Academic literature on the topic 'Food marketing'

This study deals with franchising as a form of distribution in the UK food retail environment. Franchise systems have increased their penetration of food retail markets since the mid 1980's and are frequently commented on by industry observers as being a form of distribution likely to expand aggressively. This study comments on the potential for further franchise development and looks at the association and relationship between franchisor Satisfaction and prevailing environmental conditions from a marketing channels perspective. Because of the paucity of literature, data, statistics and law on franchising, this study uses the marketing channels literature as its theoretical basis. This body of theory is principally used to derive and test hypotheses concerning franchisor satisfaction and the environment. The approach focused on interpreting the results of test for an association and relationship between satisfaction and the environment, to comment on the prospects for further franchising development, and to simultaneously contribute to the increased specification of marketing channels theory. The specific objectives of the study were i) To comment on franchising development and its prospects from an operational perspective by understanding the character and valence of franchisor satisfaction. ii). To develop the specification of marketing channels theory in two areas. First, to examine the content, domain and character of channel member satisfaction from a franchisor's perspective, by looking at the relative importance of behavioural, strategic and corporate image based dimensions. Previous marketing channels studies have only considered franchisee satisfaction in relation to franchisor power. Second, to examine whether the variable of franchisor satisfaction has any association or relationship with external concepts of the environment, these were capacity, concentration, stability, complexity and conflict. iii) To utilise and comment on the robustness of the political economy environmental model as a theoretical and methodological approach to empirical testing of organisational and environmental concepts. Two data gathering exercises were undertaken for the study. First, an extensive number of in-depth interviews were conducted with industry practitioners in franchise firms and trade associations, and second an 8 page questionnaire was mailed to the apparent universe of 45 food franchising firms. Franchisor satisfaction was measured using a seven point, bi polar rating scale and instrumentality importance weights. The environmental concepts were measured by seven point monopolar rating scales. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and the multivariate techniques of factor analysis and discriminant analysis are used to analyse and interpret the results. The study reveals that i) from an operational perspective, 90% of franchisors were satisfied with their systems performance at the time of the analysis. They scored the behavioural dimensions regarding interaction with franchisees as more important to their organisation achieving its goals and objectives than strategic or image based dimensions. Instrumentality importance weights were shown not to affect franchisor satisfaction scores. ii) From a theoretical point of view, franchisor satisfaction has a negative association with environmental complexity and a positive association with environmental capacity. There is empirical evidence that discriminant functions of independent environmental variables are able to predict franchisor membership of satisfied and non satisfied groups. Statistically significant results were obtained when the analysis was conducted at an individual environmental variable level, but not at the concept level. iii) The political economy model was shown to be a robust theoretical platform for model and measure development. The model provided an approach which in analysis discriminated between concepts and behaved in a nomological way. Confirmatory factor analysis of two environmental concepts. complexity and stability, extracted factors which were consistent with the sectors of the model which were used to develop the concept measures. The findings suggest that i) under conditions of low environmental complexity and high environmental capacity we should expect higher levels of franchisor satisfaction and expansion of franchising systems. ii) The concept of franchisor satisfaction is multi dimensional and ranks behavioural aspects of the franchise relationship ahead of strategic or image attributes in goal and objective achievement. The franchisor is concerned with higher level strategic issues compared to the franchisee. Under these circumstances, franchisor satisfaction was shown to be associated and related to external concepts and variables, which is an advancement in marketing channel theory. This is because it indicates that in considering organisational satisfaction, the researcher may be overlooking important attributes of the concept if only internal organisational phenomena are considered.

This dissertation examines organic food marketing from three aspects: household demand for organic food, household choice of retail formats accounting for preference organic food preference, and farmers’ joint adoption of organic farming and direct marketing methods. In Chapter Two, given the fast growth of private label milk and organic milk in the U.S., we estimate a censored demand system to study the demand relations among types of milk differentiated by brand types and organic status, using recent Nielsen Homescan data. We find that sociodemographic factors still play important roles in a household choice of milk types, and fluid milk is an inferior good. Moreover, as income increases, households are more likely to shift from buying conventional milk to organic milk and from private label conventional milk to branded conventional milk, as indicated by the asymmetric cross price elasticities. In Chapter Three, we examine whether households’ preference for organic food can affect their retail format choices for their grocery shopping trips. We model households’ choices of five major retail format with a conditional logit model, also using the Nielsen Homescan data. Our main findings are that regular organic user households are more likely to patronage organic specialty stores and discount stores, but less likely to shop in warehouse clubs. Price, consumer loyalty, and household shopping behavior also affects household retail format choice. In Chapter Four, we examine the relation between farmers’ adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, given their similar objectives in satisfying consumer demand and increasing farm income. We model farmers’ adoption of the two practices with a bivariate simultaneous linear probability model using data from USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey. Our main finding is that the farmers’ adoption of organic farming decreases their probability of adopting direct marketing, whereas the reverse effect is insignificant. Also, organic farming is found to improve gross farm income.

