The rise in popularity in recent years of the ketogenic or paleo diet as well as the multiplication of the needs of customers looking to put organic, low-sugar or gluten-free products in their shopping cart prompted Metro, after two years of research, to set up a new green labeling system aimed at highlighting the “attributes” of its products.
Posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:30 a.m.
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“It’s really a methodology that is unique. We are the only channel in Canada currently to present [les produits] in that way, to state the attributes, ”says Martin Turcotte, vice-president of marketing for Metro. However, it is impossible to know the cost of this new project.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Nearly 9000 products have been labeled in order to highlight their “attributes”.
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So, in the canning aisle, for example, you can read “source of iron” under the cans of chickpeas. Further on, under the cranberry and pumpkin seed cracker wrappers, customers can see the green label with the words “Natural” and “Ancient Grains”. Almost 9,000 products have been labeled in this way. Online grocery enthusiasts can also do the same spotting. Green labeling is also visible in advertisements (flyers).
If, according to the grocer, the primary objective of the guide called Better, Better Lives is to make life easier for customers who walk the supermarket by allowing them to quickly find the products they need, the exercise could be overwhelming. for consumers already bombarded by a large number of logos and labels, said Jordan LeBel, professor of food marketing at Concordia University.
How it works ? “All products in the store that have a UPC code [code à barres] were combed through, ”explains Martin Turcotte. Beforehand, a team of specialists from Metro, nutritionist Linda Montpetit and the firm SPINS established a list of 50 attributes. sought after by customers: organic, source of iron, low in FODMAP, sugar-free, GMO-free, vegan… With the SPINS algorithm, each product has been analyzed according to its nutritional table and its ingredients. The system then made it possible to attach a characteristic (attribute) to it. This was affixed to the shelves, in the form of a green label, next to the price.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Martin Turcotte, Vice-President, Marketing of Metro
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There is a great fragmentation of needs that has taken place in recent years. Needs are changing, people are on all kinds of diets, others have conditions.
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Martin Turcotte, Vice-President, Marketing of Metro
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According to the figures listed by his team, nearly 600,000 searches are carried out monthly on the web in Quebec in connection with a diet or a diet.
“It’s not always easy to read labels,” recalls Martin Turcotte. The idea was to simplify the reading so that people could make choices that are related to their needs. ”
Too many logos?
But with the abundance of logos and displays – organic, foods from Quebec, consumers’ first choice – already present on the boxes of tender bars, cereals and other quinoa packaging, is the consumer more likely to risk? ‘lose it and no longer know what information to trust?
Jordan LeBel, specialist in food marketing, is very skeptical of “this tendency to put logos everywhere, certifications, emblems on the right and on the left”.
“People are tired of seeing logos,” he says bluntly. Food logos, there are more than 450 in the world. At one point, you get a little tired. What will the customer experience look like? ”
Mr. LeBel also wonders how the manufacturers will react when they go out of their way to attract the attention of customers to their products.
The moment you make the purchasing environment more complex, there are more stimuli. There are little yellow, green, vegan, organic labels… I, the manufacturer, have two seconds to draw the customer’s attention to my product. I will be forced to compete with more stimulus. What will this mean for me, for my marketing efforts?
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Jordan LeBel, Full Professor of Food Marketing at Concordia University
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Having herself collaborated on the chain’s project, Linda Montpetit, dietitian-nutritionist and consultant for Metro, believes on the contrary that green labels will shed light on consumers who do not always know which products to put in their basket. “The simplicity of it all is that it’s not on the packaging,” she says. It is something that we see quickly. It is a tracking system that is much faster without having to analyze each of the labels. It will speed up the food choice. ”
“Sometimes we will have food that is vegetarian, but there is milk powder in it,” she cites as an example. If you’re vegan, you might not be interested in it. It is something that is [normalement] very difficult to spot in store just by looking at the different shelves. With very visible attributes, I don’t need to worry about it. ”
Not necessarily healthy
Moreover, in addition to giving, for example, the attribute “gluten-free” to a packet of rice vermicelli and “GMO-free” to a small pot of humus, this new way of labeling is also found attached to products. like beer which is associated with the qualifier “Bio” in the case of Molson Coors Organic and on Red Bull energy drinks labeled with the term “sugar free”. However, these articles are not recognized as being health.
“It’s really to guide people through their concerns,” says the nutritionist. For example, if I absolutely want to eat organic and I taste like a beer, maybe I’ll be interested to know that it exists, an organic beer, because I’ll drink it anyway. , some beer. ”
“Basically, it’s not a program that aims to tell people: ‘if you follow all these labels, you are going to eat healthy,’” explains Mme Montpetit.
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