The marketing of food to children : moving the debate beyond television advertising.

Whilst food marketing to children has been heavily discussed in both the political and
marketing arenas over the past few years, it has predominately concentrated on
television advertising. However, it is now recognised that contemporary marketers are
moving away from television advertising and expanding their range of communications.
Therefore, this thesis looks to widen the debate to other forms of food marketing
communications.
From previous literature and four background interviews a conceptual framework is
developed which highlights the importance of four parties: the food companies (and
their communication agencies), the regulatory bodies, parents and children. The first
two parties are predominantly investigated using secondary data, whilst the primary
research for this study concentrates on the second two parties. As such fourteen
qualitative family interviews with children aged between seven and eleven are
undertaken.
From my findings, the original conceptual framework is developed into an expanded
framework. The framework has four sections. The first section details seventeen types
of communications currently being used by the UK food industry. The second shows
four types of restrictions (two frequency restrictions and two impact restrictions) which
parents use to mediate some of these communications. The third section confirms that
children possess differing levels of understanding across the range of communications.
Finally the fourth section highlights (1) that there are five communications (television
advertising, free gifts, price promotions, tie-ins with television, film and cartoon
characters and children's speciality foods) which children perceive they encounter
frequently and which have an impact on their purchase requests and (2) that there are
seven communications (print advertising, product placement in television and films,
product placement in video games, online advertising, advergames, in-school
communications and branded toys) which they perceive they infrequently encounter
and which have little impact.
Overall this thesis is, to my knowledge, the first to present a holistic consideration of
the marketing of food to children in the UK. It not only includes a full range of
communications but also all the complete process, from the food companies to the
children.