Extra credit activity: FILP forum (Oct 17th)

I participated in FILP forum at Embassy Suites in Tigard. The forum started with discussions about health issues, such as trans-fat, whether its use should be banned by government or not. One student said it should be a choice for consumers and one businessman said it should be an informed choice. I thought, “Well…, it could be a consumer’s choice, but what for? Trans-fat doesn’t improve taste or anything, and replacement doesn’t cost much…”

Then, the topic shifted to retail marketing and how powerful it can be. Representatives from Wal-Mart said marketing at retail can be a strong influence to what customers buy and marketers can pretty much determine what the customers will eat for their lunch and/or dinner (of course, breakfast).

MC raised the topic for personalized marketing with the example of Net-Flix, who has a large inventory of movies, and yet 80% of the product gets rented out by suggesting the movies particular customers may like. His point was to say applying this practice to food industry would be a great idea giving sales representatives unique professions.

Well, the only topic that had anything to do with natural food was about (artificial) trans-fat. It is very sad that marketing has so much power to influence what people eat and so many Americans get chronic disease for what they eat.