Summary | Digital Food Marketing | 880099-M-6 | Tilburg University
Week 1: Introduction Course and History of Food Marketing
Week 2: Mix of Food Marketing
Week 3: Effects of Food Marketing on Eating Behavior
Week 4: Theoretical understanding of Food Marketing I
Week 5: Theoretical understanding of Food Marketing II
Week 6: Advertising Literacy and Cognitive Processes Reducing
Week 7: Healthy Food Promotion and Q&A
Literature
Current Issues in Social Psychology-The Psychology of Food Marketing and Overeating
● Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7
Powell, L. M., Harris, J. L., & Fox, T. (2013). Food marketing expenditures aimed at youth: putting the
numbers in context. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 45(4), 453-461.
Boyland, E., McGale, L., Maden, M., Hounsome, J., Boland, A., Angus, K., & Jones, A. (2022). Association
of food and nonalcoholic beverage marketing with children and adolescents’ eating behaviors and health:
a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA pediatrics, 176(7), e221037-e221037.
Buijzen, M., Van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Owen, L. H. (2010). Introducing the PCMC model: An investigative
framework for young people's processing of commercialized media content. Communication Theory,
20(4), 427-450.
Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2013). The differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of
communication, 63(2), 221-243.
Tatlow-Golden, M., & Garde, A. (2020). Digital food marketing to children: exploitation, surveillance and
rights violations. Global Food Security, 27, 100423.
Folkvord, F., Anschütz, D. J., Boyland, E., Kelly, B., & Buijzen, M. (2016). Food advertising and eating
behavior in children. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 9, 26-31.
Montgomery, K., Grier, S., Chester, J., & Dorfman, L. (2011). Food marketing in the digital age: a
conceptual framework and agenda for research. Center for Digital Democracy, Washington DC.
Kelly, B., Backholer, K., Boyland, E., Kent, M. P., Bragg, M. A., Karupaiah, T., & Ng, S. (2023).
Contemporary approaches for monitoring food marketing to children to progress policy actions. Current
Nutrition Reports, 12(1), 14-25.
Folkvord, F., & Hermans, R. C. (2020). Food marketing in an obesogenic environment: a narrative
overview of the potential of healthy food promotion to children and adults. Current Addiction Reports, 7,
431-436.
1
,Week 1: Introduction Course and History of Food Marketing
Food marketing = the communication to the consumer through a range of marketing techniques
in order to add value to a food product and/or brand to persuade the consumer to purchase the
product and/or brand. This includes all activities between the completion of a product and the
purchasing process of consumers (Schaffner, Schroder, & Earle, 1998)
What is food marketing?
● speech (traditional advertising: TV, radio, billboards)
● broader promotional strategies (e.g., PR, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter content).
● Food marketers and retailers also engage in marketing practices that do not involve
speech. e.g. establishing price of products and place (locating them within a store).
Marketingmix
Product goods or services a company offers to consumers. This can involve creating new
products or modifying existing ones. It's generally more common to find brands
selling unhealthy foods than healthy ones.
Price pricing strategies influence consumer purchases, either by encouraging them to
buy while in stores or by persuading them to visit stores to purchase promoted
goods along with other items.
Promotion the actions used to communicate a food product's features and benefits to
persuade consumers to make a purchase. Examples include out-of-store
promotions, in-store displays, and product packaging. Food advertisements, such
as on TV, encourage consumers to buy products, and promotions in magazines or
newspapers may offer coupons to further drive sales.
Place distribution and warehousing needed to move food from the manufacturer to the
point of sale. It also involves product placement within a retail outlet, such as the
end of an aisle or on specific shelves (top, middle, bottom) or special displays.
Phases in food marketing
Fragmentation Countries were divided into many geographic regions for food sales
phase because transporting food was costly ➔ production, distribution + selling
(end 19th century) mostly localized.
Unification phase Within 1 country, it became possible to sell multiple products, thanks to
(end 19th century - the development of railroads and the coordination of sales forces through
mid 20th century) telegraph and telephone. Large food companies, like Heinz and Coca-Cola
expanded their brands (inter)nationally. Print media advertising & live
demonstrations were key marketing tools during this phase.
2
, Segmentation Radio, television, and internet advertising allowed a broader range of
phase (1950 - products to target different demographic and psychographic markets by
Current) highlighting varied benefits and images. More efficient distribution
systems (flights, boats, trains, trucks) enabled brands to sell their
products globally.
Personalized Advances in big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning,
/Tailored Phase neuromarketing, and eye-tracking have significantly expanded
(2010 - Current) personalized marketing possibilities. These technologies allow for more
precise and effective advertising strategies based on individual consumer
data.
Marketing & Media Evolution Table
Objective Food Marketing? ➔ Increase sales
● The primary responsibility of food companies is to their shareholders, meaning their main
goal is to increase profits.
● The abundance of available food, combined with a wealthy society that can buy more than
they need, leads to intense competition in the food industry.
● Companies compete for every dollar spent on food, developing products that will sell, often
without regard for their impact on nutrition or health.
● Food companies try to convince people to eat more of their product or choose their product
above that of competitors. They use advertising, but also professionals, and media ➔
mostly virtual.
10 companies (and their daughter companies) control everything you buy.
Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, Associated British
Foods, Mondelez.
3
, The promotion of healthy foods. Folkvord (1986): The Psychology of Food Marketing and
Overeating. Foreword.
World’s food supply doesn’t function correctly. It is driven by the same forces that led to their
achievements: the cost efficiencies imposed on the supply chain by the drive for return on
investment.
Low-nutrition foods are a modifiable risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and are
linked to the obesity crisis. WHO implemented a set of recommendations on the marketing of
foods and drinks to children. adopted by the UN, so mostly political commitments.
Two direct functions of advertising:
● Providing information about the product (freedom of speech)
● Induce positive feelings about a product so that potential customers view the product
as desirable and attractive (works mainly at an unconscious level, therefore operates
outside the classical market assumption that purchasers make purely rational choices).
When contemplating restrictions to promotional marketing, two approaches are available:
1. rights-based approach, which says that people and especially children should be
protected from commercially driven inducements to consume
2. risk-based approach, which suggests that the market has freedoms that should only be
curtailed on evidence of harm. Risk-based approaches are seen more often in many
countries.
The promotion of healthy foods. Folkvord (1986): The Psychology of Food Marketing and
Overeating. Introduction.
Obesity emerged as an epidemic in the developed countries (started in Western countries 1980s)
● one of the biggest health concerns
● one of the main drivers behind the unhealthy dietary intake of people over the world is
food marketing.
Food companies’ marketing strategies target determinants for why people choose to eat one food
rather than another, or more instead of less. In order to do that, 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 share-holders.
Marketing
Includes activities and processes designed to communicate and deliver value to consumers,
through advertising e.g., through purchased media (e.g. tv, internet, radio), earned media (e.g.,
social media marketing, influencer marketing, public relations), promotions, and retail strategies.
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