Summary (Digital) Food Marketing
Tilburg University 2022-2023
880099-M-6
This document contains all relevant material for the exam, including the lectures, guest lectures, and the
mandatory literature for the Master’s course (Digital) Food Marketing
Celeste Graumans
,Inhoud
Lecture 1; Introduction Course and History of Food Marketing ................................................ 4
Lecture 1 – Literature ............................................................................................................. 4
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating Foreword ......... 4
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating Introduction ..... 4
Lecture 1 – Introduction Course and History of Food Marketing ........................................... 5
Lecture 2; Mix of Food Marketing .............................................................................................. 7
Lecture 2 – Literature ............................................................................................................. 7
Powell et al. (2013) – Food Marketing Expenditures Aimed at Youth: putting the
numbers in context.............................................................................................................. 7
Cairns et al. (2013) – Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and
effects of food marketing to children .................................................................................. 8
Lecture 2 – Mix of Food Marketing......................................................................................... 9
Lecture 3; Effects of Food Marketing on Eating Behavior ....................................................... 13
Lecture 3 – Literature ........................................................................................................... 13
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 1 Food
Marketing to Young Children (Coates & Boyland) ........................................................... 13
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 2 Food
Marketing to Adolescents and Young Adults (Harris & Fleming-Milici) ........................... 14
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 3
Children’s Rights with Regard to Food Marketing (Garde) .............................................. 16
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 4
Regulations and their Effectiveness (Kelly) ...................................................................... 16
Lecture 3 – Effects of Food Marketing on Eating Behavior ................................................. 17
Lecture 3 – Guest lecture; Dr. Roel Hermans (Voedingscentrum) ...................................... 20
Lecture 4; Theoretical understanding of Food Marketing I...................................................... 23
Lecture 4 – Literature ........................................................................................................... 23
Buijzen et al. (2010) – Introducing the PCMC-model: An investigative framework for
young people’s processing of commercialized media content......................................... 23
Valkenburg & Peter (2013) – The differential susceptibility to media effects model ....... 27
Lecture 4 – Theoretical understanding of Food Marketing I ................................................ 30
Lecture 5; Theoretical understanding of Food Marketing II..................................................... 34
Lecture 5 – Literature ........................................................................................................... 34
Folkvord et al. (2016) – Food advertising and eating behavior in children ...................... 34
Montgomery et al. (2011) – Food marketing in the digital age: a conceptual framework
and agenda for research................................................................................................... 36
Lecture 5 – Theoretical understanding of Food Marketing II ............................................... 38
Lecture 5 – Guest lecture; Bob Peulen (Sales Consultant – Cloud Engineer).................... 41
Lecture 6; Advertising Literacy and Cognitive Processes Reducing Impact .......................... 43
Lecture 6 – Literature ........................................................................................................... 43
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 5
Improving advertising literacy and effectiveness (Rozendaal)......................................... 43
, Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 6
Empowering consumers to choose what they want: Toward behavior change in a food
advertising environment (Veling & Lawrence).................................................................. 45
Lecture 6 – Advertising Literacy and Cognitive Processes Reducing Impact ..................... 47
Lecture 7; Healthy Food Promotion ......................................................................................... 50
Lecture 7 – Literature ........................................................................................................... 50
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating chapter 7 The
promotion of healthy foods: a review of the literature and theoretical framework
(Folkvord) .......................................................................................................................... 50
Folkvord (2019) – Systematically testing the effects of promotion techniques on
children’s fruit and vegetable intake in the long term: a protocol study of a multicenter
randomized controlled trial................................................................................................ 52
Lecture 7 - Healthy Food Promotion .................................................................................... 53
Q&A ................................................................................................................................... 55
Example Questions ........................................................................................................... 55
, Lecture 1; Introduction Course and History of Food Marketing
Lecture 1 – Literature
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating
Foreword
- Increasing recognition that the world’s food supply system is malfunctioning.
- The cost efficiencies imposed on the supply chain by the drive for returns on
investment.
- Advertising provides the essential link between the products of a competitive food
supply chain and the creation of demand for the resulting products.
