Currently browsing posts about: Marketing to kids

FoodNavigator reports that Public Health England is taking on—what a concept!—calories as a means to prevent childhood obesity.

It will be looking at ready-to-serve meals, pizzas, burgers, savory snacks, and sandwiches in an effort to help children cut back on the excess 200-300 calories a day they are currently consuming.

The UK is planning targeted reductions in sugars in processed foods.

The food industry doesn’t like this: bans on advertising sugary foods to kids are “choking the industry.”

I once attended a White House meeting at which I heard representatives of food companies insist that they could not stop marketing to children.  This was their line in the sand.  They had to keep marketing to children to stay in business.

As for the United States, the CDC has just published the latest data on obesity in adults and children.

The trend?  Upward.

Looks like marketing to kids works, and well.

Public health, anyone?

Food Navigator is an industry newsletter useful for keeping up with food industry interests.  In Special Editions, it collects articles on specific topics, this on on food for kids.

Special Edition: Food for kids!

Almost a third of American children aged 10-17 are dealing with overweight or obesity, and many are lacking in essential nutrients from potassium, dietary fiber and calcium, to vitamin D. So how can the food industry respond to these concerns and develop more nutritious, but appealing snacks, meals and beverages for kids? We explore innovations targeting every life stage, from a new wave of baby food brands to Paleo meat sticks for tweens.

• 60-second interview: Are kids’ diets getting better?   First, some sobering statistics* from the CDC: Almost one in five (17%) of Americans aged 2-19 are dealing with obesity, which affects 8.9% of 2-5-year-olds, 17.5% of 6-11-year-olds and 20.5% of 12-19-year-olds, and continues to disproportionately impact children from low-income families… Read
• RXBAR extends minimalist philosophy to school lunchboxes with new kids line: Chicago-based RXBAR’s new kid’s line is now available in 3,000 stores nationwide, providing a smaller version of the fastest growing bar by dollar growth in the natural and conventional channels, per measurement by market analytics firm Nielsen… Read
• Serenity Kids shakes up the baby food aisle with a new line of high-fat, meat-based purees: Despite the sustained popularity of the paleo diet that has spawned an entire industry of packaged products from soup to snacks to decadent desserts, parents who want their children to follow the trend have had to make their own baby food – until now… Read
• Veggie Go’s brings “healthy innovation” to the fruit snack aisle with launch of Bites: New parents who remember enjoying classic fruit snacks growing up but who struggle to justify giving them to their children in the current era of clean eating and better-for-you foods now have a new option from Veggie Go’s that the company says they can share with their kids guilt-free. .. Read
• Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Tweaking ads to show cooking with kids makes brands relatable: Images of mom preparing dinner alone in the kitchen for her busy family have been a staple in food and beverage marketing for decades, but new consumer research from the Benenson Strategy Group suggests brands that continue to recycle this theme are missing the mark with modern families and their sales could suffer as a result. .. Listen now
• Amara Organic Foods: We’re pioneering a new category in baby food: Innovation in the baby food aisle has come in waves. First came jars, then shelf stable pouches, and most recently a new generation of HPP (high pressure processed) refrigerated brands carving out a premium niche in the category. But could freeze-drying and other techniques open up another – more affordable – sub-segment?.. Read
• Brands, health advocates & FDA strive to ensure children go to school with breakfast: With one in six children in the US and one in five in Canada entering classrooms hungry each morning, food service players, CPG manufacturers, FDA and non-profits are raising awareness about the importance of breakfast and striving to feed more children at the start of the day… Read
• Kidfresh co-founder: We’re bringing Millennials to the frozen aisles: Cynics might argue that junk food is junk food, whether it comes in green-hued packaging and eschews artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, or not. Kidfresh co-founder and CEO Matt Cohen begs to differ. .. Read
• Sports drinks, fresh fruits top back-to-school grocery lists: Sports drinks seem to signal the start of the school year, according to numbers crunched by market data firm Nielsen… Read
• NurturMe CEO shares what it takes to secure accounts with ‘top tier’ retailers: After years of knocking on the doors of top tier retailers and hearing no, baby and toddler food company NuturMe is finally hearing yes from major players including Target, Kroger and Costco – a change the company’s CEO attributes to the brand’s new “Tummy Friendly” positioning… Read
• Children’s snacks are ‘complete white space’ for paleo products, says exec from The New Primal: As the primal or paleo trend continues to mature, subscribers are no longer restricted to fitness enthusiasts and CrossFitters who served as ground-zero for the diet, according to Jason Burke, co-owner and founder of meat snack company The New Primal. .. Read

Heart & Stroke Canada has a new report on food and beverage marketing to kids: The Kids Are Not Alright.

