The Marketing of Food and Diets in America

Editorial by Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN
NetNutritionist.com

If someone were to ask you if marketing and the media influence your food choices, the money you spend on food, your decision to diet or not, and the money you spend on diet foods and diets, what would your answer be?

"Of course not. I make my own decisions given the information available to me."  OR "I have so many choices and I decide what is right for me."  OR "I make my decisions about the brands I buy, the food I eat, and the money I spend in the maze of sound bites, images, and subliminal messages that guide me through my day."

Let's look at the following ways that the food and diet industry tries to convince us to spend our money.  In this article we will focus on changes in the advertising media over the holidays and the New Year. 

The goal of the food companies, just like the makers of other consumer products, is to increase the market (or the need) of the consumer. The holiday months from October to December are the biggest months to achieve that goal. Consider some of the ways that holiday marketing can affect the foods we buy during the months of October, November, and December.  Advertising typically starts 3 weeks before the holiday begins subliminally giving us ample time to plan what to buy.   Or better yet, to proactively prepare for the upcoming holiday. Take notice to changes in television advertisements for food and the media during the holidays:

• Television commercials for festive treats like eggnog and peppermint shakes, holiday decorated donuts, special hot chocolate drinks, pumpkin pancakes, and special candies wrapped in holiday bling. 
• Fast food giveaways and promotions such as coupons certificates for a year for every dozen donuts you purchase, mail out pizza deals, buy one get one free and holiday movie characters filled with candy.
• The increase of high-calorie, high-fat, sugary holiday recipes in magazines and newspapers along with discount coupons to sell name brand ingredients like marshmallow crème, chocolate chips, condensed milk, and nuts. Notice that the holiday recipes rarely come with the calories and nutritional information for a serving.
• Popular candies offered in holiday colors and decorations in brown and yellow, orange and black, red and green, and pink and purple.
• The increase of food displays with fresh baked goods, candy, traditional holiday foods such as eggnog, chocolate chips, and nuts.
• The general increase of discount coupons available to "save money" on holiday foods or buy 10 and get a discount.  Who really needs 10 cans of condensed milk or marshmallow crème?
• Restaurants that offer special holiday foods that are so good they could not have any caloric consequence!  A 16 oz Eggnog shake for only 730 calories or get the good deal,  24 oz Eggnog shake for only 1450 calories.

The next time you are in the supermarket, take notice of the lighting, music, and store displays. The goal of the supermarket is to keep you there as long as possible. Market research estimates that approximately $1.89 is spent for every minute a consumer is in the store. Techniques such as the physical location of store items, displays, and slowing down the shopper with lighting and familiar music will entice the shopper to spend more. The most common staples in the American diet are bread and milk. Did you ever notice that the milk and bread are at opposite sides of the grocery store? By stocking those items farther apart the shopper is exposed to more impulse shopping and spends more.  On the way from the milk to the bread you might have to stop several times to throw an extra display item in your basket or to sample a chip, cookie, or wine.

Grocery shopping is often a getaway for moms finding quiet refuge; a shopping experience without the kids.  You can see them slowly strolling down every aisle sipping on there drinks, leaning on the cart, and relaxing to the music. Taking the kids to the grocery store can add to your budget and possibly to the food choices you make.  Sugary cereals are eye level for the little person, and candy displays at checkout can likely tempt the sweetest kids to create a scene at the register.  A modern day tactic to keep us in the grocery stores is to offer a kiosks like Starbucks, Subway, or outdoor café; a place to meet a friend, take the kids after school, or work on the laptop.

Marketing Cues

The entrance of the store invites you to the illusion of the outdoor market displaying fresh produce and flowers (Figures 1 and 2).  Some stores promote the feeling of the natural outdoors by misting the produce with the background sounds of rain and thunderstorms.

Figure 2

The normal eye blinks 32 times in a minute. Store lighting is lowered to reduce the number of blinks per minute to 14, which produces a trance-like state. This trance-like state causes the shopper to slow down the shopping cart therefore increasing the time in the store and the amount of spent (Figure 3). The lighting is normal around the cash register so the customer will be alert when it is time to pay. Another method for slowing down the shopper is the music. Music slower than 60 beats per minute will cause the shopper to slow down the cart. 

Figure 3

Lighting is noticeably illuminated for the customer to find the brand they need quickly ( Figure 4).

