Word of Mouth Reminder

I've been meaning to blog about a lot of things lately. Today, however, I can't help skip over some of those important posts to discuss my most recent word of mouth reminder. 

Over the past few years there's been SO much talk about word of mouth and how important it is to branding. Most of the time we talk about it as if it were something only friends, family and co-workers pass on to one another. I've never had a discussion about the prospect of word of mouth from one stranger to another when not associated with a blog or the Internet in some way.

But just today in the supermarket I was on a mission to buy my first ever package of whole wheat spaghetti. As I stood there I felt so confused. Pasta is certainly a saturated category. The aisle is long, there are multiple versions of whole wheat, not whole wheat, shapes, sizes, you name it. It's confusing. 

Who came to my indecision rescue? A complete stranger. 

I was on the phone and mentioned to the person on the other end how hard it was to pick a pasta when there were so many choices. The stranger must have overheard me and pointed to a pasta and mouthed that it was really good. He looked fit so I trusted him.

And I bought that very pasta. 

Fresh Thoughts.

The other day I went grocery shopping. 

It got me thinking about the word fresh. It was only after working in an agency and helping on a grocery client, that I began to understand the importance of that one word. I remember thinking at the time that the word is one with no real dimensions. I was wrong.

The dictionary describes fresh as recently made or obtained; not canned, frozen, or otherwise preserved. 

While I think that's (obviously) true, I also think that fresh has been given new meaning in recent years. The popularity of natural and organic have really changed the the meaning of that word. Here's why:

While at the grocery store, I purchased the freshest mozzarella. Ever. Stark white, wet, salty. I also purchased organic salsa.

My not canned, not frozen, not otherwise preserved mozzarella made and obtained recently was obviously fresh. I walked into the store with the intent to purchase fresh mozzarella and did just that.

But I realize while standing there looking at all the salsa options on the shelves, I have come to think, in recent years, that organic, even in a jar, is more fresh than the same product in a jar without the word organic attached. 

So now not fresh grocery items, those that are canned, frozen and otherwise preserved, can be fresher than their counterparts (as in the case of salsa). That means that fresh grocery items can also be fresher than their counterparts. A fresher fresh if you will. There's freshly grown strawberries and then there are fresher freshly grown strawberries that are organic. 

While organic can't own fresh, it can own fresher. The idea of pesticides and chemicals on anything takes away from our old notions of fresh. 

I wonder if other consumers think the same and how that effects the marketing of grocery and the highly competitive fresh wars that pepper the category.