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Personal care and healthcare products, and even detergent brands, all are seen as fighting in such competitive marketing environments.

What are the criteria that consumers use to make decisions to buy any brand? Do advertising, public relations, promotions or events help consumers make their decision?

We are well aware that health-consciousness plays an important role in consumers' minds nowadays. Consumers tend to choose carefully when it comes to buying food.

But you might be surprised to learn that in some developed markets, your average consumer takes only 10 seconds to decide to buy and take food products from the shelf. Isn't that amazing?

That 10-second-decision research was conducted in Europe a year ago. These 10 seconds include decision-making factors ranging from scanning a brand's name and labelling, together with trust built from previous experiences, such as "have heard of, have used, have eaten" before.

Then what would be some other factors making buying decisions for food products easier?

I recently paid visits to some European markets and had the opportunity to meet with health authorities from the Netherlands.

A few years ago the Dutch health ministry expressed concern about the well-being of the people there due to the rising cases of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease as well as many other public health risks.

One of the areas raised to help promote better healthcare was food quality, as well as nutrition awareness. Interestingly enough, the ministerial initiative was promptly taken up and put into action by the food industry in that country.

Three giant Dutch food producers proposed "food-product optimisation", which was basically about reducing the quantity of salt, sugar, fats and trans-fats in their packaged food products while formulating a total consumer communications plan. The plan was aimed at creating nutrition awareness as well as providing help on how and what to look for when shopping for quality food products.

It took industry cooperation and the establishment of a neutral organisation to ensure that the products listed in the project met the standard criteria set by scientists and endorsed by authorities.

The project has been running for more than a year now with full support from the government. Companies joining the programme have been doing increasingly well.

It is common now in the supermarkets in the Netherlands and many countries in Europe to see food products with a little tick mark on the front of the package.

This mark ensures consumers that this product meets nutrition criteria for salt, sugar, fats and trans-fats.

Obviously this mark makes it easy for consumers to decide which products are the right choice for them.

It is startling to see how the government and private sectors can work together so well in terms of roles and responsibilities. The government remains the policy-maker and the private sector, industry by industry, adopts the policy and implements it in their way of conducting business, which in the end benefits consumers.