1. Running head: KIND AND THE TWO-WAY SYMMETRICAL MODEL
KIND Snacks: The “Unhealthy” Healthy Snack
The Role of the Two-Way Symmetrical Model in the KIND vs. FDA Crisis
Jessica Jones, Stefanie Banks, Elena Gomez, Katie Willis
JMS 585: Professional Practices in Public Relations
Dr. Hongmei Shen
December 10th, 2015

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SUMMARY
Daniel Lubetzky created KIND snacks, with the intention of bringing kindness to the
world (Fairchild, 2014). The snack company carries a myriad of bars including fruit and nut,
PLUS, nuts and spices, STRONG and healthy grains bars. Labeled healthy and tasty by KIND,
the various bars have grown popular in the nutrition bar category. That is until recently, when the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claimed KIND violated the guidelines required to label
their products ‘healthy’ (Food and Drug Administration, 2015).
KIND was founded in 2004 and originally carried eight bars, but they have now grown to
carry over 22 bars, including six Healthy Grains snack clusters. They’ve tripled sales in the past
two years (Fairchild, 2014) and made multiple initiatives to increase awareness of their brand.
The KIND mission is to spread and celebrate kindness, which the company does through
their #kindawesome movement. This movement puts their mission in action by organizing KIND
members to hand out ‘#kindawesome’ cards to people that are doing kind acts. Recipients of
these cards can enter their code online and receive an award of appreciation from KIND, and
another card they can gift to another person, thus spreading brand awareness. They also have an
initiative called KIND Causes, which is a campaign that supports people and organizations
working to make the world better by awarding them $10,000.
With regard to KIND’s product among the public, it is worth noting where KIND falls in
the nutrition bar category. On a ranking done by leanitup.com, KIND had two bars that fell in the
second tier, out of five. Within the second tier, two bars ranked 16 and 18 out of 52 nutritional
bars ranked for this study (DiSanto, 2013).
In America, the FDA regulates food safety, and it is the organization's duty to ensure that
American organizations are complying with health standards so customers aren’t deceived by

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what is on the packaging. In 2010, the FDA launched the Healthy People Initiative, which is a
ten-year program meant to improve health and diminish health related disparities during this
period of time (Food and Drug Administration, 2015).
This comes at a time when obesity rates are skyrocketing in America. In 2010, the
National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey results showed that over two in three adults
are considered overweight or obese and about one-third of children and young adults between the
ages of six and 19 are considered to be overweight or obese (National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2010).
Health is a trend of such significant importance that First Lady Michelle Obama began
Let’s Move!, a campaign that utilizes influencers such as political figures, sports leaders and
educators to encourage and help build a nation of healthier youth by tackling the epidemic of
childhood obesity.
As the above programs and initiatives are being implemented, KIND product sales have
risen. In the past four years, KIND has seen sales double on average each year, a trend that could
possibly correlate with health initiatives (Fairchild, 2014).
Though KIND prides itself on using natural ingredients that customers can see and
pronounce, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the bars are ‘healthy,’ according to the FDA. In a
letter to KIND dated March 17, 2015, the FDA informed KIND that they violated labeling rules
on four of their bars: Fruit & Nut Almond & Apricot, Fruit & Nut Almond & Coconut, Plus
Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein and Fruit & Nut Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew +
Antioxidants (Food and Drug Administration, 2015).
On KIND bar packaging, there’s a summary that reads, “At KIND, we do things
differently and try to avoid the false compromises. Instead of ‘or’ we say ‘and.’ Healthy and

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tasty, convenient and wholesome, economically sustainable and socially responsible.” Judging
off standards set by the FDA, using ‘healthy’ did not comply with these four bars because the
level of saturated fat was higher than the amount considered to be healthy by FDA regulations.
This information coming to light poses a threat for various stakeholders including the
KIND organization, the FDA and customers. The KIND brand has built a foundation based on
healthy ingredients but receiving a letter from the FDA that claims the products are not up to
regulations can put doubt in the mind of customers. Customers are at risk if the products aren’t
indeed healthy. And finally, the FDA is at risk of scrutiny by KIND and customers because they
can be seen as negligent.
Though the warning letter from the FDA seemed like a cause for alarm, KIND didn’t
respond as if it were. In a blog post dated April 14, 2015, 28 days after their warning letter was
dated, KIND apologized to their community members. Using bolstering and rebuilding tactics,
KIND assured customers that they would work to ensure their bars meet regulations for ‘healthy’
labeling.
In this case, KIND is faced with the challenge of maintaining their healthy reputation and
trustworthy relationship among their stakeholders. By using two-way symmetrical
communication, KIND came out of this situation successful, despite using their own
communication team. Our team still has recommendations on what KIND could have done
differently.
ANALYSIS
This case study will be evaluated by looking at the crisis management that KIND Snacks
used after the FDA sent the CEO of KIND a warning letter. In public relations, crisis
communication can best be defined as a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the

