New Research: In Pitching Veggies to Kids, Less Is More
Parents may not be aware, but everyday a marketing battle is taking place in your home. The seller is the parent, desperately trying everything to persuade their child to eat their vegetables. New research provides valuable insight into this age-old saga.
It reveals that the problem is the pitch that parents and food marketers alike use. Though it may be well-meaning and heartfelt, it is too aggressive. The research found that the best way to pitch food to children is not to present it with a marketing message.
The paper’s co-author, Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioural science and marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business said “You just need to give them the food. You mess them up by giving all kinds of messages”.
The findings- to be published later this year in Journal of Consumer Research- offer insight into children’s decision making about food and into the powerful and counterintuitive ways that overzealous marketing can misfire with both adults and children.
A possible explanation into why no message was the best message is the “dilution effect”. This is the watering down of a marketing message that makes too many claims. Therefore, rather than pitching food to children, let them make their own decision with the limitation of choosing what food they have access to.
The original article can be found here http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/business/in-pitching-veggies-to-kids-less-is-more.html
