End Term Report_marketing

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Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................2INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................3LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................6RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................10RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................11

Target Population .............................................................................................................12Sampling Technique ........................................................................................................ 14........................................................................................................................................ 14

DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................ 15DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................. 18

Analysis of Appeal Methods in the Advertisements: ...................................................... 18Audio-Visual Appeal Methods ....................................................................................18Rewards .......................................................................................................................19Product Attribute Themes ............................................................................................19Narrative Themes .........................................................................................................19

Analysis of Responses of Children to these Advertisements: ......................................... 20RESULTS AND FINDINGS ...............................................................................................21

Results of the analysis of contents of the ads .................................................................. 21Results of the primary survey ..........................................................................................28

LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................... 36CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................... 38

ANNEXURES ....................................................................................................................40Questionnaire ...................................................................................................................43List of Products ................................................................................................................47

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 48Articles: ............................................................................................................................48Books: ..............................................................................................................................49Websites: ..........................................................................................................................49


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Advertising of food products to children on TV is a very popular phenomenon. More than50% of all the ads shown on Kids Television Channels are food advertisements. This

study is conducted in order to find out the recent trends in the appeal methods used inadvertising food to children.

By appeal methods here we mean the use of various techniques in order to get targetaudience, in this case, children, to act in accordance with the desires of the advertisers.The appeal methods can be use of animation, celebrity, slogans, jingles, etc.

The study is conducted in two parts:

1. the analysis of the contents of the contemporary food ads on television and;

2. the analysis of responses of children towards these ads.

From this study, a number of insights were generated such as - which are the most popularappeal methods used by the advertisers and which appeal methods are extractingfavourable responses from the children. The geographical area that was taken for thepurpose of the study was Dwarka, New Delhi.

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INTRODUCTION

In todays world, children have become major influencers in product purchase decisions of

a family. According to a survey conducted in the United States of America, American

children 12 years or younger spent $28 billion of their own money and influenced $250

billion of family spending in 2000 (Gunter, Oates & Blades, 2005). Given these figures, it

is not surprising that it is estimated that children in the United States view as many as

40,000 advertisements each year (Kunkel, 2001). Marketers see children as a lucrative

market, and advertising to this segment is increasing (Gunter et al., 2005).

This onslaught of advertising to children has motivated many to question whether

advertising unfairly manipulates children. In particular, there are concerns about the

promotion of food products and fast food restaurants. In recent years, the incidence of

childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the United States, and many critics point

to food advertising as a possible cause.

Existing theory lends support to those that are concerned that advertising affects children.

In particular, Banduras Social Learning Theory posits that we often learn by observing

the behavior of others. We learn consequences of a new behavior when we see what

happens when others try it. Also, we learn not just from live models, but also from those

that we see or read about in media (Crain, 2005). According to Bandura (2001)

Much social learning occurs either designedly or unintentionally from models in ones

immediate environment. However, a vast amount of information about human values,

styles of thinking, and behavior patterns is gained from the extensive modeling in the

symbolic environment of the mass media.

When applied to food advertising in particular, Social Learning Theory would suggest that

observing eating and purchasing behavior in commercials would serve to teach children

what is appropriate behavior when it comes to eating. Indeed, empirical research on

childrens food advertising has shown that food advertising affects childrens knowledge,

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beliefs, and behaviors regarding food choice and nutrition (Gorn & Goldberg, 1978;

Haefner et al., 1975; Halford et al., 2004, for example).

Furthermore, advertisers use a myriad of techniques to increase the effectiveness of their

ads and enhance their brands in order to reach the child audience. According to Bandura

(1977), People cannot learn much by observation unless they attend to, and perceive

accurately, the significant features of the modeled behavior. Also, Social Learning

Theory states that people are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if the behavior is

shown to have valuable, positive consequence (Bandura, 1977). Hence, it can be expected

that food commercials are more likely to be effective if they are successful in gaining a

childs attention and show appealing consequences.

In this study, the term appeal methods is used to describe the techniques that

advertisers use to appeal to children. Several content analyses have examined appeal

methods (Barcus, 1972, 1975a, 1975b; Kunkel, 1992). Furthermore, a handful of these

studies focus specifically on the appeal methods used in advertisements for food products

(Rajecki, 1994; Atkin & Heald, 1977; Winick; Leslie R. Williams, 2002 et al.). Many

argue that some of these techniques fail to provide useful information about the quality of

the product being advertised (Committee on Consumer Policy, 1982), and that they often

mislead children (Gunter, Oates & Blades 2005).

A limited number of studies have assessed the impact of these appeal methods on

childrens knowledge, belief, and behavioral responses to food ads (Atkin & Gibson,

1978; Rubin, 1972; Shrimp et al., 1975). Most of these studies were undertaken in the

1970s, so the research should be updated. More experimental research is needed to

address the possible unfair or misleading aspects of such techniques. However, since it

would be virtually impossible to conduct an experiment examining the effects and possible

misleading nature of all of the appeal techniques utilized by advertisers, a comprehensive

content analysis of the appeal methods utilized during childrens programming should be

undertaken in order to determine which techniques are used most often. Practically

speaking, resources should be focused on studying those techniques that are utilized most

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often by advertisers. The purpose of this study is to determine those appeal methods which

appear most frequently in childrens television food advertising.