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actual damage inflicted. It seeks to prevent or lessen the negative outcomes of a crisis and
thereby protect the organization, stakeholders, and industry from harm (Benoit, 1997). In this
case, KIND’s crisis was the FDA letter that claimed that some of the company’s products could
no longer be marketed as healthy. As a company whose main slogan is “There’s healthy. There’s
tasty. Then there’s healthy and tasty,” this was a problem that would have to be communicated to
KIND’s main stakeholder, their loyal consumers.
To combat their crisis, KIND used a two-way symmetrical communication model. This
public relations model uses research, listening, and dialogue to manage conflict and to cultivate
relationships with both internal and external strategic publics (Grunig, 2009). The two-way
symmetrical model helped the KIND team reach out to their consumers in an open, transparent
way and make sure that this relationship and trust wasn’t lost during the crisis.
STRATEGIES AND IMPLEMENTATION
Reputation means everything to a business and in the case of a well-known food
manufacturer like KIND, several strategies and tactics were implemented in order to control and
ensure that they were the ones choosing the image in which the public saw them. After the FDA
contacted KIND with claims that their packaging couldn’t list the word ‘healthy,’ KIND took
action.
Instead of making the accusations into a big deal, KIND chose to address the issue
publicly in a simple way. Their initial action strategy, also shown in Appendix B of this paper,
was a response using their blog as a platform, where they posted a statement explaining the
FDA’s position. In addition, they communicated to their consumers that they were collaborating
with FDA compliance and making internal changes to correct how they marketed their product.

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This links to the two-way symmetrical model with regard to the FDA. KIND used the
feedback from the FDA letter to alter the recipes of their non-compliant bars, thus changing their
practices to fit the FDA’s standards. This results in a win-win for both KIND and the FDA
because both organizations are able to carry out their intended goals. The FDA is able to fulfill
their duty by regulating food products in order to make sure they are in compliance with health
regulations.
Despite the backlash from the FDA, KIND was able to adjust and adapt to maintain the
positive image of their product and stay true to what the manufacturer stands for. By both
organizations working together, it resulted in a socially responsible business practice that
benefited their stakeholders - the consumers.
As an action strategy, KIND supported a previous proposal by the FDA to better provide
nutritional information on labels for the industry in its entirety. The proposal aimed to include
added sugars on the Nutritional Facts Panel so consumers could better understand the nutritional
value of the product they are buying. KIND communicated this by posting additional information
on another blog post, which discussed the outdated standards the FDA currently uses, as well as
what is considered healthy when using this 20-year-old standard (sugary cereals,
fat-free chocolate pudding and low-fat toaster pastries vs. ‘unhealthy’ almonds, avocados and
salmon) (KIND Editor, December 2015).
KIND also took to Twitter and Facebook, seeing the issue as an opportunity to educate
their public on what healthy is and how nuts, even though they are high in fat, are part of a
healthy diet. As part of a non-confrontational conversation, they effectively used these platforms
to engage their audience and get feedback from over 57.3 thousand Twitter followers and 365
thousand Facebook likes. KIND utilized the social media platform to ‘Start the Discussion’

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which resulted in the hashtag ‘#startthediscussion,’ as shown in Appendix D of this paper. By
asking questions like, ‘What is a healthy diet?’ and ‘What is good fat?,’ KIND encouraged
consumers to think about the issue, do their research and develop their own idea of what
consumers considered to be ‘healthy.’ Through this, KIND embraced the opportunity to engage
consumers instead of shying away and neglecting the negative accusations they received from
the FDA.
The two-way symmetrical model is shown in this instance by the information exchange
between KIND and consumers. By using ‘#startthediscussion,’ KIND allowed open
communication with doctors and nutritionists, who provided their expertise in food nutrition.
According to those experts, the saturated fat came from healthy sources such as nuts. KIND was
able to take charge of the discussion by delivering a key message that their products, though high
in saturated fat, are nonetheless still healthy. In their most recent blog post (Appendix C) on
December 1, 2015, KIND clarified what healthy means. The popular food manufacturer
announced in this post their filing of the Citizen Petition. This feedback and expertise was used
by KIND to design the Citizen Petition urging the FDA to update its regulations for healthy
labeling. In this situation, the two-way symmetrical model pushes the FDA to change, which still
benefits KIND consumers.
From the time KIND received the FDA warning letter, they addressed the issue by
multiple means, which showed their transparency and importance to making amends with the
FDA and their customer base. Emphasizing multiple key messages, the strongest was no doubt
their brand philosophy and their commitment to providing healthy, tasty snacks to their loyal
fans.