The press release says:

Our children and youth are bombarded with ads for unhealthy products all day, every day, influencing their food and beverage choices. This is having a devastating effect on their health and setting up conflict at home.

Marketing is big business and it is sophisticated…New research reveals that over 90% of food and beverage product ads viewed by kids and teens online are for unhealthy products, and collectively kids between the ages of two and 11 see 25 million food and beverage ads a year on their top 10 favourite websites.

It is time for this marketing storm to stop.

Its advice:

• Eat healthy early, eat healthy often
• Family food fights
• Not your grandmother’s commercials
• Industry self-regulation is a failure
• Legislation means a fair fight for everyone

Lots to work with here.  Glad to have it.

The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has a new report out on TV food marketing to kids.

Even though the time kids spend watching TV has not changed much since 2008″

• They are seeing more food ads per hour
• White adolescents are seeing 18% more ads.
• Black adolescents are seeing 30% more ads.

Get those kids outside this week!

• Here’s the press release
• Here’s the report

The World Health Organization’s Europe branch has issued a brave new report: Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world: trans-disciplinary perspectives (2016)

I say brave because marketing to children is the food industry’s line in the sand.
Food and beverage companies will not stop marketing to children because doing so will hurt their bottom lines too much.

WHO Europe makes eight recommendations, all of them highly political:

1. Acknowledge States’ duty to protect children online with statutory regulation
2. Extend offline protections online
3. Define legal age, rather than leaving commercial interests to do so
4. Define marketing directed to children
5. Draw on existing legislation, regulation and regulatory agencies
6. Compel private Internet platforms to remove marketing of foods high in saturated fat, salt and/ or free sugars
7. Develop appropriate sanction and penalty mechanisms
8. Devise cross-border international responses

The report’s conclusion:

Children’s participation in digital media should not, however, be predicated on receiving digital HFSS [high in saturated fats, salt and/or free sugars] advertising. Digital marketing can amplify the power of earlier marketing practices by identifying and targeting more vulnerable populations with sophisticated analytics and creating engaging, emotion-focused, entertaining ways to reach children.

Nor should children’s digital participation be predicated on “devolving” consent to parents, which is akin to States expecting parents to completely prohibit their children from watching all television in order to avoid HFSS marketing, rather than implementing broadcast regulations.

Instead, States and supra-national actors should devise ways to allow children to participate in the digital world without being targeted by marketers with immersive, engaging, entertaining marketing of products that have been demonstrated to be injurious to their health.

Now if governments would just listen….

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the Univeristy of Connecticut  produces terrific reports.  The latest is Baby Food FACTS: Nutrition and marketing of baby and toddler foods and drinks:

Infant formula companies have a marketing problem: breast milk is a better option, all formulas have the same nutrient composition by FDA regulation, and babies only need to use formula for a few months.

Baby food companies also have a marketing problem: babies can eat table foods (suitably ground or cut) and don’t really need the stuff in jars (convenient thought they may be).

The Rudd Center report takes a good hard look at the

• Contents of food and drink products marketed to parents for their babies and toddlers (up to age 3)
• The marketing messages used to promote these products
• Degree to which marketing messages correspond with expert advice on feeding young children

The findings: The nutritional quality is pretty much as advertised but nearly 60 percent of advertising dollars go for products that are not recommended for young children such as sugar-sweetened toddler milk, nutritionally poor snack food, and Pediasure, a high-calorie liquid nutrition supplement.

