Listerine cures bad breath’.

I think health professionals need to be aware of the effect that marketers have on influencing society’s tastes, trends, needs and wants. Currently, society is very health conscious; I think a large part of this has to do with marketing. I understand the relationship is 2-way also; marketers will follow trends in the marketplace and use them to their benefit. But, the point I’m trying to make here is that it’s all good and well when marketers are following the ideals that health care professionals have. But, this was not always the case; vitamin water and antioxidants are all the rage now, what happens when marketers decide that fried chicken is the new Nutragrain bar? This is a little far fetched, but in case you haven’t already noticed, I’m sometimes prone to exaggeration when I’m trying to prove a point. Marketers and health professionals can have a very fruitful relationship if they work together towards the same goal. I strongly believe that there can be harmony between making a profit and giving the public what they need. We, as dietitians, need marketers to convince consumers that what they ‘need’ is in fact more nutritious and healthy foods that will in the end benefit them in the long term. I think with some work, a happy co-existence is not impossible.

If you’re interested in some history on sliced bread, see:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/qt/slicedbread.htm