Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Recognizing the needs of consumers for healthier, but equally high quality and tasty products, PIK Vrbovec went a step further and confirmed that they are an innovative company that tracks trends and adapts to the market. Following the guidelines of the World Health Organization, as well as following the strategy of the Republic of Croatia on the reduction of excessive salt intake, PIK Vrbovec has continued its project Less is More with a step that made them the first company in Croatia to present meat products with reduced salt content. Products under the PIK brand now contain 25% less salt, “and retain the same distinctive taste and superior quality,” claims the company.
Why lower salt intake?
Average daily intake of salt among Croatians is 11.6 grams of salt, which is double the recommended daily intake, which is about 5-6 grams. Despite this, most feel they do not eat salty foods, and numerous studies have confirmed that one of the main reasons is insufficient education and awareness about the harmful effects of excessive salt intake.
Did you know?
- Excessive salt intake is often the reason for diabetes, obesity, heart, kidney and pulmonary diseases.
- Lowering salt intake to the recommended daily value helps reduce blood pressure and lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including brain and heart strokes.
- If the consumption of salt was to be reduced to the recommended values, global estimates state that more than 2.5 million lives could be saved globally each year.
How to reduce excessive salt intake?
The greatest amount of salt enters our body through food unconsciously, and with a few simple tricks we can limit excessive salt intake:
- When preparing foods, replace the big spoon you use to add salt with a small one.
- Remove the salt shaker from the table.
- Play with spices that will replace salt and make ordinary dishes different, and most importantly healthier.
- Read the declarations and choose products with lower amounts of salt.
“In a price-sensitive market, it was necessary to provide added value to consumers, in addition to excellent price to quality ratio, and thus motivate them to choose PIK products. Reduction of salt is an upgrade to the project Less is More, so PIK products now contain 25% less salt in relation to the product prior to the reduction. This concept rounded the unique story and created an added value for consumers, but at the same time raised the scale of quality far above the competition, both in the domestic and regional market,” said Tihana Vujčić, chief marketing officer of PIK Vrbovec.
The company reminded that the project Less is More was developed on the basis of the identified requirements and needs of consumers for healthier, but equally high quality and tasty products. Thanks to this unique project, PIK Vrbovec has offered the market a full range of meat products under the brand name PIK, which do not contain flavor enhancers, artificial colors, gluten or soy – ingredients that, according to current research, cause increasingly more health problems or food intolerances today.
“A unique marketing and communication challenge was to motivate and spark interest in the average Croatian consumer, who so far hasn’t paid much importance to the ingredients of products, and motivate them to begin to read the declarations, to educate themselves and raise the awareness of the presence of undesirable substances in meat products. For this reason, a strong educational and marketing campaign was launched, which indicated that PIK products are without those undesirable ingredients,” reads the statement.
According to the claims from PIK Vrbovec, the results of the research confirmed that the advertisement awakened positive emotions among consumers significantly above average. Campaigns results in driving sales were also rated excellent, and are close to the best measured benchmark results. Communication goal of the campaign has been fulfilled, and the desired message about quality PIK products that are free of unnecessary and harmful additives was recognized and successfully conveyed.