Here’s the full report 

And here’s a summary

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has a new Issue Brief on food companies’ use of branded characters to market to kids.  Here’s what it’s talking about:

These, RWJ says, work better with junk foods than healthy foods, even though some child health advocates have called for their use only for healthy foods.

I don’t want them used to sell anything to kids.  I don’t think anyone should be marketing anything to kids.

RWJ’s assessment of the present situation?  “Significant opportunities for improvement still exist.”

No kidding.

I greatly enjoy Food-Navigator’s collections of articles on specific topics.  Here’s one on marketing foods to kids.

While there is some evidence that the tide may now be turning on childhood obesity, 8.4% of US 2-5 year-olds; 17.7% of 6-11 year-olds and 20.5% of 12-19-year-olds are still obese, and many are lacking in essential nutrients from potassium, dietary fiber and calcium, to vitamin D. So how can the food industry respond to these concerns and develop more nutritious, but appealing snacks, meals and beverages for kids?

• SPONSORED LINK: The Booming Kids’ Food & Beverage Market: Parents are looking for healthier options for their children, and smart food and beverage manufacturers are listening. See how to gain parents’ attention and innovate in the children’s food & beverage space…   Click Here
• 8 healthy food trends to watch in 2016 that could influence children’s eating:The shift towards cleaner, more nutrient dense foods will continue to spread in the US in the coming year with parents increasingly looking for healthy options for the whole family – including picky children, who in generations past might have been served chicken nuggets or mac and cheese instead of baked chicken and veggies. .. Read
• True Drinks strikes budget-friendly balance between marketing AquaBall to kids and parents: A common conundrum for marketers of children’s food and beverages is how to engage two sets of stakeholders without doubling the budget. .. Read
• Mobile app aims to help children pick healthy, portion-controlled food: Ensuring children have healthy options in their lunches and for snacks is one way to help them fight obesity, but for the times when they select their own food at restaurants and friends’ houses, a new app and coaching program from Kurbo Health Inc. can help them eat right. .. Read
• Once Upon a Farm: In 3-5 years, every baby food section in the country will have a refrigerator: High-pressure-processing (HPP) – which gave birth to the super-premium juice category – will also play a disruptive role in the baby food market in the next five years, predict the founders of Once Upon a Farm, a new baby food brand in a pouch that will be merchandised in the chiller… Read
• Pure Spoon CEO: HPP is going to turn the baby food category on its head: It won’t happen overnight, but the future of babyfood is in the chiller, predicts one Texas-based entrepreneur pioneering the application of high pressure processing (HPP) in a category she claims is ripe for disruption… Read
• Plum Organics sales surge 44% in 2015 as ‘food-forward’ formulations tap into needs of Millennial shoppers: Dollar sales of Plum Organics surged 44.2% in measured channels* in the past 52 weeks, 3.8 times the average rate of growth for brands in the organic baby food segment, says the company, which has secured a 7.2% share of the $1.6bn US baby food and snacks category… Read
• Continual evolution is key to survival in competitive food market, Momme Meals exec says: To make it in the highly competitive food and beverage segment, startups need to listen to consumers and evolve to meet changing demands – even if that means letting go of their “baby,” says the founder of Momme Meals. .. Watch now
• Go Gourmet helps pouches grow-up from baby food to snacks for school-children: Go Gourmet wants to “up the ante” in the applesauce and fruit cup aisle with its “superfood snack” Slammers – premium fruit and veggie purees for school-aged children in pouches that pose a triple threat with taste, nutrition and personality, says CEO Michael Watt. .. Read
• Back to Nature Foods Co. repositions SnackWell’s as a “free-from” line: Back to Nature Foods Co.’s revitalization of the recently acquired iconic SnackWell’s brand is an example of how established companies can refresh aging brands that are struggling to better compete with new products from disruptive startups… Watch now
• Healthy NPD should be the starting point for kids’ food: The ‘good for you’ trend in children’s food is growing, and small companies would do well to focus on healthy healthy new product development in order to compete with big players who have the money to reformulate and rebrand, says one analyst… Read

Addition, February 3: A reader reminds me that Food-Navigator published a guide to creating successful children’s brands a couple of months ago.