Marketing Food Products to Children should be prohibited
Introduction
In modern century marketing strategies have a great impact on our choice of consumption. New marketing target tools started to be implemented. One of the newest tricks applied in order to increase sales of the company is marketing products to children. They are endangered to consuming non-standardized products, which pose a great threat to their health. Many civil associations are struggling for some amendments within legislature of different countries. That is why to my point of view marketing food products to children should be prohibited. To back up this idea, we need to provide the brief analysis of the problem concerning the all the arguments. Basic terms and categories for the conducted research are as following. Marketing is the organization of production and marketing of products based on the study of market demand for goods and services. Children are the people who are under age of 12. Food products – a kind of goods created for providing us with essential components. The problematic term is to be prohibited meaning that to be not allowed according to the legislature or acts in force. There are some important for understanding forms of marketing such as direct marketing, net marketing and service marketing. They are quite different practically, but their effects are rather similar. The marketing of foods and beverages is vast and increasingly sophisticated industry, and children are among its prime targets (BMSG, 2011). Advertising on television, the Internet and mobile phones are being integrated with sponsorship agreements and product placement to maximize their impact. Furthermore the children are more powerful to persuade their parents to buy the products of corporations than companies themselves that is why marketing to children is so popular. Therefore, it is essential that advertising of unhealthy food products to children should be prohibited.
Direct and Indirect Marketing
There are two forms of marketing which are commonly used in order to persuade people to buy particular products – direct and indirect. Direct marketing — the art and science of direct impact on consumers with the purpose of the sale of goods or services and promoting direct relationship with the client. Direct marketing is addressed through advertising directly to consumers, with the aim of obtaining direct response to advertising. Direct marketing allows businesses to target specifically a particular demographic through a sales pitch custom made for them (Cohen, 2013). The direct marketing tools are direct marketing by mail; marketing through catalogs; telemarketing; television marketing; and e-commerce. TV marketing is direct marketing via television through display advertising and direct answer (the first of the responding consumers have favorable conditions to purchase) or use a special in young children there is almost no feeling of irritation because the same type of commercials that are repeated endlessly.
40 percent of the three month old babies regularly watch TV screens (CCFC, n.d.). Until children turn 8 years of age, they fail to understand the persuasive intent of advertising. According to the data obtained it is established that children under 12 years old see in average 25,000 television commercials per year. Children aged 2 to 7 spend every day watching TV on average about 2 hours, which makes them an easy target for advertisers (CCFC, n.d.).. TV commercial channels for sale to home are at competitive prices Kids of age from 4 to 6 years and not solvent adults continue to watch TV during the broadcast commercial breaks.
The indirect methods of promoting business in the service sector are methods that are not obvious advertising, but, nevertheless, designed to attract target client. Such methods are not specifically directed to any particular person or firm. In this sense, the methods described below are designed to simply give your potential customer that you are here and you can turn to (Gibson, 2009). The indirect methods of marketing are Word of mouth / recommendation / specifications; public relations; writing and publishing newsletters; conducting talks and presentations; and organization of seminars, training courses, master classes or workshops. Viral marketing and viral advertising is a marketing technique that uses social networks to increase brand awareness and stimulate sales. If the users like an advertising message, they on their own initiative begin to share all of the friends their ideas. It can be text, sound, video, picture, game, e-book, and program. The process, which has long been called "word of mouth" is similar to the spread of computer viruses or normal: one of two infected, each infected by one pair, etc.
Viral marketing campaigns are aimed at hiding their commercial origin. Food marketers have started to use viral marketing online. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by The Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law on behalf of the Center for Digital Democracy has already filled specific complaints on the results of viral marketing. It occurred that some well-known food companies violate the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). They are claimed to use the viral marketing tactics such as "refer-a-friend" on websites visited by children under 12 years. The following companies such as McDonald's, Nickelodeon General Mills, Subway, and Cartoon Network are stated to use these techniques. After some complaints McDonald's changed its online policy and mainly ceased to use links for friends of the children (Bachman, 2012).
Physiological and Psychological Effects of Marketing
Physiological aspects can be defined as specific factors relating to the particular features of our body structure defining our health state etc. The physiological aspects of eating unhealthy but popular food may result in some serious illnesses or even chronic diseases in future such as Obesity (Nylund, n.d.). Contemporary marketing food campaigns focus their attention primary on good pictures without even thinking that some components may be dangerous for children. Excess consumption of fats may lead to overweighing which by its end may result in deep psychological problems, complexes in communication with peers etc. The child is fully subject to the power of advertising food. In promotional clips visual images are changing so fast that the child's attention is just not getting tired and obediently follows them (Nylund, n.d.). So whatever the product involved, rollers, directly addressed to children, characterized by speed, brightness and constant "fun", never reporting the information about the product itself.
