Purity Of Food And Truth In Advertising

The Park Slope Food Co-op is an often-crowded place with a weird floor plan that makes for difficult maneuvering, even when it’s empty. And yet, it’s my favorite place to shop. It’s my favorite place to spend money in New York. And never have I walked away feeling like I’d spent too much, or been treated unfairly, which is more than I can say for just about any other entity that I have ever done business with.

I took this photo today while shopping at the co-op. From a business/marketing perspective, it’s fascinating what’s going on here. The co-op has:

• made a decision to stock a certain product.
• put the product in a display case with the label showing the product’s value proposition prominently displayed.
• decided that they are going to disagree with the label, and warn customers that the value proposition is a lie and that the label is misleading.
• decided that they’re going to continue to carry the product anyway.

Have you ever seen something like this happen in a for-profit business? They’re much less likely to embrace the conflicting messages. It’s hard enough to get someone to spend money. Telling customers at the point of decision that they might want to reconsider is a tactic that’s going to seem counter-intuitive to most business. That’s especially true of small businesses, the proprietors of which tend to eschew irony and nuance in the way they present products and services to customers. (Exceptions: when the business is really marketing itself as a bastion of counterculture, such as an indie coffee shop, bookstore, music store, or video store.)

The deeper message being sent here, from co-op to customer, is this: We’re more interested in helping you make the right decision than we are in taking your money. Read the rest of this entry »