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EVALUATION
There is no way to tell how many people saw the blog post about the FDA letter and
KIND’s actions. The blog post doesn’t have a share button for anyone to share the story on other
social media sites, and it doesn’t have a share count. By not providing a comments section, there
is no public forum to discuss what happened or to post questions.
As stated in the strategies and tactics above, KIND began using the ‘#startthediscussion’
hashtag in order to raise awareness about the health and nutrition movement. Discussions were
started about health topics, such as ‘are nuts healthy?’ and ‘what does healthy mean?’ It was
KIND’s goal not necessarily to persuade consumers to side with them but to encourage their own
research into the issue. They included a link to their site to encourage viewers to click and find
out more. Appendix D shows an example of the public’s response, with this specific post being
shared 39 times and generating over two thousand likes.
KIND didn’t seem to measure how effective their strategies and tactics were in any form.
When we reached out to KIND for further explanation on their sales before the FDA warning
and after, they said it was proprietary information and couldn’t respond on that matter any
further (Appendix A). We recommend that KIND compare financial statements prior to and after
the FDA warning letter to determine if there was a drop in sales.
KIND should have tracked the comments and emails they received after the blog post
went live. After any crisis, the organization should monitor what the public was saying about the
brand, especially on the media accounts they manage. They could have evaluated the effects of
the FDA accusations on their consumers by analyzing the content posted on their social
mediums.

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We recommend that KIND also evaluate these effects by doing a content analysis on the
media coverage that followed the FDA complaint letter, seeing if coverage was in favor of the
FDA, the products aren’t healthy; or in favor of KIND, the products are healthy. A consumer
defense group found that some of the media coverage showed how the FDA warning about
product labeling was misconstrued as a product warning. Surprisingly, most of these media
outlets got the story wrong by implying that KIND bars are unhealthy (Resources for Life,
2015).
It is also recommended that KIND do a separate content analysis specifically on
headlines surrounding the issue as well. According to many sources, readers skim and scan
content without thoroughly reading articles in depth.
With results from the content analysis, KIND could administer a survey to see how their
brand is portrayed one year after the FDA letter was posted to their blog. In doing this, KIND
could measure how their strategies and tactics were perceived by the public and how the
headlines in the media affected the consumer.
Questions should evaluate how consumers feel about the brand after the FDA letter and if
their knowledge, attitude or behavior has changed because of it. Some sample questions include:
1. I perceive KIND Snacks to be healthy.
a. Strongly Agree.
b. Slightly Agree.
c. Neutral.
d. Slightly Disagree.
e. Strongly Disagree.
2. I feel that KIND creates products with the consumer’s health in mind.

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a. Strongly Agree.
b. Slightly Agree.
c. Neutral.
d. Slightly Disagree.
e. Strongly Disagree.
3. I would purchase KIND Snacks.
a. Strongly Agree.
b. Slightly Agree.
c. Neutral.
d. Slightly Disagree.
e. Strongly Disagree.
CONCLUSIONS
Since the FDA warning letter, KIND Snacks recently announced the company would be
releasing seven new KIND Fruit & Nut bars with 15 to 50 percent less added sugar compared to
prior recipes. An editor for KIND wrote on the company’s blog that “meeting and exceeding our
commitment to provide our fans with snacks that are both healthful and delicious means
continually looking at how we can improve” (KIND editor, April 2015).
KIND also responded to the FDA’s warning in this same blog post that the company
would support an FDA proposal to advocate for including added sugars on the Nutrition Facts
Panel. This proposal would allow people to easily see the amount of added sugars in their food
products.
Despite these changes, KIND Snacks’ crisis management response was not a benchmark
for excellent public relations practices. KIND didn’t appear to take the FDA warning letter as a

