Preventing Childhood Obesity - Evidence Policy and Practice.pdf

Food and beverage marketing to children
much more money to be made if customers come
back again and again. That is why supermarkets and
airlines reward regulars with loyalty cards, special
deals and chatty magazines. They have moved beyond
mere exchanges and want to start building relationships
with us. And all the evidence is that, despite their
obvious mercenary motivations, it works. We do
respond with brand loyalty and regular visits. This
relational thinking can be applied equally well — if not
better — in social marketing.
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Lesson Six: behavior change takes time — we should
build brands and relationships.
The w hole m arketing m ix
Behavior change takes more than communication.
The importance of distinguishing between advertising
and marketing when considering regulation has
already been noted; it is equally important here. Eating
and exercise behavior can be influenced by media
campaigns — the evidence from tobacco control puts
this beyond dispute 30 – 35 — but it is equally clear that
multi - faceted interventions are more powerful. A
switch from burgers to carrots is more likely if the
communications that boost the attractiveness of
carrots are backed by pricing that reinforces this
attraction and makes them affordable, distribution
and packaging that makes them accessible, and a
product that delivers satisfaction. Branding can then
be used to confirm and enhance this satisfaction.
Lesson Seven: communications are only a small part
of the game. Glossy advertising campaigns — especially
isolated ones — are not the answer.
Context m atters
The individual ’ s power to make decisions is limited by
their social and environmental context. Visiting a fast -
food outlet will partly reflect personal choice, but also
the availability of alternatives, income, family circumstances
and, harking back to social norms, the behavior
of those around us. Marketers take careful note of
this context and do their best to influence or adapt
to it.
The tobacco industry, for instance, puts a great deal
of effort and resource into liaising with policy - makers,
and has had considerable success across Europe in
ensuring that they make decisions that favor the
industry. 36 Similarly, the tobacco companies focus
their efforts on retailers, stakeholders and potential
allies (e.g., in the fight to fend off smoke - free laws) as
well as final customers, to make sure the circumstances
are as supportive as possible of their
interests.
The importance of this debate for weight control is
highlighted by the concept of the obesogenic environment.
This is created by many actors — planners,
the food industry, governments, other commercial
operators — and all have to change their behaviors to
deliver improvement in public health. The principles
of bringing about these changes are the same as for
ordinary citizens — listen to their needs and deliver.
Tobacco control has also managed to gain an extra
degree of traction with policy - makers because of the
collateral damage caused by second - hand smoke.
Perhaps the nearest equivalent for obesity is the economic
cost to everyone, which has begun to emerge
as the external environment (from health service
weighing scales to impact on post - operative complications)
adapts to increases in size and excess weight
among a section of the population.
Lesson Eight: good health is the product of many
complex factors — including government policy, commercial
marketing, education and wealth — as well as
individual lifestyle choices, and progress will depend on
action on all these fronts. Stakeholders are a key target
group in social marketing.
Competitive a nalysis
In some instances, commercial stakeholders will not
cooperate with public health, however seductive the
approach. The tobacco industry has long resisted
almost all attempts to control its marketing. The only
solution in this case has been to legislate and, indeed,
through the FCTC, to do so on a global basis. It
remains to be seen whether obesity control will ultimately
have to follow the same route as tobacco
control, but nevertheless, studying the competition is
a great way of learning how better to influence
behavior.
Lesson Nine: competitive analysis is an invaluable
tool. One of the principal reasons we have so many
smokers and unhealthy eaters is that the commercial
sector has been better at marketing than we have.
Research
Marketing depends on research: customer orientation;
relationship building; stakeholder marketing and
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