Book Review

Fidel      Toldra

Abstract

The book contains 14 chapters, distributed into 5 parts, that range in length from approximately 10 to 12 pages. The introductory chapter is addressing a general perspective of the book, its organization and main goals, giving also some misguided perspectives on marketing nutrition of four hypothetical people: a dietitian, a government administrator, a marketing manager, and a researcher. Part 1 deals with the secrets about food and people. It starts looking at the gap between what people know and what they do, emphasizing the importance of nutritional knowledge. It follows with some curious materials (declassified Department of Defence documents) and finishes illustrating that the tastes of consumers are very suggestible. For instance, the author states that descriptive names for foods make people taste what they believe they will taste. Part 2 describes the tools for targeting. The first two chapters examine techniques useful to identify the taste preferences among a number of market segments. It examines the importance of profiling as a method to better understand who the perfect consumers are and also a kind of mental mapping to understand why consumers act as they do. This part is finished with the influence of cooking for consumers to make a selection of nutritional foods and targeting. Part 3 is focused on the health of nations. This part addresses the five main drivers of food consumption, why the 5-a-day programs often fail in the objective, the need for marketers to continue evaluating benefits and risks of biotechnology and, finally

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