Creating Currency in 'Better'

In his book Atomic Habits author James Clear puts forward the argument that the accumulation of your daily habits is what determines your future.  This means that if you want to get somewhere, its the things you repeat regularly that matter most. 

This idea is somewhat counter to the tendency to consider achievement of the outcome we’re going for as the measure of success. What Clear is asserting is that it's not actually the goal that matters – it’s the system, or habits you create to reach the goal, that matters more.

"If the system is working, then the outcome will take care of itself" - James Clear.

This thought prompted me to consider how it may apply to food marketing and innovation.   One of the ways you may look to create differentiation in the market is to focus on an outcome. This is frequently linked to a goal such as creating or marketing products as containing ‘the most probiotics’ or ‘the least amount of sugar’ or ‘the highest amount of fibre’.

The Problem with Being the 'Best'

While these outcomes can provide a point of difference in the market, the problem is that eventually you discover there's a floor or a ceiling you can’t get past anymore and at which point such goals become redundant. For example, there is only so much fibre you can put into a product before the amount causes digestive discomfort, rather than contributing positively to good health. 

Similarly with whole foods. There are only so many ways you can influence the natural nutritional profile of a food before you run out of options.

So what would it look like if you focused on creating better habits associated with food consumption, or on setting up better systems associated with food production, packaging and distribution, and started marketing that? Letting go of having to always focus on being the 'best', or the 'greatest', the 'lowest' or the 'highest' may provide some relief for the product development team!

This perspective may be a useful way to help re-direct your thinking, open new avenues for innovation and provide the opportunity to tell better stories about your brands and your products to consumers.

The Benefits of 'Better'

At a time when trust in the food system and trust in the food industry in particular is low, striving for 'better', rather than being the 'best', has a number of advantages:

It can help connect in a more authentic way with the growing, more conscious consumer.  Being perfect or already being the ‘best’ leaves little room for improvement.

It's a clear indicator of transparency – if you are not perfect, and not ‘there’ yet it indicates an openness and honest way of being.

It indicates a commitment to continuous improvement.  Just like a commitment to life long learning is one of the keys to happiness and growth, a commitment to continuous improvement for a business can have a significantly positive influence on company culture.

As James Clear outlines, "the problem with a goals first mentality is that you are continually putting happiness off until the next milestone is achieved. A systems first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process, rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied every time your system is running".  

If the system and habits you adopt keep getting better and better, team satisfaction and contentedness also has the potential to keep on improving.

If you want better results, focus on your systems and habits.  Solve problems at this level and the outputs will look after themselves.