- Two direct purposes for advertising:
1. To provide information to potential purchasers about a product –
highly defended by the advertisers as being their right to exercise freedom
of speech and to ensure the efficient operation of the marketplace.
2. To induce positive feelings about a product so that potential
purchasers view the product as desirable and attractive – more
contentious as it works largely at an unconscious, subliminal level, and
operates outside the classical market assumption of a purchaser making a
purely rational choice.
- Advertising depends on the creation of brands and logos to identify a unique,
privately owned product.
- Classic ‘Four Ps’: product, promotion, pricing (discounts and special offers),
positioning (both literally where it sits on a shelf or in a shop, as well as in comparison
with other products in the same market space)
- Reduce the consumption of unhealthy food products!!
- When contemplating restrictions to promotional marketing, two approaches are
available
1. ‘Rights-based’ approach: suggests that people, primarily children, should
be protected from commercially driven inducements to consume (and
over-consume). Regulations are enacted to define the child and the child’s
rights.
2. ‘Risk-based’ approach: suggest that the market has freedoms that
should only be curtailed on evidence of harm.
- Risk-based approach is far more widespread but suffers from country-to-country
variations
- The purpose of advertising is to shape consumer demand to match the supply, and it
follows that if the supply system is failing us, then action to control advertising is fully
justified.
Folkvord (2020) – The Psychology of Food Marketing and (Over)eating
Introduction
- It is widely acknowledged that obesity has emerged as an epidemic in developed
countries (starting around 1980 – ‘Western countries)
o One of the biggest health concerns globally by national governments and
international health institutes.
o Important factor that causes obesity is the overconsumption of energy-dense
snacks that contain a high level of fat, sugar, and salt – which leads to multiple
chronic diseases
, o Also, associated with negative mental well-being.
- One of the main drivers behind the unhealthy dietary intake of people over the world
is food marketing
o Food companies’ marketing strategies target determinants for why people
choose to eat one food rather than another, or more instead of less.
- Food marketing is ubiquitous, to increase sales and comply with the laws of
capitalism; increase profits to improve the value of the shares to satisfy the
shareholders.
- Marketing: it includes activities and processes designed to communicate and deliver
value to consumers including advertising (through purchased media – television,
internet, radio), earned media (social media marketing, influencer marketing, public
relations), promotions, and retail strategies.
- Food marketing: the communication to the consumer through a range of marketing
techniques to add value to a food product and/or brand to persuade the consumer to
purchase the product and/or brand.
Lecture 1 – Introduction Course and History of Food Marketing
What is food marketing? (Pomeranz & Adler, 2015)
Marketing is a broad concept that includes (1) speech-based communications, and (2) non-
speech-related activities. In the first category, marketers communicate through an array
of speech-based practices that include both traditional ‘advertising’ (e.g., billboards
and television, radio, and print ads) and broader promotional strategies (e.g., public
relations communications and YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter content). Food
marketers and retailers also engage in marketing practices that do not involve speech, such
as establishing the price of products and determining where to locate them within a store.
What is food marketing? (Schaffner, Schroder, & Earle, 1998)
Food marketing is the act of communicating to the consumer through a range of marketing
techniques in order to add value to a food product and persuade the consumer to
purchase. This includes all activities that occur between the completion of a product to the
purchasing process of consumers.
Marketing (4 Ps)
- Product: the product of the marketing mix refers to the goods and/or services that the
company will offer to the consumer. A company can achieve this by either creating a new
food product or by modifying or improving an existing food product.
- Price: pricing is an important aspect to influence buying activity, when people are in the
stores, or to persuade people to go to the stores and buy also other products that are not
related to the advertised foods.
- Promotion: promotion of the marketing mix is defined as the actions used to
communicate a food product’s features and benefits; therefore, persuading the consumer
to purchase the product. There are multiple avenues used to promote a food product to
consumers. Some examples are out-of-store, in-store, and on the packaging. Food
advertisements on television are used to attract consumers, persuading them to go to the
store and purchase that food product. Additionally, promotions in magazines and
newspapers may offer coupons for food products.