With India heading towards globalization and its per capita income rising rapidly, the

trends are quite similar in India today. This brings in the need for conduction of such a

study in India that will help the advertisers better understand the appeals which can be

used while advertising products to children. Studies of this kind have been much popular

in the west where child advertising is quite developed. In India, advertising to children is

still in its nascent stages and not much work is there in this line. Whatever little is done, is

from the industry perspective and the academic perspective is missing.

The primary reason why child advertising has been such an unexplored area is the lack of

purchasing power in the hands of children in India in the past. With the rising purchasing

power in the Indian households and budding of double income households in India, the

amount of spending influenced by children is steadily on the rise. As such, much work is

to be done in the field of child advertising in India

The objective of the study is to find the appeals methods that have been quite popular with

the advertisers while advertising food products to children and how the children react to

this kind of advertising. This opens up the gates to further studies in the field of childadvertising both for the marketers as well as those who oppose advertising to children.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Moschis (1978) observed Children and adolescents appear to be influenced by vastlydifferent socialization processes when it comes to consumer learning from

television/advertising. Children are primarily affected by mere exposure to the medium,implying that increased levels of exposure will lead to increased skill levels. Adolescentsare more affected by the use they make of television/advertising, much of which has beenfound to be social in nature (Moschis 1978). Social processes such as communication withpeers may condition adolescents perceptions and interest in goods and services, which inturn lead to their paying more attention to television programs and commercials to learnabout the social uses of products (Bandura 1971; Moschis 1978). This implies atransactional model of communication effects (as proposed by McLeod and Becker 1974).

Goldstein (1998) found that television is considered a major influence on the consumersocialization of children, as it is the primary medium through which children are exposed

to product advertising (Ward et al. 1977). The relative degree of such influence (comparedto parents and peers) is a contentious one, however. Critics of advertising suggest that ithas the primary socializing influence on youthan influence so strong that it is both unfair(i.e. takes advantage of the lower levels of development in younger children) andundesirable (i.e. helps in acquiring irrational motives for consumption and a strong desirefor brands and products) (John 1999; Moschis 1978). Others argue that parents and peersare the main sources of learning of consumer skills (Goldstein 1998; Moschis andChurchill 1978). This can be further supported by the fact that youth fads (e.g. roller skatesand mens earrings) are perpetuated by word of mouth and imitation, rather thanadvertising. Advertising, in fact, often cashes in on what children and adolescents considerpopular products and trends rather than creating such trends (Goldstein 1998). Research

suggests however that the consumer socializing influence of television is strong enoughfor it to play a mediating role on the influence of other consumer socialization agents suchas parents and peers (Churchill and Moschis 1979; Moschis 1978), though they may alsoin turn mediate advertisings influence (Moschis 1978). While in the case of both childrenand adolescents, television provides opportunities for increased consumption-orientedinteraction with their parents (Churchill and Moschis 1979; Moschis 1978); in the case ofadolescents it may actually decrease such interaction with peers (Churchill and Moschis1979).

Uusitalo and Takala (1993) further suggest that the impact of television/advertising onchildren and adolescents seems limited by their developing cognitive abilities. It will have

a differential impact on children in different stages of development (Uusitalo and Takala1993; Ward et al. 1977) because, as children mature, they make a transition from viewerswho see advertising as purely informative, entertaining, and trustworthy to ones who viewadvertising in a more skeptical, analytical, and discerning fashion (John 1999 p. 191).Children are more perceptually bound in early childhood (Ward et al. 1977) and hencetheir learning from television commercials may be influenced primarily by perceptualcharacteristics. This implies that recall of advertising is poor among younger children andbecomes complex, multi-dimensional and complete only as they grow older (Ward et al.

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1977). Sanft (1986) found that children recall information that is peripheral to the product,and young children in particular, recall very little product relevant information. Childrentowards the end of early childhood play with the content of commercials rather than takethem as providing serious product information. Those who are about to reach adolescencehowever have considerably developed cognitive skills and develop a slightly more critical

attitude towards advertising, especially towards its untruthful rhetoric (Uusitalo andTakala 1993). Research has found that elementary school children cannot identify storesfrom their advertising slogans. Given young childrens frequent exposure to television, theonly likely reason for this may be that the socializing influence of advertising does notextend to the kind of processing that would put brand names and advertising slogans in thelong-term memory of young children (Reece 1984). As in the case of children, cognitivedevelopment has a role to play in adolescents interactions with television. Theincreasingly complex content and structure of adolescents cognitive capabilities andmental models have been shown to precipitate epistemic doubt (as defined by Boyes andChandler 1992), and hence adolescents may become extremely skeptical due to their ownchanging beliefs and the realization of the relativeness of truth (Boush, Friestad, and Rose

1994). This cognitive dynamism of adolescence extends to beliefs and attitudes aboutconsumer behaviour (Boush et al. 1994), as evidenced by the fact that older adolescentshave greater consumer affairs knowledge, are better able to differentiate product attributeinformation in advertisements, and have less favorable attitudes toward advertising than doyounger adolescents (Churchill and Moschis 1979; Moschis and Moore 1979a). Cognitivedevelopment may predict the acquisition of cognitive defenses towards commercials inadolescents (Moschis 1978).

