The terms “healthy” and “safe” are not the same thing: Food, including bread, is a necessary energy source for mankind. It helps to maintain vital functions and balance energy consumption during physical activity, and it is essential to growth. It also meets pleasure related and cultural demands: the pleasure found in food and in the atmosphere linked to its consumption.

The notions of safe food and healthy food are often considered to be synonymous. Safe is non-negotiable. It is hard to detect for consumers who rely on third party information to endorse the product (being unable to analyze or check how it was produced). Safety cannot always be detected immediately (some accumulating factors only have an effect on health after several years). However, healthy (i.e.“good for my health”) may be an individual or collective feeling, based on an approach which is relatively medium to long term (this notion is very different depending on countries, social groups).

Bread — marketable food

The first step to marketing a product is to reassure: a product doesn’t sell if there is any doubt about its safety. Actions aiming to reassure consumers can target consumers directly or target referrals (cooks, nutritionists, doctors) whose impact is usually stronger, and easier to access since there are fewer of them than there are consumers.

The second step is to acquire consumer attention and divert them from other products (either not perfectly similar or manufactured by a competitor). Packaging design plays an important role (retro focussing on the traditional aspect, amusing and in small portions to appeal to children and snack eaters). Endorsements are all the more effective in the development of ethical (clean label, organic food, the local food movement, Kosher, Halal) and Ethnic sensitivities (Asian products for example); a logo symbolizing a community is reassuring and creates a sense of involvement — the customer identifies with the community.

The third step is to create customer loyalty, to encourage sustained or even increased consumption, and to prevent them from drifting over to other products or other manufacturers. Even though geographical proximity has always been a great advantage for local bakers, today’s consumer mobility, coupled with changes in the places where products are consumed (e.g., workplace, public transport), makes it compulsory to set more adapted locations and distribution modes (bread outlets, automated dispensers, staggering baking schedules for extra fresh bread at any time).

Bread and health — a bankable topic

It is a tempting argument, because it provides an easy answer to consumers’ major concern about the nutrition of bread. Health is a topic that appeals to consumers, so product ranges are often broadened and the product offering is differentiated to create perceived added value to products promoting added health benefits (people will be willing to spend extra to ensure their well-being).

However, it is also a risky topic, because care must always be taken when dealing with consumer fears. If you explain that “x-rich” bread with “low y” is better, you can easily create suspicion about bread in general, consequently making consumers less likely to buy bread that may not promote added health benefits (some people might think that, if bread can be enriched, it must mean that it is not naturally good or complete).

Campaigns for marketing bread are not that frequent; the supply structure (bakers) is fragmented with many small to medium sized suppliers. The value of he products limits possible promotion costs. Availability of the product and proximity of the sales outlets are also important factors in the marketing of bread.