Commentary

Food Advertising 2.0: A Guide to Engaging Consumers Based On Their Values, Beliefs and Attitudes

With so much focus on obesity, sugar and salt consumption, soda taxes and menu labeling, the state of nutrition in the U.S. is top of mind with consumers, legislators, regulators and the Administration. What does that mean for brand advertisers?

Values, Beliefs & Attitudes: Missing Ingredients in Consumer Engagement Strategy

Consumers' values, beliefs and attitudes are at the core of their decisions -- whether it is to purchase a product or service, support a cause or societal issue, or advocate a brand. Add to that the fact that nutrition and health are extremely personal issues for many people, and it's easy to see that food and beverage brand marketers need to communicate and connect with consumers on a deeper level.

It has never been more important for brand marketers to communicate their position and positive pro-consumer efforts by engaging customers based on their attitudes about the state of health and nutrition in America. Research has found that consumers make purchase decisions based on a company's positive efforts toward issues and causes that are important to them personally.

Other traditional targeting methods -- such as those based on behavior and demographics or context -- have their own benefits, but their limitations prevent advertisers from truly identifying and reaching precise audiences primed to receive and act on their advertising and brand messages. For example, many behaviors change over time, but attitudes and values remain relatively consistent. When comparing Attitudinal Targeting to demographic targeting in terms of effectiveness, targeting based on values, beliefs and attitudes is proven to be more effective.

A Tale of Two Targeting Methods: Audience Definitions

To demonstrate how Attitudinal Targeting stacks up against traditional targeting methods, such as those based on demographics, let's take a look at a fast-food restaurant that wants to build awareness of its healthy menu options and ultimately retain and/or recruit new customers. It needs to reach moms who like the convenience of quick-service restaurants but are seeking healthy options. A fast-food advertiser using demographic targeting would define their target audience as women with children under age 15, and run ads on sites that may engage health-conscious moms. Attitudinal Targeting defines this audience in a richer way: female consumers with children under 15 in the household who are concerned about childhood obesity and are interested in having fast-food restaurants to display nutritional information on their menus.

Engaging this richly defined audience based on values, beliefs and attitudes, advertisers can reach 39 percent of this desired audience with 50 million impressions. Using demographic targeting to garner the same reach would require 212.5 million impressions, representing a 425 percent increase.

Attitudinal Profile of Nutritionally Conscious Consumers

In an age where there's a microscope on the state of nutrition and health of our nation, food advertisers cannot afford to avoid and overlook the values, beliefs and attitudes that drive consumer engagement and purchase decisions. Below is the attitudinal profile of "health shoppers" to keep in mind as you tailor future ad campaigns and strategies:

Health Shoppers

This is an audience that would respond well to ad campaigns highlighting a company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. They skew older, slightly more female and more likely to have older children (11+). Attitudinally they ...

  • Buy healthy products that deliver on a personal desire, such as nutrition, diet, etc. 
  • Look for reasonably priced products that convey happiness and benefit their family 
  • Are engaged shoppers who consult multiple sources of information, such as in-store ads, media ads and comparison shopping 
  • Consider social responsibility as a critical element when choosing products and brands and make specific product choices based on issues that matter to them

As nutrition, food advertising/transparency and health become top-priority issues for legislators and topic of conversation with consumers, it is more important than ever for food advertisers to consider the values and attitudes tied to these issues and consumer decisions as they strategize, create and execute their online advertising campaigns. There is a strong need for food advertisers to educate and build awareness around their brand's positive societal efforts in addition to their product benefits, such as nutritional menu options.

 

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