Cross-cultural differences in consumers' attention to food labels

Purpose: Extended from Hofstede’s cultural framework, this study investigated the differences between the Australian (representing the Western culture) and Chinese (representing the Eastern Culture) consumers in regard to their attention paid to product attribute cues presented on food labels and the degree of such attention controlling for an individual-level moderator of product involvement. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using face-to-face interviews with semi-structured questionnaires for both Australian and Chinese samples. The questionnaire data were analysed using factorial between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) to investigate the influence of culture and product involvement on the attention paid/degree of attention to product nature-related (e.g. brand name), product assurance-related (e.g. country-of-origin) and health-related attribute (e.g. nutritional panel) cues. Findings: The findings revealed that Chinese consumers, as compared to Australian consumers, paid attention to more product-assurance cues (i.e. country of origin) and health-related cues (i.e. bioactivity indicators). The degrees of attention to these cues were also greater among Chinese consumers than for Australian consumers. Product involvement moderated the relationship between culture and attention towards product nature and product assurance-related cues. Practical implications: Results from this study enable exporters to customize their labelling design by strategically including label information that is more salient to certain export markets. Originality/value: This study offers a novel insight into the impact of culture on consumers’ attention to food product attributes and the interaction effects of product involvement on these relationships, hitherto underexplored

Children's food consumer socialisation: the impact of food advertising, parents, peers, and social norms on children's food preferences, food consumption, and obesity.

This study addresses an ongoing debate about the influence of food advertising on children through the development of a comprehensive, yet parsimonious conceptual framework which pulled together extant gaps from the public health and marketing literatures and integrated the influence of external agents and child-related factors on children’s dietary behaviour and weight. The framework has undergone an extensive validation process, including qualitative refinement and quantitative assessment, relying on a randomised controlled experiment with children, a survey of children, and a survey of their parents. The analysis of variance shows that when children were exposed to a food advertisement, their preference for an advertised snack was influenced by their brand evaluation and friends’ preferences for a similar snack. Understanding of the advertisement’s selling and persuasive intents and nutritional knowledge did not reduce preference for, and evaluation of, the advertised product. This most likely occurred because most respondents grasped advertisement intent, resulting in insufficient variance for empirical analysis. In contrast, preference for a healthier snack (apple) amongst children exposed to the experimental advertisement was influenced by an evaluation of healthier snack’s taste, higher preferences for a similar snack amongst their friends, and more frequent parent-child communication about foods and food advertising. Overall, no statically significant differences were detected between experimental and control groups, suggesting that research which solely relies on experimental exposure while investigating the effect of food advertising on children does not account for a bigger picture of factors influencing children. Structural Equation Modelling showed that while parents’ social norms about fast foods, friends’ preferences for burgers, and social acceptability of burgers were related to children’s consumption of less healthy foods, more frequent parent-child communication about foods and food advertising and parents’ higher nutritional knowledge reduced unhealthy dietary behaviour. Exposure to fast food advertisements resulted in more positive evaluation of burgers, French fries, and soft drinks, which, in turn, were related to less healthy dietary behaviour. Nutritional knowledge and understanding of selling and persuasive intents in food advertisements (advertising literacy) exerted small, mediating effects on children’s dietary behaviour through attitudes, confirming the importance of these cognitive defences. A positive relationship was also detected between children’s dietary behaviour and weight. Across all models, brand evaluation/evaluations of food exhibited the strongest influence on children, followed by peers (experimental data) or parents’ social norms about fast foods (cross-sectional data), pinpointing parents’ crucial role in fight against childhood obesity provided that parents hold less positive social norms, possess higher nutritional knowledge, and communicate with their children about food and food advertising. The current study shows that parents who are frequently exposed to fast food advertising, or have lower education, or reside in an area where residents hold lower education and occupations, tend to exhibit more positive social norms about fast foods, which, in turn, are related to children’s more frequent consumption of a number of less healthy foods. This study has identified important indirect pathways to childhood obesity through parents, peers, social norms, food advertising, and children’s attitudes that have important implications for public policy and social marketing.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 201

The effects of television and internet food advertising on parents and children

Objective: The current study examined the impact of television and Internet food advertising on Australian parents and children. Design: Parents and their children aged 8 to 14 years were exposed to a television advertisement, an Internet advertisement or a control picture for four commonly advertised energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Setting: Online web panel survey, Australia. Subjects: Parents (n 1302) and their children aged 8 to 14 years (n 1302). Results: After a single exposure to each advertisement, parent respondents in the two exposure conditions evaluated the products more favourably, had a greater desire to consume the products and thought the product could be consumed more frequently than those in the control condition. Similar trends were observed among children, although the differences were statistically significant only for the frequency of food consumption in the Internet advertisement condition and the evaluation of one product. Conclusions: The results have implications for assumptions of adults’ immunity to advertising. This is of particular importance in efforts to address child obesity and the reliance on parents to mediate the effects of food advertising.Simone Pettigrew, Liudmila Tarabashkina, Michele Roberts, Pascale Quester, Kathy Chapman and Caroline Mille