Jacquelyn Massey (2008)

The advertising industry itself has funded dozens of studies on children designed toenhance marketing effectiveness. According to the industry newsletter, Selling to Kids,Saatchi & Saatchi hired clinical psychologists and cultural anthropologists to record morethan 500 hours of interviews and observations of children between the ages of six and 20.Increasingly, such research is taking place in schools. (Linn 2) And according to USATODAY, grade schools in Connecticut accepted $5,000 from a company in exchange forpermission to interview 10- to 12-year-old students in classrooms after school. TheGepetto Group conducts focus groups and consults with psychologists to help businessesbetter understand how to market to teens by exploiting their vulnerabilities. Teens are ...an oppositional subculture, interested in shutting out the adult world, the firm's chiefstrategic officer explained in a Selling to Kids interview. There are enormousopportunities for the marketer who is able to understand both the reality and fantasy ofteen life. (Linn 2)It has been documented that the average teenager spends about 6 hours a day (38+hours/week) using mediatelevision, movies, magazines, newspapers, playing videogames and using the computer. The average child sees approximately 20,000 commercialsa year. About 57% of viewers surveyed in 1996 enjoy commercials as much as televisionprograms. Advertisers spend over $40 billion each year on television commercials. By thetime a child is 18, he or she will have seen about 20,000 food commercials advertisingfood low in nutrition. It is estimated that teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 spend$100 a week or $144 billion per year on clothing, entertainment, and fast food. Advertisersnow realize that children not only influence the purchases of the goods and services that

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appeal to them, but they also influence many of the purchases in the entire household. Forexample, it is estimated that 78% of children influence what their parents buy (McDougalLittell, 2001). These purchases can be small to large ticket items. It is no longer up to theparents alone to decide what the family needs. With our fast-paced society, teenagers arebeing left more on their own to make decisions that have a direct impact on families, and

these decisions are often influenced by what advertising they seethrough print,television, radio, and the internet.

Roy L Moore and George P Moschis (2000) suggest that learning of various kinds oforientations toward advertising and consumer behavior may be mainly a social process,with significant others serving as important sources of consumer information. From theshort-term perspective these findings provide little support for the idea that the mass mediacreates desires, which in turn cause people to work harder to earn the necessary money tosatisfy these desires (2, p. 158). Instead, the data tend to suggest that the material valuesystem arises ' 'out of basic socialization processes that go far deeper than the currentmediated influence through the mass media. Critics of advertising directed at young

people argue that advertising is powerful in shaping consumer behavior. Taken as a whole,this study provideslittle support for this contention. The amount of advertisingtheadolescent is exposed to in television correlated rather weakly with only one of the severaltypes of advertising reaction measures; and it did not correlate significantly with any oneof the consumption measures. Instead, interpersonal communication variables were bettercorrelated with our criterion variables. For example, while the amount of televisionviewing was not positively related to the child's propensity to work in order to satisfyconsumption needs, the extent of parent-to-adolescent communication about consumptionmatters was associated with the child's propensity to work for long-term consumptiongoals. Apparently, parents teach their children budgeting skills and the importance of workas a means of gratifying long-term consumption desires. We also used various cognitiveorientations to advertising as more direct measures of advertising influence. Again therelationship between these variables and our consumption behavior variables were ratherweak, and even of negative magnitude. Otily the child's ability to retain advertisinginformation was positively associated with a few of the criterion measures (availablespending money and work motives for immediate consumption). Given the nature of thiscognitive variable, however, one might infer from this association that young people retainadvertising information when they are likely to make consumption decisions (because theyhave money to spend or work to satisfy consumption needs). Thus opportunities forconsumption may condition the child's perception of the importance of various types ofinformation in television advertisements, making such information important for the child.Although previous writers speculated that media advertising may shape the content andform of interpersonal communications, this study found that mere exposure to advertisingdid not set the scene for interpersonal communication about consumption(l3). Forexample, the correlations between the amount of television use and intrafamilycommunications were minimal, and the amount of television viewing was negativelyrelated to the adolescent's frequency of communication with his peers (Table 3). Instead,interpersonal communication with parents and peers about consumer goods and servicesappears to contribute to the child's awareness of the relevance of goods and service, whichis shown by his increasing interest in advertisements (attention to, interest in. and desirefor advertised products). This is consistent with findings of a recent study of consumer

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socialization. Finally, the child's age was linked to some aspects of his consumer leaming,suggesting that a cognitive developmental approach may not accurately explain adolescentconsumer socialization. The data suggest that the formation of advertising attitudes andadvertising credibility may take place during childhood; and that ability to recalladvertising information as well as susceptibility to advertising may be developing during

the person's adolescent years.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The topic undertaken to study here is Analysis of Appeal Methods used in Childrens

Television Food Advertising. Hence, the objective of the study can be broken down into

the following parts:

Which are the popular television channels that children watch?

What all food products are advertised on these channels?

What is the content of these advertisements?

What is most liked by the children in these advertisements?

All these research questions can be clubbed into two broad categories:

RQ 1. Of all the appeal methods utilized in childrens television food advertising,

which are the most relevant and important for future research?

RQ 2. How these appeals affect childrens consumption pattern/buying behavior?

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study undertaken is exploratory in nature. For the purpose of simplicity, the study isbroken down into two parts:

1. Analysis of the food advertisements aired during the childrens TV programmes and

on the TV channels catering to children.

