How Marketers Reach Young Consumers: Implications for Nutrition Education and Health Promotion Campaigns

Family Economics and Nutrition Review, Fall, 1998 by Vivica Kraak, David L. Pelletier

Developers of the USDA Team Nutrition Campaign have identified the product or offering (e.g., selecting more fruits, vegetables, and grains and eating less fat to improve health) for two audiences: the primary segmented audiences (e.g., children and teenage youth) and secondary target audiences (e.g., parents, educators, and school food service personnel). The secondary audiences act as influentials for the primary audiences. The place (e.g., mass media, schools, and homes) has also been identified (5). The knowledge that marketers and nutrition researchers have gained about children and teenage youth can provide important insights about price (e.g., young consumers' perceived benefits and barriers to eating more healthfully) and promotion (the communication channels and tools that have the most credibility for these groups) (1,20,25).

An organizational-based strategy for addressing the fifth "P," politics, also needs to be devised. The USDA Team Nutrition can be a successful public-private partnership of government agencies, the food and agricultural industries, education, school food service, and health and consumer groups joining together to improve the diet and health of children (5). The partnership will be successful if organizational incentives are created to identify common interests, if organizational obstacles and disincentives are appropriately identified and managed, and if healthy communication is fostered among the array of stakeholders (10,19).

Market research can also provide useful information about the nature and extent of the marketing competition and the additional consumer behavior research that is needed to design an effective and sustainable campaign. The techniques used by market researchers can give nutrition educators new approaches to obtain information from children and teenage youth to tailor and deliver, more effectively, nutrition and health promotion messages that capture their attention and influence their behavior. Manufacturers, retailers, market researchers, and the media may be more amenable to entering collaborative partnerships with nutrition educators when common interests are identified and win-win situations are pursued. This approach is preferable to nutrition educators attempting to compete with commercial advertisers. However, partnerships across sectors present many challenges, including the potential for compromised credibility, implied endorsement of specific products, issues of exclusivity, and inequities of decisionmaking (19).

Addressing Perceived Benefits and Barriers

How can young consumers be motivated to change their eating behavior to approach the recommendations outlined in the Healthy People Objectives 2000 and the Dietary Guidelines? Telling them of the risks to their health or discussing the nutrient value of foods has not been effective (20). Behaviorally focused nutrition education targeted to children uses such strategies as exposure to foods in a positive social context,, modeling by peers and adults, and appropriate use of rewards (8).