DF1: Food marketing

What is food marketing according to Schaffner, Schroder & Earle (1998)?

Communicating to the consumer through marketing techniques to add value to a food product and persuade them to purchase; covers all activities between product completion and purchase

What two categories of marketing do Pomeranz & Adler (2015) distinguish?

1. Speech-based communication (traditional advertising and broader promotion such as PR and social media content) 2. Non-speech activities such as pricing and in-store placement

What are the 4 P's of the marketing mix?

1. Product 2. Price 3. Promotion 4. Place

What does Product refer to in the food marketing mix?

The goods offered to the consumer, either a new food product or a modified or improved existing one

What does Price refer to in the food marketing mix?

Using pricing to influence buying in the store, or to lure people into the store where they also buy unrelated products

What does Promotion refer to in the food marketing mix?

Actions that communicate a product's features and benefits to persuade purchase; out-of-store, in-store and on-pack (TV ads, coupons)

What does Place refer to in the food marketing mix?

Distribution and warehousing to get food to the point of sale, plus location within the store (end of aisle, shelf height, display case)

Why is promotion considered the most important P?

It creates habits (want coffee, go to Starbucks); habitual customers come back every time

What are the four historical phases of food marketing?

1. Fragmentation (end 19th century) 2. Unification (end 19th to mid 20th century) 3. Segmentation (1950 to 2010) 4. Personalized/tailored (2010 to now)

What characterized the fragmentation phase?

Transporting food was expensive, so markets were divided into geographic fragments with local production, distribution and sales

What made the unification phase possible?

Railroads and boats for distribution, telegraph and telephone for coordinating sales forces, manufacturing advances for consistency; national brands like Heinz and Coca-Cola used print ads and in-store demonstrations

What distinguishes the segmentation phase from the unification phase?

Unification sold one brand nationally; segmentation used radio, TV and internet to position competing products on different benefits and images for different demographic and psychographic segments (Coke vs Pepsi)

What drives the personalized/tailored phase of food marketing?

Big data, AI, machine learning, neuromarketing and eye-tracking; AI is seen as the new phase

Explain why tailored advertising is more persuasive than mass advertising

The more tailored the ad, the less skepticism: personalized, covert messages feel relevant and lower recognition of persuasive intent and critical thinking

How does adolescent processing presumably change when marketing moves from traditional to social media?

Engagement and attitude toward marketing go up; cognitive elaboration, recognition of intent, critical thinking and ability to defend go down

What distinguishes traditional media from social media food marketing?

Traditional: broad audience, parental control, fixed place and time, limited exposure, passive, celebrities, overt. Social: personalized, less parental control, anywhere anytime, abundant exposure, active engagement, peers and influencers, covert, borderless

According to Nestle, why do food companies market products regardless of health effects?

An abundant food supply plus an affluent society creates fierce competition for every dollar; to satisfy stakeholders companies must get people to eat more or to eat theirs instead of competitors'

Besides advertising, how do food companies protect their sales according to Nestle?

Through PR and by convincing government officials, nutrition professionals and media that their products are healthy or at least harmless; largely invisible

What are the ten largest food companies?

Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg's, Mars, Associated British Foods, Mondelez