2. Study of how these appeals affect the childrens consumption patterns.

The first part of the study where the contents of the food advertisements are analyzed is

conducted as follows:

I. First of all, television channels specially targeting children are identified

For this purpose, a focused group study of 20 children and their mothers was

conducted. In this process, answers to the following questions were sought:

a) Which all channels do the children usually watch?

b) Which programmes were most popular among the children?

c) Which of them were preferred by girls and which of them are preferred by

the boys?

d) What do the children do during the airing of commercials?

II. After identifying the channels, the ads on these channels are observed

In this step, a census of all the ads aired on the identified channels was done. This was

done in the following manner:

a) From the previous step, five television channels were identified

b) Five consecutive days were picked in a particular week for the collection of ads

c) Each day a particular channel was picked and the ads aired on that particular

channel for that particular day from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm were observed

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III. From all the ads observed, the food advertisements are segregated and studied

For this purpose, a set of questions were prepared. The details of this step are providedin the annexure section of this report

The second part of the study was the collection of the responses of children to these ads.

Thus this part comprised of a primary survey of the children. The details of this part are as

follows:

I. A questionnaire is developed to gauge the responses of children

The questionnaire developed is provided in the annexure to this report.

II. A primary survey of 100 children from 10 schools of Dwarka is conducted

For the purpose of the primary sample survey, the sample design is as follows:

Target Population

The target population in this case is a child in the group age of 9-12 years with access totelevision. Thus the population can be defined as follows:

All the children enrolled in the schools of Dwarka in classes 6th, 7th and

8th

Dwarka has a total of 42 schools

Each school has approximately an average of 3 sections of each class

with around 60 students in each section

Thus, each school has approximately 540 students of the target

population for this study

The Sample Frame for this study is the list of students enrolled in all

the schools of Dwarka in the classes 6th, 7th and 8th

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Sampling Technique

The sampling technique used for the purpose of this survey is Convenience Sampling.

10 schools were visited during the lunch break and at end of day, and

the target group of students were interviewed

Out of these 10 schools, 10 schools are picked at random

Sample size: 100

Area of Study: Dwarka, New Delhi

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DATA COLLECTION

Analysis of Appeal Methods in the Advertisements:

The data collection for this part was done as stated in the previous section of the report.

First of all, a focused group interview of 20 children within the age group of 9-12 years

and their mothers was conducted. The interview was conducted for only those who were

willing to participate. In order to keep a balance in the views expressed, 9 out of 20 were

boys while the rest 11 were girls.

From this interview, it was found that the children watch a variety of channels and a very

wide range of programmes. These include cartoon channels, Disney Channel airing

programmes targeting kids and teenagers, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National

Geographic, Sports Channels, Soap Operas, etc.

Out of these only five majorly watched channels were targeting their programmes to kids

while the rest of them, though have viewership in kids but do not focus on them.

The five channels that came out were as follows:

Cartoon Network

Disney Channel

Hangama TV

POGO

Jetix

A five days starting from 6th

Jan 2012 to 10th

Jan 2012 were picked in order to record the

ads flashed on these channels. Each day a single channel was chosen. All ads flashed on it

from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm were recorded. A set of questions were prepared and answered

after every unique food ad was flashed.

This was done as follows:

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In each commercial break, the name of every product that was being advertised was

written down. At the end of the day, when the list was filtered, all the different food

advertisements found were gathered. Now, the recorder had to answer the questions for

each individual food advertisement.

The questions asked were as follows:

1. Was the ad an animated one?

2. Was there a jingle in the background?

3. Was there a particular slogan in the ad?

4. Were there any celebrities featuring in the ad?

5. Were there any freebies advertised with the product?

6. A short note about what was there in the ads.

This data was collected in a well designed form. A sample of the form is provided in the

annexure.

Response of children to these ads:

This part of the research was a primary survey. As previously mentioned, a questionnaire

was developed for the purpose of data collection. Then a list of all the schools was

collected. In all there are 42 schools in Dwarka Region. Ten schools were picked for the

purpose of the survey.

The chosen school was visited, it was always tried to procure a list of all the students

enrolled in classes 6th, 7 th and 8th so that a real random sampling could be done. However,

in most cases the school authorities were asked to send any three students from the above

mentioned classes and one student from any of the three classes.

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Once the students were available, they were given a list of the advertised products. Then,

they were verbally asked the questions from the questionnaire. Their responses were

entered into the questionnaire by the person administering the questionnaire. Both the

questionnaire and the list of products are given in the annexure.

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DATA ANALYSIS

Analysis of Appeal Methods in the Advertisements:Bandura argues that observational learning is governed by four processes or sub-

functions: attention, retention, production, and motivational processes (2001). First,

attention processes determine what an individual observes from the plethora of modeling

influences. Furthermore, people have to remember observed events in order to be

influenced by them. According to Bandura (2001), Retention involves an active process

of transforming and restructuring information conveyed by modeled events into rules and

conceptions for memory representation. The third sub-function, production, is the

behavioral production process. This is the process where symbolic conceptions are

translated into suitable courses of action.

