To Be or Not To Be… Certified

By Lindsey Pfeiffer

TO BE OR NOT TO BE…

CERTIFIED, THAT IS

Rising above in a crowd of seemingly never-ending food and beverage innovations requires more than just a delicious product. Brands need to couple standout flavors with strong selling points and value propositions that can’t come from taste alone. And with shoppers’ barely fleeting glances, it’s critical that products visually and recognizably spell out their benefits. That’s where certifications come in.

You may already be familiar with the main players – USDA

Certified Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, Kosher, the list goes on. But just how beneficial are these industry-recognized claims for your product and brand? And which ones do consumers actually care about?

To better understand the importance of certifications in delivering a standout product, we sat down with members of our community to shed light on the process and payout of becoming certified — from both the brand and consumer perspectives.

BREAKDOWN OF CERTIFICATIONS

In the better-for-you product space, callouts like “organic,” “non-GMO,” and the like are highly useful in consumer’s understanding of your product’s benefits and ultimately, can lead to purchase. But not all major certifications are created equal.

For some brands, going through the lengthy and costly process of becoming USDA Certified Organic is crucial to their success, while for others, it may not be the most important qualification consumers consider when shopping. If the majority of your target audience places higher value on other health-related certifications such as Non-GMO Project Verified, or you find that they’re more interested in other key qualifiers of your product altogether, such as price or overall taste, pursuing certain certifications may not be worth your while. Ultimately, it all comes down to the wants and needs of your brand and the people it serves.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

Luckily for companies figuring out which certifications to target and what the process will look like, they aren’t the guinea pigs. Plenty of CPG brands have gone through the process of becoming certified — a process that can be time-, capital-, and labor-intensive. Take Soom Foods, maker of premium tahini spreads. For Soom, becoming USDA Certified Organic back in 2016 was as much about honoring their passion for sourcing high-quality ingredients as it was about delivering products their customers could feel good about. While the process of becoming USDA Certified Organic has earned the reputation of being difficult and resource-intensive, it can be easier for some brands, depending on the complexity of their supply chains and ingredient sourcing. “Soom was very lucky with this process because most of our supply chain was already certified prior to us contracting with our manufacturing partner,” said Dana Mensah, Soom’s Director of Marketing. “From the sesame field to the manufacturer itself, the certifications were in place so all we needed to do was ensure our labels were compliant.”

For a brand like Soom, whose Premium Tahini features only one ingredient — sesame seeds — obtaining that organic certification wasn’t too much of a lift. Still, even for companies whose products feature a longer ingredient deck, Mensah noted that if it’s something your consumers care about, it’s probably worth the effort. But that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone: working with certification experts can be an invaluable effort and can help make sure you get it right the first time. For many food and beverage startups, this means working with a co-manufacturer to help obtain that certification rather than owning the entire process in house. This can be particularly useful for becoming USDA Certified Organic, which can require a size-able investment of capital, time, and other key resources for companies that don’t have that infrastructure already in place; it can take roughly anywhere from 6 months to a year to establish internal systems to support and maintain an organic certification.

Ultimately, it comes down to your consumers’ core values, your ability to make that investment, and what path you choose to take in becoming certified – whether it’s on your own or with the support of a co-man. Having had that green USDA Certified Organic seal on their jars for six years, Mensah affirms that the investment has been well worth if for Soom. “Our organic customers are very loyal to purchasing and supporting Soom Organic Tahini. It’s been very important to ensure we have a high quality organic option available as our customers tend to be natural grocery shoppers.”

While some certifications like USDA Certified Organic are widely established and have clear, defined parameters and labeling, there are others that are more difficult to measure, yet are still highly important to many consumers. For smallscale, regional companies like Vermont Tortilla Company, using locally-sourced ingredients is a major component of their brand identity and how they connect to their customers. We spoke with April Moulaert, Co-Founder of Vermont Tortilla Company, about it’s mission and passion for crafting organic, locally-produced foods. “We were so inspired by the local foods movement – and sustainable farming – that we wanted to [create] a healthy and delicious food product that could be made using local produce,” said Moulaert. After extensive research, they settled on organic corn tortillas made the traditional way – using 100% freshly

stone ground corn.

