SAGE Advice: Talking Turkey About Thanksgiving

By: Leo J. Shapiro and Steve Yahn Consumers are approaching Thanksgiving torn about deciding what to serve. According to our Leo J. Shapiro & Associates national poll for October, 48% of all respondents and 46% of regular local newspaper readers feel that what makes food tastier or more delicious is generally bad for their health.

A clear majority of Americans (55 %) feel they eat too much at Thanksgiving time and need to cut back on the number of calories they consume, even though they are dissatisfied with the food they eat. Where do consumers turn for advice on how to eat better to cut back on calories, maintain health, and at the same time enjoy their food? Local newspapers are the second most widely referred to media that we asked about in our poll. Nearly eight in ten [77 %] of respondents read a local newspaper in the past seven days before the poll. Television, at 92%, is the most widely referred to media.

Local newspapers are uniquely qualified to inform consumers of food shopping opportunities because they are more local than television and also provide a hard copy flyer insert that can be poured over, marked up, combed for coupons, compared with other inserts, and carried to the store as a shopping guide.

Just prior to the busiest shopping day of the week, major retailers bring their stores into the homes of consumers in the form of full-color flyers or inserts that display their best offerings. Warren Ivie, CEO of Ivie & Associates, Inc., the major designer and producer of advertising inserts, says that in recent years advertising for Thanksgiving starts earlier and earlier in the month.

Consumers use the inserts in local newspapers for guidance on what food to buy. There is a major opportunity for newspapers performing a service to consumers as well as to tap a fresh source of advertising by creating special editorial and advertorial sections -- keyed to the food inserts -- that bring news about food to consumers.

Information about how and why each perishable item should be used to maximize its contribution to pleasure and health is not available in the insert, but can be provided by editorial or advertorial special sections. The editorial and advertorial sections provide a rich opportunity to sell advertising to producers of foods featured by retailers, as well as to smaller and specialized food retailers whose sales do not justify the expense of sponsoring their own insert.

But the challenge for newspapers, both in editorial coverage and advertorial projects, is highlighted by Leo J. Shapiro & Associates research, which shows that U.S. consumers give newspapers low ratings as a source of credible nutritional advice. Local newspaper readers are remarkably normal, on par with the total sample on every measure.

A little over half of regular local newspaper readers plan to have Thanksgiving dinner at home. Seven in ten regular local newspaper readers say the food they eat at home is tastier than the food they eat away from home, and over eight in ten regular local newspaper readers say the food they eat at home is healthier than the food they eat away from home.

People rate both their Thanksgiving dinner and their regular meals equally in terms of healthiness.

But people tend to rate their Thanksgiving meal as much tastier than their usual meals. Consumers are clearly better at making food tasty than at making food healthy. Local newspapers can help their readers, and bolster their advertisers, by providing readers with information about how to make their meals both healthy and tasty. But the authoritative source must be well chosen. The federal government -? which issues and publicizes nutritional guidelines -- is actually a bad choice for local newspapers to use as an authoritative source.

In October, we conducted two focus groups (one of men and the other of women) about food taste preferences and nutrition at the Leo J. Shapiro Food Research Institute at Kendall College in Chicago. Using affluent young consumers, the study revealed the depth of mistrust in the government as a source of information about food and nutrition. Most respondents in both groups actually laughed out loud when asked about the credibility of the federal government for food advice, or ANYTHING, these days.

The medical establishment ?- which inspires the highest level of trust from consumers as a source of information about the health and nutrition ?- would be the best partner for newspapers to bolster their nutritional credibility. Doctors get the most people giving them the highest ratings for nutritional credibility. Among the 82% of consumers who recognize the name Mayo Clinic, 30% give it the highest rating as a source of nutritional advice, and among the 87% who recognize the name Johns Hopkins Institute, 27% of consumers give them the highest trust rating.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The opportunity for journalists to dip deeply into what is being done by the medical establishment -- to make tasty food healthy, to manage hunger, and to induce satiety -- and then convey what they learn is a profound one. Grocery advertisers will appreciate and benefit from this enhanced and more enlightened coverage -- both through editorial and advertorial vehicles. And, there is no better time to start than now, when turkeys and all the trimmings are making the front pages of grocery store and other food flyers across the country.

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As Christmas approaches, SAGE Advice will track the outlook for holiday-season consumer spending for both Editor & Publisher and at www.sagegrowth.com, which researches and analyzes a variety of business-related consumer-behavior and media trends.