Thus the appeals methods have been categorized into four groups:

1. Audio-visual techniques

2. Premium offers

3. Product attribute themes

4. Narrative themes.

Audio-Visual Appeal Methods

First, the different audio-visual techniques that advertisers use will be examined. In

particular, the presence or absence of a slogan or jingle, types of animation, celebrities,

characters, and tie-ins with movies, websites, and television shows will be coded.

According to Bandura (2001), Retention is greatly aided by the symbolic transformations

of modeled information into memory codes and cognitive rehearsal of the information. It

is likely that these audio-visual appeal methods assist children in retention of the

information in a commercial and also induce attention among children because of the

increased salience that they bring to the food advertisement.

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Rewards

Rewards are another group of appeal methods that are examined. I define rewards as any

kind of incentive for purchasing the product other than the product itself. Rewards and

collecting serve as motivating incentives to consume and request the advertised product.

Arguably, children will be more likely to perform the modeled behavior if obtaining some

type of toy or other reward is shown as a consequence of the behavior. According to

Bandura (1977), By representing foreseeable outcomes symbolically, people can convert

future consequences into current motivators of behavior.

Product Attribute Themes

Third, various types of product attribute themes used are examined. Attribute themes are

defined as tangible claims made about the actual product advertised. Specifically,

newness, taste, texture, and nutritional claims were coded.

In terms of Social Learning Theory, it is likely that these product attribute themes would

be viewed as positive consequences by children, and hence, children would be more

motivated to request or consume the product if such themes were included in a

commercial.

Narrative Themes

The fourth group of variables is narrative themes. Commercials typically tell one, unified

story. Specifically, 5 major themes: action/sports performance, popularity, change in

mood, competition and family togetherness were identified. The presence ofhumor and

violence were also identified.

In terms of Social Learning Theory, themes that were just part of the setting and themes

that were shown to result from consumption of the product were differentiated in order to

determine if the themes were more likely to be operating as attention or motivational

processes. For example, if children are shown laughing and playing throughout an

advertisement, then it is likely that this type of appeal is most likely to affect a childs

attention processes. A child might find such a portrayal salient, and thus pay attention to

the modeled event. On the other hand, if an advertisement shows a character becoming

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happy right after eating candy, then it is more likely that this appeal would function as a

motivation for the child.

Analysis of Responses of Children to these Advertisements:

The analysis of responses was more focused on what the child could retain from all the ads

that he/she was being exposed to. The analysis was done in order to locate any pattern in

the responses. The probable pattern that the study was looking for was that if a particular

set of themes was being more easily recalled by the children, or if children could hardly

recall any particular theme. Also, I tried to locate if there was any similarity in the

responses of the same gender and how the responses of one gender were different.

It is usually, seen that girls and boys grow differently at this age and their likings and

disliking towards different programmes and TV channels are different. Girls are more

likely to be affected by the emotional contents of the programmes while boys are likely to

get attracted towards violence, action and sports. A similar kind of pattern is expected

from the responses of these children.

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RESULTS AND FINDINGS

The results of the study can again be divided into two parts:

1. Results of the analysis of contents of the ads

2. Results of the primary survey

Results of the analysis of contents of the ads

Channel

No. of

commercial

Ads

No. of

Food

Ads Percentage

Cartoon

Network 426 254 59.62

Disney Channel 318 189 59.43Hangama TV 230 156 67.83

POGO 149 98 65.77

Jetix 132 69 52.27

TOTAL 1255 766 61.04

The total number of commercial advertisements shown on all kids television channels

together came out to be 1,255 out of which 766 were food advertisements. Thus,

approximately 61% of the commercials on kids television are food ads. This percentage is

different for different channels.

There were 24 food brands that were advertising on the kids television channels. These

could be classified into 6 broad categories:

FOOD PRODUCT

CATEGORY

Frequency

(without

repetition)

Frequency

(with

repetition)

Percentage

(with

repetition)

Percentage

(with

repetition)

Health Drink 3 174 12.5 22.715

Fruit Drink 2 12 8.33 1.5666

Snacks 7 223 29.17 29.112

Restaurants 3 28 12.5 3.6554

Chocolates and Candies

(C&C)7 267 29.17

34.856

Biscuit 2 62 8.33 8.094

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The categories Snacks and; Chocolates and Candies had had maximum no. brands that

were advertising. When taken into consideration the frequency of each ad, the category,Chocolates and Candies had maximum no. of ads aired equal to 267 followed by the

Snacks category airing 223 ads in total.

The snacks category is a vast category including a variety of products such as instant

noodles like Maggie, breakfast cereals, ketchup, jam etc.

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The Various Brands advertising are as follows:

NO. BRANDPRODUCT

TYPEFREQUENCY

1 Horlicks Health Drink 72

2 Boost Health Drink 35

3 Bornvita Health Drink 67

4 Fruity Fruit Drink 5

5 Real Fruit Juice Fruit Drink 7

6 Kelloggs Cornflakes Snacks 33

7 Kissan Jam Snacks 128 Maggie Snacks 21

9 Kelloggs Chocos Snacks 69

10 Snack Break Pudding Snacks 24

11 Maggie Cuppa Mania Snacks 8

12 Maggie Tomato Ketchup Snacks 56

13 Mc. Donalds Restaurants 4

14 Dominos Restaurants 10

15 Pizza Hut Restaurants 14

16 Boomer C&C 35

17 Dairymilk Shots C&C 3618 Candyman C&C 48

19 Babbaloo Bubble-gum C&C 71

20 Munch Pop-chocs C&C 39

21 Nestle Munch C&C 28

22 Mentos C&C 10

23 Parle G Biscuit 60

24 Britannia Sunfeast Biscuit 2

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The contents of the ads were analyzed on the basis of presence of a certain characteristics

in the ads. These characteristics are classified into following four categories:

1. Audio Visuals: Presence of Animation, Jingle, Slogan and Celebrity

2. Rewards: Presence of any sales promotion in the advertisement, like some

freebies.