There are psychological effects pertaining children that result in marketing unhealthy food among children. In general, the psychological effect of marketing can be described as a set of psychological characteristics relating to a particular individual that makes him buy particular product or service. As for the children they are among the most psychologically unsecured customers (Nylund, n.d.). It is important to remember that with 3 to 7 years the main way to get the attention of the children is to tell them a story; therefore the advertisement should reflect a feature of the product as one of the participants, components of the game with other children. There are the joint motive of the game, knowledge of ethics, the motive of maturation in the development of relevant advertising, aimed at children from 5 to 7 years. Main activity of children aged 7 to 11 years is studying. Therefore, when developing ads, it is worth considering the motives of growing up; the motives of building relationships with peers; explanation of assessment by an adult; motives for new knowledge and self-improvement. Teenagers are very actively developed the desire to identify from other teenagers, "to be" in the company; the search for identity, opening their own inner world; strongly developed desire of friendship; a strong concern for their own appearance; there is negativism in the relations with adults; the desire to imitate adults.
Reason for Targeting Children
There are two main reasons why children are bombarded with marketing messages from the earliest years of their life: their influence on the payments of parents, they may become life-time customers in future. It is almost well-known fact that children have significant impact on the family purchases. The parents are subject to persuasion of their children. If they do not buy the product immediately, they usually promise children to buy the product in future. To prove this statement it would be suitable to provide you with the statistic data. YTV's 2002 Tween Report stated that children of Canada (9 - 14 years old) usually spend nearly $1.9 billion influencing $20 billion in family payments per year. That effect is called "pester power," or the "nag factor". It defines specific ability of kids to make their parents to buy some product or service (MediaSmarts, n.d.)
Conclusion
Marketing of unhealthy food products needs to be prohibited as they have negative impact on children. It can be seen through the psychological and physiological problems faced by children who are continuously facing direct and indirect forms of marketing. According to the World Health Organization, marketing of harmful food has become an international problem. It has also started to be applied on the child audience. The child of 4-5 years does not distinguish lie from the truth and is subject to different marketing tricks. With terrifying efficiency advertising change the habits of children in nutrition and, ultimately, leads to the appearance of chronic diseases up to the end of the school.
The marketing specialists use specific forms of marketing the food products for children such as direct and indirect marketing. The most popular type of direct marketing for children is television. The TV advertizing for children should also be prohibited because under bright light the dangerous products such as burgers, chips etc. Viral marketing is the widely used form of indirect marketing for children.
The physiological aspects of eating unhealthy but popular food may result in some serious illnesses or even chronic diseases in future. It is also the outcome of marketing campaigns. If children have excess weight that may cause serious psychological problems and it is also one of the results of product marketing.
Companies are struggling for the children target auditory for two main reasons – to increase purchases of their parents and to establish the system of life-time clients. In general the aims of this argumentative essay are achieved and the main opinion is proved.
References
Bachman., K. (2012, October 23). McDonald's Backs Off Online Viral Marketing to Kids Changes follow complaint filed with FTC. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/mcdonalds-backs-online-viral-marketing-kids-144716
BMSG. (2011, October 1). The new age of food marketing: How companies are targeting and luring our kids -- and what advocates can do about it. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from,
http://www.bmsg.org/resources/publications/the-new-age-of-food-marketing
CCFC. (n.d.). Marketing to Babies and Toddlers. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/issue/marketing-babies-and-toddlers
CCFC. (n.d.). Marketing to Children Overview. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/resource/marketing-children-overview
Cohen., E. (2013, October 29). Direct VS Indirect Marketing: Obtain the Best of Both Worlds!. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/direct-vs-indirect-marketing-obtain-the-best-of-both-worlds/
Gibson, N. (2009, 12 January). The Power of Indirect Marketing. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, https://moz.com/ugc/the-power-of-indirect-marketing
MediaSmarts. (n.d.). How Marketers Target Kids. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, http://mediasmarts.ca/marketing-consumerism/how-marketers-target-kids
Nylund., V. (n.d.). Marketing and advertising to children: the issues at stake. Retrieved 14 March 2016 from, http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/marketing-advertising-children-issues-at-stake
Source - Digital Copies
http://www.bmsg.org/resources/publications/the-new-age-of-food-marketing
https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/direct-vs-indirect-marketing-obtain-the-best-of-both-worlds/
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/issue/marketing-babies-and-toddlers
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/resource/marketing-children-overview
https://moz.com/ugc/the-power-of-indirect-marketing
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/marketing-advertising-children-issues-at-stake
http://mediasmarts.ca/marketing-consumerism/how-marketers-target-kids
