I guess this is "a classic marketing mistake," as the author says, but I see this more as a mission-based problem. It sounds from what little is written that increasing sales was the manufacturer's priority, not a product that would be better for consumers.

I run a small, wholesale bread bakery. I made a similar kind of ingredient change about two years ago, replacing a small amount of refined sugar with an even smaller amount of malted barley flour. Either way, the products got hints of both color and sweetness. I made the change because I know there are people who are put off by refined sugar as an ingredient. I only made it a point to tell the one customer that packages my breads in a way that requires nutritional labeling. I have told other customers when the change was pertinent to some conversation we were already having, but I never did this as a selling point.