3. Product Attributes: If the product attributes were the basis of the ads.

4. Dramatization: If the ads were telling some unified story

The results are as follows:

Attribute

No. of Ads

(withoutrepetition)

Percentage

(withoutrepetition)

No. of Ads

(withrepetition)

Percentage

(withrepetition)

Animation 7 29.17 217 28.33

Jingle 13 54.17 418 54.57

Slogan 10 41.67 357 46.61

Celebrity 7 29.17 237 30.94

Rewards 6 25 175 22.85

ProductAttribute

12 50 304 39.69

Dramatization 10 41.67 373 48.69

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Though the number of brands using product attributes for advertising the product is more

than those using dramatization, yet the exposure of the audience is more to the ads that are

dramatized. This is primarily because it is seen that dramatization is more used by the

C&C and the Snacks categories.

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A very interesting thing was found that when the snacks category was further broken into

those foodstuffs that claimed nutritional value and those that didnt and the nutritional

food were clubbed with health drinks and juices, there was a high chance that the product

was using product attributes to advertise.

The correlation between a food-product having nutritional value and product using

product attribute theme came out to be 0.91.

Appeal

Methods Used

Frequency Distribution (without repetition)

Total

Health

Drink

Fruit

DrinkSnacks

Restauran

tsC&C

Biscuit

s

Animation 0 0 1 0 5 1 7Jingle 1 1 2 3 5 1 13

Slogan 2 1 2 1 3 1 10

Celebrity 2 0 1 1 2 1 7

Rewards 1 0 3 1 0 1 6

Product

Attribute3 2 3 1 3 0 12

Dramatization 0 0 3 1 4 2 10

When the appeals used in the advertisements are studied following is the frequency

distribution which is found. Majority of the ads are focused Action/Sports Performance

Type of Appeal

Frequency

(without

repetition)

Action/ Sports

Performance7

Popularity 2

Change in Mood 4

Competition 4Family Togetherness 3

Humor 4

TOTAL 24

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Change in mood is an appeal which is popular with almost all types of food products.

Action/Sport

s

Performance

Popularit

y

Chang

e in

Mood

Competitio

n

Family

Togethernes

s

Humo

r

HealthDrink

2 0 0 1 0 0

Fruit

Drink0 1 1 0 0 0

Snacks 0 1 0 1 2 3

Restaurant

s0 0 1 0 1 1

C&C 5 0 1 1 0 0

Biscuits 0 0 1 1 0 0

Health drinks use either Action/Sports performance or competition. This is very

logical as these products are positioned as giving nutrition for growth and energy.

Action/Sports Performance appeal is also very popular with the C&C category.

Thus it can be safely concluded that Action/Sports Performance appeal is the most

commonly used appeal in advertising food to children.

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Results of the primary survey

In order to have less of gender biases, as far as possible equal no. of boys and girls were

chosen for the survey. The breakup of the sample into the two genders is as follows:

When asked if the children almost all of them mentioned that they were aware of almost

all the products given in the list. Also most of them mentioned that at one time in their life

or the other they had used almost all these products and if not, they were willing to use

these products.

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When asked if they recalled the ads of the products mentioned, following is table of the

response of the children in the survey:

Product

No. ofchildren whobelieved thatthey had seenthe ad on TV

No. of Children who could

remember the ads without anyaid

No. of

Children whocouldrememberthe ads aftergiven somehint

Total Girls Boys

Horlicks 95 76 32 44 85

Boost 93 68 24 44 72

Bornvita 94 64 23 41 83

Fruity 72 28 18 10 43

Real Fruit Juice 46 1 0 1 23

Kelloggs Cornflakes 96 45 21 24 58Kissan Jam 16 16 10 6 16

Maggie 77 10 2 8 44

Kelloggs Chocos 95 71 35 36 87

Snack Break Pudding 0 0 0 0 22

Maggie Cuppa Mania 31 12 4 8 26

Maggie TomatoKetchup

79 16 11 5 18

Mc. Donalds 86 67 35 32 79

Dominos 75 44 19 25 47

Pizza Hut 73 23 12 11 38Boomer 63 44 16 28 64

Dairymilk Shots 88 23 8 15 30

Candyman 87 56 27 29 59

Babbaloo Bubble-gum

93 74 41 33 87

Munch Pop-chocs 56 19 7 12 23

Nestle Munch 58 32 18 14 37

Mentos 95 79 41 38 95

Parle G 88 43 23 20 58

Britannia Sunfeast 79 14 6 8 24

It was found that the boys were more easily able to recall the ads than the girls, in general.

Also, the recall was more when a strong slogan or jingle was associated with the

particular ads.

