Supermarket brands face an uphill battle to restore consumer confidence after Four Corners exposed widespread deception and misleading marketing after testing samples of hundreds of products.
Dozens of tomato pastes, spices, seafood, alcohol, eggs and other products were found to mislead consumers by either wrongfully claiming the product’s country of origin (suggesting they were Australian made when materials were sourced from China) or being contaminated with unsafe heavy metals or dangerous levels of methanol.
The wide-sweeping investigation, carried out by Australian forensic laboratory Source Certain, tested products that were purchased at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi across four states in multiple locations, as well as independent retailers.
It found multiple cases of misleading labelling on products from brands including Leggo’s, Coles, Aldi, Woolworths, Hoyt’s, Simply Organic and Dirty George, as well as the seafood counter.
In statements shared with Four Corners, most brands denied Source Certain’s findings with some pledging to run their own investigations.
Jana Bowden, a professor of marketing and consumer behaviour at Macquarie University, is an expert in how consumers engage and emotionally connect with brands.
She told B&T that she was surprised by the scale of misleading marketing exposed by the Four Corners report.
“Brand transgressions like this, especially ones that have been widely publicised, have a super negative impact on how that brand is perceived by the consumer,” she said.
“This is an absolute onslaught for some of these brands and (these allegations) are severely damaging.”
Bowden believes that “significant sways of Gen Zs and millennials” tend to focus on buying Australian-made products and will usually pay a premium for homemade products.
“It takes a very long time to build trust and a very short time to lose it. They’ve got to claw their way back to regain consumer trust, and that’s a difficult thing,” she said.
Nitika Garg, who is a professor of marketing and consumer behaviour expert at the University of NSW, described the expose as “another blow to consumer confidence” that challenges perceptions Australia is tough on biosecurity.
“This investigation just shows that we are all being too complacent about it,” she said.
Garg believes the most concerning findings are products compromised with continents, rather than “manipulative” marketing claims about sourcing.
“What consumers are going to worry about is their actual health being compromised because the food products that they trusted to be compliant with our safety regulations are actually found not to be,” she said.
“While we might crib about a few dollars here and there, because everyone’s hurting with the cost of living crisis, some of these findings could have implications for the health of our families.”
She believes that a consumer backlash is inevitable and brands that have been named and shamed in the investigation will come under direct fire.
She added: “What this investigation clearly shows is that this is not restricted or limited to a particular retailer.”
A corporate comms failure
One aspect that will confuse (or alarm) consumers is the robust denials of the findings by nearly every brand implicated, with some suggesting they would run their own investigations.
Bowden believes this will only exacerbate their brand equity problem in the eyes of consumers.
“Coming out and denying these findings also creates more damage to the brand because consumers are just looking for some sort of reinstatement of truth, transparency and trust,” she said.
“Denials increase consumer skepticism and makes consumers wonder whether something really is being covered up. It increases the risk of boycotts.”
Garg likened the situation to Choice Magazine’s recent expose of sunscreen brands that failed to live up to their SPF claims, which has since led to a shakeup of the sector.
“[The sunscreen brands] couldn’t really back their denials with actual testing of their own, and so the credibility of those brands was compromised,” she said.
“These food brands, which have been hasty to just deny the investigation results, are short-sighted because ultimately, if there is a problem, it is better to tackle it than to just deny it.”
Both academics have called for tighter regulation of Australia’s food supply ecosystem and monitoring regime.
“Something needs to happen to create more transparency in this industry,” Bowden said.
“We need this to be more heavily and closely regulated. This is a systemic problem and it shouldn’t have to come to independent investigative journalism and forensic testing to reveal breaches of consumer trust.”
