Source: Red and orange cherry tomatoes _ Free Photo – rawpixel
While the food industry will see growth, huge companies will gain more control over people’s choices. In the very arsenal of their power, there is marketing – which is always there, wherever food is, as it determines what we eat, how we think about what we eat and what we buy in the stores.
They employ wise marketing starting from appealing TV ads, fancy wrappers and celebrity ads, to create consumption patterns that cut across and widen market horizons; which more often than not, ends up promoting all of their goods. Marketing, hence, isn’t to be taken lightly. It is what shapes what we consume after all.
Advertising
Advertising is one of the marketing techniques that food manufacturers apply in making advertisement of their products and in this case, affecting what people consume. With billions of dollars spent annually on TV commercials, print and electronic media advertising, and social media promotion, targeted advertising is seeking the attention on potential consumers. Well, at a very basic level, when they market a particular product like food, they make a certain association with it.
Take for instance fast food chains such as McDonald’s. In addition, the advertisements encourage one to feel happy and nostalgic by targeting bright colors, familiar jingles, or their advertisement showing along ‘happy meals. Such images become rooted in the collective memory, and particularly among children who are most inclined towards persistent brand associations from a young age. Such is the power of good advertising.
Packaging
Apart from being a means of promotion, food packaging also serves an important purpose for every brand that wants to manipulate consumer behavior. Packaging is usually the first point of contact between the consumer and the product, something most food companies have perfected, hence, dazzling their customers. Bright colors, good images as well as design add to the appeal of the product, even in cases when the product does not have the nutritional characteristics of the said healthy product.
Another common marketing practice includes making health claims about the products on their packages. Lines such as ‘calorie controlled’, ‘gluten-free’, ‘free from trans fats’ and ‘dairy free’ are promoted even if these values improve on the product. For instance, lots of sugary treats and breakfast cereals are cleverly labeled as ‘made with whole grain’ or ‘enriched with vitamins’ and marketed to the health-conscious consumer. When in reality, they might not be offering any of such health benefits.
Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity endorsements are just as strong a weapon as the other two mentioned above in terms of effect and influence. Products are marketed along with famous people’s names, which usually means that the product is targeted at the audience of essays and celebrities hoping to gain reliability.
Within the realm of health and wellness, it is common for brands to employ fitness influencers or athletes to market things like protein bars, dietary supplements, and other so-called wellness foods. This not only adds legitimacy to the product, but also helps in forming a consumer-endorser relationship based on images. If one takes a protein shake endorsed by a well-known athlete, only the athlete’s performance may be associated with the product and not its actual nutritional value, which is likely to be very low.
Also, there comes another rise of a new class of foodies called food influencers on social media who have great control over what and how their followers eat. In the social networking sites like Instagram and YouTube, a lot of influencers oversee the promotion of detox teas, meal deliveries, or snacks without clarifying paid endorsement, or health impacts of the products. This trend of influencer marketing exploits followers’ love for the opinion of their favorite influencers leading to changes in their consumption patterns.
The Science of Cravings
Many food brands try to understand what is called the science of craving in understand to make a tasty as well as addictive product. “Bliss Point” is the term used for the perfect combination of sugar, salt, and fat that makes it hard for consumers to resist the product because of the pleasure they derive from it. Brands popular such as PepsiCo or Nestlé or Frito-Lay, hire people called food scientists within the industry their products so that they do not miss in the bliss point, which encourages repeat purchases.
The advertising of such food categories tends to promote these particularly delicious and rich foods as something that is on-the-go or ready to consume to fit a schedule. Products such as chips, soda, and candy bars are advertised like fun foods giving one instant satisfaction emphasizing that food is not just for body needs, but rather also for emotional satisfaction.
The Ethics of Food Marketing
Even though it is no secret that the strategies utilized by the major players of the food industry are very effective overall, they nonetheless spar controversies, mainly regarding public health issues and consumer sovereignty. Poor marketing contributes to the bombardment of unhealthy processed foods targeted at kids and the lower class who lack recreational opportunities. For instance, fast food restaurants sell small, inexpensive, and highly calorie helpful foods that are advertised around centers where fresh vegetables are scarce leading to malnutrition.
Another such trick is focusing consumers’ attention on packaging that contains false health benefits leading to consumers being unable to decide on what they should feed on. A cereal made with huge sugar content could boast that the product is “high in fiber” but without clear indications on the packages the clients will think they are making a healthy decision. With the mounting concerns with how marketing affects food selection, there is a growing demand for governments and regulatory bodies to create more strict regulations on advertising which particularly targets children.
The power of marketing in food business cannot be challenged and rejected. These days, when you talk about food companies there are a range of promotional activities such as advertisements, serial endorsements, packaging, product manipulation, and much more methods that food companies have learnt how to apply.
Resources
Advertising
- Chetana HP. (2023, June 16). Functions of Advertising – Importance & Purpose. The Media Ant; The Media Ant. https://www.themediaant.com/blog/functions-of-advertising/
- Kumar, A. (2021, August 20). Why We Need Advertisement? Role of advertising, Characteristics, Advantages, Disadvantages, Negative Effects of Advertising. Getuplearn. https://getuplearn.com/blog/role-of-advertising/
Packaging
- Fripp, G. (2023, November 20). The Main Roles of Product Packaging in Marketing -. Marketing Study Guide. https://www.marketingstudyguide.com/the-main-roles-of-product-packaging-in-marketing/
- Bhasin, H. (2017, January 19). Role of Packaging in Marketing and sales of a product. Marketing91. https://www.marketing91.com/role-of-packaging/
Celebrity Endorsements
- Basiouny, A. (2023, May 30). The Marketing Psychology Behind Celebrity Endorsements. Knowledge at Wharton; Knowledge@Wharton. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-marketing-psychology-behind-celebrity-endorsements/
- 12 Best Celebrity Endorsements of 2023 | GRIN. (2023, August 7). GRIN – Influencer Marketing Software. https://grin.co/blog/best-celebrity-endorsements/
The Science of Cravings
- Dinsa Sachan. (2021, May 28). Why Do We Crave? The Science Behind Food Cravings | Brain World. Brainworldmagazine.com. https://brainworldmagazine.com/crave-science-behind-food-cravings/#google_vignette
- Meule, A. (2020). The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation. Current Nutrition Reports, 9(3), 251–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-020-00326-0
The Ethics of Food Marketing
- Food choices, advertising and ethics What role for advertising in moving towards an ethical food system? (n.d.). https://www.foodethicscouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/150324%20Food%20choices%20advertising%20ethics.pdf
- Food ethics: moral marketing. (2020). Food Science and Technology, 34(1), 38–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsat.3401_11.x
- Boyland, E. (2023). Is it ethical to advertise unhealthy foods to children? Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 82(3), 234–240. doi:10.1017/S0029665123000010