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The average recall for all the ads came out to be approximately 52. The averages for ads

using specific appeal methods are given below:

Appeal Method Used Average Recall

Slogan 56Animation 63.71

Jingle 55.15

Celebrity 43.43

Reward 55.5

Product Attribute 49.08

Dramatization 55.6

All Ads 51.91

It is clearly visible from the chart above and the graph below that the recall for the ads that

use Animation is much higher than any other ads. Slogans and jingles also have a high rate

of recall. A very interesting thing is that the recall rate for ads using celebrities is much

lower even than the average recall. The reason for such a low recall can be the use of

celebrities whom the children do not recognize.

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When asked to recall the slogans, the following results came:

Product

No. of children who could

recall the Slogan

Total Girls Boys

Horlicks 83 40 43

Boost 69 28 41

Fruity 32 22 10

Maggie 12 4 8


12 6 6

Pizza Hut 17 9 8

Dairymilk Shots 19 5 14

Candyman 56 27 29

Mentos 95 57 38

Parle G 38 20 18

It is quite visible that children can easily recall the slogans when they are powerfully used

in the advertisements. A striking feature was that the slogans were easily recalled by the

boys than by the girls. However, a reverse trend could be seen in the children when asked

to recall the jingles. The girls could much more easily recall the jingles than the boys.

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Product

No. of Children who

could recall the Jingle

Total Girls BoysHorlicks 55 42 13

Fruity 26 17 9

Maggie 7 4 3

Kelloggs Chocos 54 29 25

Mc. Donalds 58 32 26

Dominos 32 18 14

Pizza Hut 17 7 10

Boomer 22 16 6

Candyman 23 12 11

Babbaloo Bubble-gum 27 12 15

Munch Pop-chocs 3 1 2

Nestle Munch 12 8 4

Britannia Sunfeast 2 2 0

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The celebrities could equally be identified by both the boys and the girls depending on

who the celebrity is. When the celebrity is a cricket star like Sachin Tendulkar or Virendra

Sehwag, recall is much common in the boys. Bollywood stars are equally popular between

boys and girls.

Product

No. of Children who

could recall the

Celebrity

Total Girls Boys

Boost 65 13 52

Bornvita 42 17 25


13 5 8

Dominos 22 17 5

Munch Pop-chocs 22 10 12

Nestle Munch 12 6 6

Britannia Sunfeast 14 6 8

Thus, it can be seen from the above results that girls and boys of this age behave

differently to the external stimuli. The conclusions that can be drawn from the results

above are summarized in the later part of the report.

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LIMITATIONS

There are a number of limitations of the study. One such limitation is that only food ads

were considered for the topic of the study. The kids television channels apart from the

food ads show a number of other product ads. Some of them that startling are washing

powders, life insurance, diapers etc. Apart from these unusual products there are other

products like bicycles, stationery, soaps, shampoos and toiletries, movies, TV programmes

etc. that are advertised on the kids TV channels.

The response to an advertisement comes as a result of three sources: frequency of the ad,

recency of the ad and the cognitive process of the receptor. There may be difference

between the responses to the various ads which may arise because the ads that were shown

during a particular period of time on a few particular channels were taken into account

while gauging the responses of children to various food advertisements. We should not

forget that children are exposed to food ads through a number of sources few and the kids

television channels form just one channel of exposure. Children view a variety of

programmes on a variety of channels.

The response to a particular ad is affected by a number of factors other than the appeal

methods used in the ad to intrigue the children and some of them being effect of other ads

on the particular ad and past experience of the child with the same product or other

products, either substitutes or complements.

Thus the limitations of the study can be summarized as follows:

1. Only a portion of the ads (food ads) are taken for studying while other products

that are advertised on the kids TV channels are not taken into account.

2. For the purpose of recording the responses to the food ads targeting children, only

the ads shown on the kids TV channels are taken and the other media to which the

children are exposed are not taken into account.

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3. For saying that a particular ad is popular with the children, only the appeal

methods used in that ad are studied and other factors that contribute to the success

of an ad campaign are ignored.

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CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

The following conclusions can be drawn after the successful completion of the study:

Majority of the food products advertised to the children are chocolates, candies, fast-food

like ready-to-cook noodles, pasta, fast-food joints, health drinks etc.

Maximum of them use a strong jingle, slogan or sometimes both to appeal to the

children. The use of slogans and appeals seems to be good strategy as far as advertising to

children goes as the retention of these jingles and slogans is very high among the

children.

Celebrities are used by a very few number of products . The strategy of not using

celebrities seems good when it comes to advertising to children as it was found in the

study that this strategy is not very successful with the children.

Animation, though, being a very powerful tool for advertising to children, is not very

frequently used in Indian advertisement scenario. A prime reason for this can be cost

associated to producing animation. However, if used properly, it is a very powerful

tool.

The appeal ofAction/ Sports performance is very common in advertising to children.

This observation can be attributed to the large number of products advertised targeting

the male child with less amount of emphasis given to the female child. From other

studies it has been found that the female child is not very impressed by sports and

violence contents in the Television. Thus, to appeal to both the genders, Action/

Sports is not the correct appeal for advertising food which generally targets both the

genders. However, the television channels picked up for the purpose of the study have

viewership that is more dominated by Tier II, Tier III cities and Semi-Urban Towns where

the male child enjoys control over a larger amount of purchasing power than his female

counterpart. Thus, Action/ Sports is a dominant appeal method.