Background: Food marketing has been implicated as a driver of obesity. However, few studies have examined point-of-purchase marketing in supermarkets and restaurants, or marketing in lower-income countries. Furthermore, policy solutions to counteract marketing and provide consumers with objective nutritional information require evidence of efficacy. Paper 1. We documented child-oriented marketing practices, product claims, and health-evoking images on 106 cereals sold in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Linear regression was used to evaluate the association between various marketing strategies and nutritional quality. We found that child-oriented cereals had worse overall nutritional quality and higher sugar content compared to non-child oriented cereals. Cereals with health claims were not significantly healthier than those without claims. Paper 2. Menu items marketed on general and kids’ menu boards and signage were recorded at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell throughout the United States in 2010 and 2013. Linear regression was used to model changes over time in nutritional quality of marketed foods and beverages. On general menu boards, marketed items became healthier, improving in overall nutritional quality and decreasing in calories. This pattern was evident in all chains except Taco Bell, where marketed items increased in calories. On general menu boards and signage, while marketed foods improved in nutritional quality, marketed beverages remained the same or became worse. However, on kids’ menu boards, both foods and beverages became healthier. Paper 3. 1,958 adults completed an online survey. Participants were randomized to one of six labeling groups: No label; Calories per bottle; Traffic light; Warning label; Calories+Warning; Traffic Light+Warning. Differences in purchase intentions and perceptions for SSBs across groups were assessed with ANCOVAs. Single health warning labels on SSBs appeared as effective as single traffic lights or combined calories plus warning labels. Warning labels were most effective when combined with traffic light labels in conveying health-related risks associated with SSB overconsumption. Conclusions: Although marketed products in fast food restaurants in the United States appear to be showing modest improvements in nutritional quality, the increase in child-oriented marketing on nutritionally-poor items in other countries is concerning. Continued research on nutrition-minded policy solutions is essential.

While food, as an element of culture, is increasingly being used in many destination marketing strategies, most research on food-related tourism marketing has been conducted from the demand-side focusing on food-related visitor experiences. Moreover, most research in this domain has been dominated by Asian perspectives, neglecting emerging Western destinations. Considering these shortcomings, the overarching aim of this PhD study was to explore the use of food in destination marketing in selected destinations in Yorkshire, England, to address this gap in knowledge, and to develop recommendations for destination marketers and other industry stakeholders to assist in planning and utilising food as a cultural resource more effectively at the destination level. The research strategy was based on an embedded single-case study with multiple units of analysis: four destination marketing organisations (DMOs) at regional and local levels. During the first stage of the data collection process, a qualitative content analysis of DMO websites was undertaken to explore how food was used in the current marketing strategies. This approach enabled the researcher to evaluate textual and visual information used to represent food on the official DMO websites at regional and local levels. The second stage involved semi-structured interviews with DMO representatives and “industry experts” and aimed to seek deeper insights into the use of food in destination marketing strategies. The findings indicate that food in destination marketing is an area in which DMOs are increasingly active, but in which there is considerable variance. This is visible in the changing and evolving nature of the English cuisine, but also in the differences which were identified in the marketing of food in rural and urban destinations reflecting both cultural heterogenisation and homogenisation. Moreover, this study found that despite the increasing use of “local” food in destination marketing, there is a lack of consensus over what counts as “local”. Accordingly, this study proposes four key dimensions representing different perceptions and judgments about what counts as “local”, as indicated in this study by interview participants as well as the review of the literature. In addition, this study identified the changing nature of DMOs and destination marketing as well as numerous challenges that DMOs face in delivering value to consumers and stakeholders. In particular, in view of the increasingly important role of food, this study has identified the activities of cooperation and networking among and between public and private sectors as pre-requisites to the effective implementation of food in destination marketing activities.