"FOOD 2020: THE FUTURE OF FOOD, NUTRITION & WELLNESS

	Contact Us
	Print Page / Issue
	E-mail Issue
	View Past Issues Getting Your Message to Your Audience 2008 Issue 4 How the Public Perceives Corporations and CEOs 2008 Issue 3 The Women's Issue 2008 Issue 2 Media Myths & Realities 2007 2008 Issue 1 Next Stages 2007 Issue 4 Word of Mouth 2007 Issue 3 Engaging Employees 2007 Issue 2 Assessing the Top Crises of 2006 2007 Issue 1 Media Myths & Realities 2006 2006 Issue 7 2006: A Watershed Election 2006 Issue 6 China and Public Relations 2006 Issue 5 The Talent Issue 2006 Issue 4 Preparing For A Pandemic 2006 Issue 3 To Blog Or Not To Blog 2006 Issue 2 Looking Ahead in Media Communications 2006 Issue 1 Building Brand Believers Through Communication 2005 Issue 1 Unlocking Corporate Communications 2004 Issue 2 Lessons Learned... 2004 Issue 1 The Changing Face of Marketing 2003 Issue 2 The First 100 Days of 2003 2003 Issue 1 Focusing on Innovation 2002 Issue 2 Inaugural Issue 2002 Issue 1

Viewpoints

	United States: Remember Enjoyment by Ilene Smith		Germany: Consumers Want Price, Taste—and Knowledge by Petra Völkl
	United Kingdom: Results in Sync with Search for Wholesome Foods by Daisy Pack		China: Melamine Crisis Hastened Consumers’ 2020 Demands by Hannah Carter
..
..

Argentina: The Power of Love By Gustavo Averbuj CEO, Ketchum Argentina View Bio

One of our assumptions at the beginning of the study was that “food is power.” For Argentineans, it’s the “power of love.”

We are the country that shares more meals with our families. We spend more time eating. As shown in the Food 2020 findings, Argentineans relate food to enjoyment. But sharing a meal with your family also allows you to feed values, attitudes and healthy habits.

We also are willing to pay a bit more to help the needy. Our strong Spanish and Italian heritage and the many crises we have been through led us to believe in the strong power of food—a power we rarely exercise at a global level. Back in the early days of Juan Perón’s government (right after World War II), Argentina was dubbed the granary of the world. We are a leading exporter of maize, wheat, soy, meat and much more. Yet most Argentineans think that much of their food comes from abroad (maybe because of global branding). 

Argentina has so much food and, yet, a lot of hunger, with half the population living below the poverty line. At the same time, Argentineans seem to love calorie counting. We are experts in label reading (according to ourselves) and have one of the highest consumptions of diet or light foods in the world.
 
From calorie or nutrient details, there are a lot of insights in the Food 2020 study that may soon become trends. For instance, we may soon see branded names for Argentinean beef cuts or dulce de leches (a local delicacy).

Lots of the findings will have immediate practical applications for food companies. Case in point: Restaurants may add not only nutrients and calories to their menus, but also additional information on the origin of the salad or the fish. Confectionary companies may try to develop a simpler method to communicate their calorie and nutrient content. Food companies may be better communicators of their CSR projects.

There will certainly be interesting times as companies adjust their marketing and communications practices to consumer preferences over the next few years.