- Place: place refers to the distribution and warehousing efforts necessary to move food
from the manufacturer to a location where a consumer can buy it. It can also refer to
, where the product is located in a retail outlet (e.g., the end of an aisle; the top, bottom, or
middle shelf; in a special display case, etc.)
For food marketing, the P from promotion is particularly important!
Three (or four?) phases distinguished
- Fragmentation phase (end of 19th century): countries were divided into numerous
geographic fragments for food sales because transporting food was expensive, leaving
most production, distribution, and selling locally based. Only buy things that are produced
in the town you live in.
- Unification phase (end of 19th century – mid-20th century): distribution was made
possible by railroads, coordination, coordination of sales forces was made possible by
the telegraph and telephone, and product consistency was made possible by advances in
manufacturing. This new distribution system was led by large food processors and by
companies such as Heinz, Quaker Oats, Campbell Soup, and Coca Cola which sold their
brands (inter)nationally. Advertising in print media and direct marketing through
demonstrations at stores and public venues were among the prime marketing tools.
Easier to get food from other regions.
- Segmentation phase (1950 – to current): radio, television and internet advertising
made it possible for a wider range of competing products to focus on different benefits
and images and thus appeal to different demographics and psychographic markets. More
efficient distributions (e.g., flights, boats, trains, trucks) led to the possibility to ‘sell’ your
brand and product worldwide.
- Personalized/tailored phase (2010 – to current): personalized/tailored marketing
possibilities have increased immensely due to big data collections, artificial intelligence
machine learning, neuromarketing, and eye-tracking.
Objective food marketing = increase sales
The overly abundant food supply, combined with a society so affluent that most people can
afford to buy more food than they need, sets the stage for competition. The food industry
must compete fiercely for every dollar spent on food, and food companies expend
extraordinary resources to develop market products that will sell, regardless of their effect on
nutritional status or waistlines (Prof. Dr. M. Nestle, pp: 1).
To satisfy stakeholders, food companies must convince people to eat more of their products
or to eat their products instead of those of competitors. They do so through advertising and
public relations, of course, but also by working tirelessly to convince government officials,
nutrition professionals, and the media that their products promote health- or at least to not
harm them. Much of this work is a virtually invisible part of contemporary culture that attracts
occasional notice (Prof. Dr. M. Nestle)
- Companies have to improve sales every year, but sometimes can’t increase the price,
so people have to buy more.
Ten largest food companies:
- Nestle - Danone - Mars
- PepsiCo - General Mills - Associated British Foods
- Coca-Cola - Kellogg’s - Mondelez
- Unilever - -
These 10 companies control everything you buy!
, Blue zones
5 areas of the world that are best to live in.
- Move naturally - Right tribe
- Right outlook - Eat wisely
Lecture 2; Mix of Food Marketing
Lecture 2 – Literature
Powell et al. (2013) – Food Marketing Expenditures Aimed at Youth:
putting the numbers in context
Food marketing expenditures in the context
- Changes in overall food marketing expenditures: Inflation-adjusted 19.5%
reduction in marketing expenditures targeted to youth from $2.1 billion in 2006 to $1.8
billion in 2009.
- Television expenditures and exposure: declined by $107.5 million (a 19.4%
inflation-adjusted drop), the second-largest drop in absolute spending. Children and
teens still see 12-16 TV advertisements with high saturated fat, sugar, or sodium.
- New media platforms: Newer digital forms of unhealthy food and beverage
marketing to youths are increasing.
- Other marketing practices
- Expenditures by food product category: fast-food restaurant food remained the
largest category of total marketing expenditures (40% overall).
- Nutritional content: positive trends for youth-targeted marketing in terms of nutrients
targeted for increase. This was due to both reformulations of existing products and
new products that replaced products that were no longer advertised or had been
taken off the market.
Several continuing areas of public health concern:
- Nutritional quality of foods and beverages marketed to youth remains poor
- Total youth exposure to TV food advertising remains high
- Spending on new media has increased
- Youth-targeted marketing covered by the CFBAI is limited
o Marketing techniques not covered by the CFBAI include promotions and child
features on product packaging and in-store promotions, sponsorships, cross-
promotions, events
