Business Skills

I’m always excited when I see retailers adding health and wellness and RD programs.  It showcases the commitment to helping shoppers live healthier lives in point-of-purchase environments.  As these programs launch, however, there are bound to be growing pains.  Retailers don’t often know what healthy living programs look like and RDs aren’t initially hired into the retailer at executive levels.  Growing pains.

The professional of dietetics is more than 90% female, skewing the culture in which many RDs historically work.  As you join the retail ranks, you’re quickly moved from a female-centric work environment to a male-dominated one.  To be successful in this culture, it’s essential to learn to navigate this environment.

Retail Dietitians work with recipes on a daily basis, in fact, sharing recipes is one of the main ways RDNs educate shoppers on how to use products in store. While some Retail RDNs may create their own recipes, many simply try to modify existing recipes to fit the need of their consumers, retailer and perhaps program sponsors. Jackie Newgent, RDN, CDN is a Culinary Nutritionist & Award-Winning Cookbook Author and she knows what goes into creating consumer-friendly recipes. Below she shares her tips for developing and modifying recipes for demos, media and more.

Retail Dietitians are pulled in many directions and need an effective plan to build successful marketing campaigns. Monica Amburn, MS, RD, LDN, Senior Director of Health & Wellness at Vestcom, shares these steps for streamlining the process to ensure your strategy hits the mark:

Leadership in the retail setting is not just for top management.  Any and all staff who manage people or projects or new initiatives must build strong leadership skills to be effective in the retail setting.  Retail hours are long.  All levels of retailers operate with lean staff. Sales targets often feel unreachable.  But those with effective leadership skills can thrive in this environment.

In my last article, I discussed the unexpected benefits of providing ongoing health and wellness training to your co-workers. However, an ongoing training program will only be successful if it seamlessly fits in with your schedule and a busy retail setting. Below I share a few program ideas and how they can integrate into your store’s operations.

We’ve all seen the shopper who is hoping a quick glance at the meat counter will be the inspiration they need for a healthy, tasty meal idea for their family.  In those moments, retail dietitians can play an important role in helping shoppers select the quality, nutritious food – especially meat – that they’re wanting.

As a retail dietitian, you focus a lot of time and attention on developing nutrition and wellness programs for your customers and community members, but what if I told you there is a large (and captive!) audience that you may be overlooking?

Estimates suggest 75% of people don't believe advertisements, yet more than 90% believe recommendations from friends. In fact, people are four times more likely to make a specific purchase when recommended by a friend. These statistics make word of mouth marketing campaigns essential for retail dietitians looking to increase use and purchase of their programs and services.

For years, the mantra of marketing has been the four P's – price, product, promotion and place. Today, however, these long held beliefs about the right approach to marketing products and services is being replaced by the three E's -- Engage, Equip, and Empower.