That said, finding certain ingredients, like certified Organic corn, can be challenging for food manufacturers. When looking for growers that aligned with their mission and goals, finding the right match wasn’t easy. “When you look around Vermont, field (aka dent) corn – which is the kind you use to make tortillas – seems to be everywhere. However, almost none of it is certified organic. We reached out to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture as well as Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), our certification body, and at first nothing panned out here in Vermont,” explained Moulaert. So the company expanded its search. “We even visited a farm in Quebec and purchased a few tons of certified organic corn from them but [ultimately] the corn did not work for us.” Luckily, April and her husband Azur (the company’s other Co-Founder) finally found something close to home. “We were so fortunate to find our growers, located just 8 miles from our factory across Lake Champlain in Essex, NY. They had never sold their corn for human consumption before, but sold it mainly as organic animal feed. “We pay them above market prices, as we place great value on the work they do, being good stewards of the land and keeping our manufacturing process local.”

As the company sets its sights on nationwide distribution in Sprouts stores, one challenge will be keeping locality front and center for its new – and existing – customer base. For them, this means utilizing their packaging to help share their passion for locally-sourced ingredients. “We reference our commitment to local on our packaging, which launched in June of this year!” On their packaging, they call out their connection to local, organic farmers, and break down the process of nixtamalization – a method of processing corn that increases its nutritional value by unlocking amino acids – that they use within the production of their tortillas. The duo worked with a designer to create fun infographics and simple, consumer-friendly language to better communicate these values to their customers. This new language includes references to the company’s role in the Northeastern food shed and prioritization of community agriculture in Vermont. While they just recently launched this updated packaging, they note that reception has so far been positive, both from shoppers and retail partners.

TARGETING CONSUMERS

Before rolling up your sleeves and going after a list of certifications to add to your products, it’s crucial to take stock of which ones your core consumers actually care about. Because while some certifications are easier to check off than others, they all require a significant investment of both time and capital, so it’s important to step back and evaluate your customers’ needs first. While final decisions rely heavily on the specifics of your own brand, there exist general trends around what consumers are really looking for when shopping. We sat down with Jessica Malach of Social Nature, a product discovery and trial platform in the natural

products space, to uncover what some of those trends are and how brands can use that knowledge to drive trial and awareness.

WHEN YOU’RE DECIDING WHICH CALLOUTS TO KEEP ON YOUR PACKAGING, CONSIDER WHICH ONES MOST DIRECTLY IMPACT THE DAY-TODAY LIVES OF YOUR CORE CUSTOMERS.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

l BIG NAME CERTIFICATIONS

ARE WORTH THE INVESTMENT.

For the majority of mainstream consumers, certifications like USDA

Organic and Non-GMO Project

Verified have lasted the test of time.

Among Social Nature’s collective of over 1 million shoppers, 78% identify organic as a highly important attribute when making a purchasing decision.

Similarly, they’ve found that 45% of those shoppers recognize non-GMO as a key callout. “Most of our population has been socialized to recognize and trust government regulation and verification around what we eat,” says

Malach. So while these certifications require more upfront work, they bring with them a greater sense of trust and awareness among shoppers — as well as expanded retail opportunities. l CONSUMERS ARE READING (NOT JUST SKIMMING) LABELS.

Now more than ever, consumers want to know exactly what goes into the foods they buy. “Especially during the pandemic, people have become even more health conscious and are paying more attention to what is in their food,” noted Malach. Having clearly identifiable certifications and product attribute callouts on your label is an easy way to quickly disseminate the information that matters most to consumers. l NOT ALL CERTIFICATIONS

ARE CREATED EQUAL. When it comes down to it, your product’s label can only hold so much information.

It’s important to prioritize the key product attributes that are most likely to grab (and hold) your customers’ attention. “From a hierarchy of needs perspective, most consumers focus on their health, environment and then extend the circle out to impact,”

Malach pointed out. When making purchasing decisions, consumers tend to prioritize their own functional, personal needs first, eventually making their way to broader social impact (Harvard Business Review). So when you’re deciding which callouts to keep on your packaging, consider which ones most directly impact the day-today lives of your core customers. l DRIVE AWARENESS BEYOND

THE LABEL. That said, telling your company’s story doesn’t end with your packaging. It’s important to continue the conversation with consumers around your brand’s mission and values, said Malach. “Brands that have a strong digital presence, that have invested in an online content strategy with storytelling and transparency as part of their efforts, are able to connect with people beyond the shelf.” One way to make that connection? QR codes. “Having QR codes on your packaging helps to build relationships with consumers. It could be asking for a review or promoting a contest or giveaway, something to start telling those deeper stories.”