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Another conclusion that can be drawn is that when the target is a female child, the

advertiser should lay more emphasis on the jingle rather than on any other aspect of

the advertisement. This is because the jingles are very easily retained by the girls.

Similarly, while advertising to boys, emphasis should be laid on the slogan .

The use ofcelebrities in advertising to children is a very debatable issue. Where on one

hand, celebrity endorsements are becoming very popular in the contemporary advertising

scenario; celebrities seem to be losing grounds when it comes to wooing the children. This

maybe due to an adverse selection of the celebrity ads. Celebrities who have been very

popular with the kids in the recent times should only be chosen when the target

population is that of kids.

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ANNEXURES

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Questionnaire

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

(This questionnaire is purely for academic purpose and information divulged willnot be used otherwise)

1. In the list given to you, which products do you know?

2. Which of the following products do you buy?

3. From the list of the products given to you tick-mark those whose ads you have

seen?

4. What do you remember of the Ads of the following?

Product Aware Buy Seen RememberHorlicks

Boost

Bornvita

Fruity

Real Fruit Juice

Kelloggs

Cornflakes

Kissan Jam

Maggie

Kelloggs Chocos

Snack Break

Pudding

Maggie Cuppa

Mania

Maggie Tomato

Ketchup

Mc. Donalds

Dominos

Pizza Hut

BoomerDairymilk Shots

Candyman

Babbaloo Bubble-

gum

Munch Pop-chocs

Nestle Munch

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Mentos

Parle G

Britannia Sunfeast

5. Can you tell the slogan in the ads of the following products?

Product Yes/NoHorlicks

Boost

Fruity

Maggie

Maggie Tomato Ketchup

Pizza HutDairymilk Shots

Candyman

Mentos

Parle G

6. Can you sing the jingle of the ads of the following products?

Product Yes/NoHorlicks

Fruity

Maggie

Kelloggs Chocos

Mc. Donalds

Dominos

Pizza Hut

Boomer

Candyman

Babbaloo Bubble-gumMunch Pop-chocs

Nestle Munch

Britannia Sunfeast

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7. Can you name the celebrity/celebrities associated with these products?

Boost

Bornvita

Maggie Tomato Ketchup

Dominos

Munch Pop-chocs

Nestle Munch

Britannia Sunfeast

8. Which of the ads do can you recall now? (aided-recall)

9. Do you buy products coming with some free offers?

Yes No

10. Do you recall any ads of the products you just mentioned?

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List of Products

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

(This questionnaire is purely for academic purpose and information divulged willnot be used otherwise)

Horlicks Q1 Q1 Q3 Q8

Boost

Bornvita

Fruity

Real Fruit Juice

KelloggsCornflakes

Kissan Jam

Maggie

Kelloggs Chocos

Snack BreakPudding

Maggie CuppaMania


Mc. Donalds

Dominos

Pizza Hut

BoomerDairymilk Shots

Candyman

Babbaloo Bubble-gum

Munch Pop-chocs

Nestle Munch

Mentos

Parle G

Britannia Sunfeast

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REFERENCES

Articles:

Atkin, C. & Heald, G. (1977). The content of childrens toy and food

commercials.Journal of Communication, 27, 1, 107-114.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall,

Inc.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. Media

Psychology, 3, 265-299.

Barcus, F.E. (1972). Advertising in the Saturday childrens hours. A report for

Action for Childrens Television. Barcus, F.E. (1975a). Television in the after school hours. A report for Action for

Childrens Television.

Barcus, F.E. (1975b). Weekend commercial childrens television. A report for

Childrens Television

Kunkel, D. (1992). Childrens television advertising in the multichannel

environment.Journal of Communication, 42, 3, 134-152.

Kuribayashi, A., Roberts, M.C., & Johnson, R.J. (2001). Actual nutrition

information of products advertised to children and adults on Saturday. Childrens

Health Care, 30, 4, 309-322.

Mayer, J, ed. (1973). U.S. nutrition policies in the seventies. San Francisco, W.H.

Freeman and Co.

Rubin, R.S. (1972). An exploratory investigation of childrens responses to

commercial content of television advertising in relation to their stages of cognitive

development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of

Massachusetts.

Vivica Kraak, David L. Pelletier (1999).The Influence of Commercialism on the

Food Purchasing Behavior of Children and Teenage Youth. Division of

Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University

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Winick, C, Williamson, L.G., Chuzmir, S.F., & Winick, M.P.. (1973). Childrens

television commercials: A content analysis. New York: Praeger Publishers.

Books:

Barrie Gunter, Caroline Oates, Mark Blades (2005). Advertising to Children onTV: Content, Impact, and Regulation

Acuff, D.S. (1997). Why kids buy and why. New York, NY: The Free Press.

M. Carole Macklin, Les Carlson (1999). Advertising to Children: Concept andControversies. Sage Pubns.

Susan Linn ().Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught

of Marketing & Advertising. Random House Inc.

Websites:

www.google.com www.sulekha.com

www.brandchannel.com

www.youtube.com

www.managementparadise.com

tvguide.indiatimes.com

www.dinesh.com/india/television.shtml

www.aeforum.org/aeforum.nsf/0/.../$FILE/awmr0026.pdf

Documents

End Term Report_marketing