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major crisis for the company. While the letter asked KIND to change their main marketing
verbiage, KIND didn’t appear to find this letter as a threat to their branding. Instead of creating
transparency through all avenues like media releases and social media, KIND Snacks sent out
their information in only one blog post at the beginning of April. Since the letter, KIND has
posted additional blogs following up with updates to the crisis. These updates have included
changes to a group of their bars and also a collaboration with the FDA for clearer nutrition label
information to all consumers.
KIND Snacks maintained two-way symmetrical communication with consumers, but it
still wasn’t enough to get their message across and gain feedback from consumers. KIND Snacks
did try to reach out to stakeholders by posting about the FDA warning and what their steps
would be on their blog. However, if consumers never visited KIND’s website, consumers would
never know about KIND’s response except through media news stories. There were no posts on
KIND Snacks’ social media pages addressing the FDA letter, leaving many consumers in the
dark.
KIND also lacked strong initiatives in gaining feedback from consumers. While the
company added a direct email contact on their blog post for consumers to write with any
concerns or questions, this was the only form of two-way symmetrical communication from the
company. Consumers are a major stakeholder in the company and should have been a bigger
priority for KIND Snacks.

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REFERENCES
Benoit, W. L. (1997). Image repair discourse and crisis communication. Public relations
review, 23(2), 177-186.
DiSanto, Bryan. (2013, June 13). The protein bar power rankings - 30 popular bars torn
apart and ranked. Lean it up. Retrieved from http://www.leanitup.com/review-the-protein-bar-
power-rankings-30-popular-bars-torn-apart-and-ranked/
Food and Drug Administration. (2015, March 17). Warning letter. Retrieved from
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm440942.htm
Food and Drug Administration. (2015). Healthy People Initiative. Retrieved from
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/HealthyPeopleInitiative/default.htm
Grunig, J. E. (2009). Paradigms of global public relations in an age of digitalisation.
PRism, 6(2), 1-19.
KIND Editor. (2015, April 14). A note to our KIND community. KIND blog. Retrieved
from http://www.kindsnacks.com/blog/post/a-note-to-our-kind-community-2/
KIND Editor. (2015, November 4). Revisiting the bar that started it all. KIND blog.
Retrieved from http://www.kindsnacks.com/blog/post/revisiting-the-bar-that-started-it-all/
KIND Editor. (2015, December 1). A Letter to our Fans: KIND and Nutrition Policy—
Sparking a Healthy Discussion. KIND blog. Retrieved from
http://www.kindsnacks.com/blog/post/a-letter-to-our-fans-kind-and-nutrition-policy-sparking-a-
healthy-discussion/
Let’s Move!. (2105). Learn the Facts. Retrieved from http://www.letsmove.gov/learn-
facts/epidemic-childhood-obesity

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Mooney, P. (2015, April 15). Will you still eat them after FDA warning? Inquisitr.
Retrieved from http://www.inquisitr.com/2013913/kind-bars-will-you-still-eat-them-after-fda-
warning/
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (2015). Overweight
and Obesity Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-
statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx
Resources for Life. (2015, April 14). Conservative campaign against Kind Snacks
morphs into dubious FDA warning letter. Consumer Defense Resource Group. Retrieved from
http://consumerdefenseresourcegroup.com/2015/04/14/conservative-campaign-against-
kindsnacks-morphs-into-dubious-fda-warning-letter/

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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
Letter to KIND Snacks Customer Service
Hello,
My name is Elena Gomez and I'm a graduate student at San Diego State University.
In my public relations class, our group chose to look at how KIND Snacks responded to the FDA
letter that came out earlier this year. Here are a couple questions we were hoping you could
answer so we can include in our class project:
1.) Could you provide a comparison of sales from 2014 to now? Have you seen any drop in sales
after the FDA letter?
2.) Did you receive any emails or communication from consumers after the letter? Any idea on
how many? Were they positive or negative?
3.) Did anyone reach out or comment on your blog when you posted about the FDA letter? If so,
any idea on how many?
4.) Did your team do an evaluation of how you responded to the FDA letter and to consumers?
What was determined-- positive, negative?
5.) What is the next step with the bars and working with the FDA? It looks like some designed
bars are coming out in the Spring.
Thank you for your help in answering these questions for our project!

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RESPONSE:
Hi Elena,
Thank you for contacting KIND Snacks!
While we’re most grateful for your interest in our company, the below information is considered
proprietary by nature. Thank you again for your interest and feel free to contact us with any
additional questions.
The KIND Team

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APPENDIX B
April 14, 2014 Blog Post
http://www.kindsnacks.com/blog/post/a-note-to-our-kind-community-2/

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APPENDIX C
December 1, 2015 Blog Post
http://www.kindsnacks.com/blog/post/a-letter-to-our-fans-kind-and-nutrition-policy-sparking-a-
healthy-discussion/

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APPENDIX D
#StartTheDiscussion Facebook Post