Figure 4

Wider aisles convince the shopper to spend more time on a particular aisle. The wider aisles typically stock higher dollar items like frozen foods. The wider aisles usually allow for 2 carts and a person to comfortably pass (Figure 5). The more narrow aisles stock the cheaper staples such as sugar, flour, and salt (Figure 6).

Figure 5

Figure 6

Store specials are most likely at the end of the aisle so the shopper will be more likely to put them into the shopping cart (Figure 6).  They are also illuminated with spotlights to draw the eye to the items and convently located so you can pass them on the way from the milk to the bread (Figures 7).

Figures 7

These subtleties are so sophisticated that the majority of us never notice therefore continue to impulse shop. Once noticed however it is much easier to resist and therefore to stick to the list at hand.

The same environmental cues are used in restaurants to encourage the patron to order more food and thus a higher bill.  Low lights, slow music, comfortable, festive environment, and cozy colors. All the wonderful reasons why we dine out, we just need to be aware so we don’t get out of control….These cues may be enhanced throughout the holidays with holiday decorations, music, and the atmosphere of good cheer.

How Food and Diet Marketing Affects Americans

The subtle cues that are used on people in food establishments, and grocery stores in addition to the advertising and marketing media exposure certainly influence the fact that Americans are overweight.  No one can consume the amount of cheap, high calorie foods without dire consequences.  This type of subliminal influence certainly can be contributed to the following facts:

• Americans gain an average of 1-2 pounds during the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year.  This figure is true for the normal weight person. Overweight individuals gain an estimated 5 pounds during the     holidays. Two out of three Americans are overweight… Holiday weight gain accounts for half of yearly weight gain in the US.
• Weight gain can be as subtle as a daily latte above daily calorie needs.  A sugar coffee drink 200 calories, 250 days a year can lead to a yearly weight gain of 17 pounds.  Also be aware of even more subtle extra calories like grocery store or mall samples…Every extra calorie contributes to added pounds.  10 calories a day over a year of extra food can lead to an extra pound of fat!
• Americans take in a average of 20 teaspoons of sugar a day, or 75-100# a year, 16% of daily calories from sugar
• Americans consume 1 of 3 meals out of the home everyday.  The current trend is eating breakfast and afternoon snacks on the run.
• Americans do not consume adequate amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables
• The most abundantly consumed food outside the home is carbonated beverages and French fries

You could also ask yourself why kids eat more sugary cereals, why the number one recreational pass time in America is watching television? The time spent watching television comes in third to the amount of time spent working and sleeping.  Lets look some statistics regarding dieting habits in the United States:

• The US population spends approximately 60 billion dollars per year on weight loss including low calorie foods and beverages
• That is 50 times the money spent by the United Nations for Hunger and Famine Relief
• 95% of the people gain back all their weight within the time it took to lose it
• One out of every 3 Americans is on a diet
• More than 40 million dollars a year is spent on advertising for over-the-counter diet pills and appetite suppressants
• Surveys reveal numbers as high as 1 out of 5 teenage girls between 12-17 take over-the-counter diet pills
• 70 percent of young girls start dieting by the age of 10

The advertising campaigns by radio, TV, Internet, and printed media that begins mid-December conditioning Americans to diet beginning in January is huge. The popular diet products, aids, programs, and infomercials rev up the media attention anticipating the urgency of Americans to shed the pounds gained the during the previous months. Be aware of the promotion of these advertisements and the content of commercials. Most ads show dramatic results of the people in the ads with the disclaimer at the bottom of the screen that read, "Results not typical". Celebrity endorsements, the television tabloids and new segments that report on trends in dieting suggest to us all that everyone is doing it. That further feeds the frenzy to get in shape by using this program, taking that product, or buying a piece of exercise equipment.

Now there is the added marketing and emphasis on the marvels of cosmetic surgery to boost the hopes of us all to reclaim youth and sleek figures.  It is a great thing to look your best but these procedures require careful consideration, realistic expectation, and serious study. The best plastic surgeons in the world will tell you that the first step to looking good is a healthy lifestyle. They will also say that procedures like liposuction are NOT for weight control.

This year notice the power of marketing for food and diets.  The economy and our health makes it necessary to become more moderate about spending and consumption. See if you can identify the subtle hints in articles, recipe placement, advertising and store displays that try to convince you to spend your money to eat and diet.  Maybe your new found awareness will influence you to make some changes in the way you spend, eat, and diet. Maybe the awareness will cause you to maintain your weight saving you money and calories.

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