AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLABORATIVE OBESITY RESEARCH NETWORKUpdate on Food Marketing ResearchRWJF Food Marketing RoundtableWashington, DC April 5, 2011

DEFINITIONS Marketing – 4 P’s

Product, promotion, placement, price Integrated system

Target marketing Use of techniques that identify consumers who share common

needs or characteristics and positioning products of services to appeal to and reach these consumers, e.g., youth, young professional women, etc.

Ethnically targeted marketing Further positioning products or services to appeal to and reach

consumers based on their ethnic identity

Grier & Kumanyika. The context for choice: health implications of targeted food and beverage marketing to African Americans. Am J Pub Health 2008;98:1616–1629

INEQUITIES IN FOOD MARKETING

Risks of obesity and other diet-related diseases are disproportionately high in African American communities

African American disproportionate exposure to health-adverse mix of food options (children and adults)

Advocacy written comment to Federal Trade Commission regarding

importance of examining ethnic targeting http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/foodmktgkids-2/543668-

00006.pdf

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Raise awareness of food marketing equity issues for

African Americans Generate sustainable, community-based solutions that:

empower individuals and communities to reduce the effects of adverse food marketing; and

increase receptivity to marketing (commercial or social) of healthier eating and activity patterns.

FRAAME—FOOD RESEARCH FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MARKETING EQUITY

Multi-method ethnographic research conducted with AACORN field sites in Baltimore, MD, Birmingham, AL, Chicago, IL, and Durham, NC to explore African American youth and adult perceptions of their food marketing environments

Multi-site qualitative analysis of price-related influences and trade-offs on food purchasing and consumption in African Americans

FRAAME—FOOD RESEARCH FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MARKETING EQUITY

Focus groups in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Durham to assess youth and adult responses to food marketing scenarios about various targeted marketing issues, with ‘sensitization protocol’ at two sites

Interviews with food retailers and local policymakers in Chicago and Birmingham to assess attitudes and perceptions related to food marketing

Identification of potential social justice framing for countermarketing

FOOD PURCHASING PERSPECTIVES ASSESSED IN FRAAME* FIELD RESEARCH

Personal food purchasing of

adolescent girls

Caregiver – child interactions around food purchasing

Caregiver food purchasing for the

household

Chicago, ILBirmingham, ALDurham, NC Baltimore, MD

*Food Research for African American Marketing Equity

Adult and youth interactions with the food marketing environment: products, promotions, availability, and cost

Adult and youth perceptions of food marketing environments

Baltimore, MDDurham, NC

Philadelphia, PAChicago, IL

Birmingham, AL

Adult Youth

FRAAME—FOOD RESEARCH FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN MARKETING EQUITY – NEW PROJECTS

A study of linked, youth-led community and social media activities around countermarketing of sugar sweetened beverages and fast food. April 2, 2011 Inaugural Youth Summit to stimulate youth-led

community action to improve environments for healthy food and physical activity (funded by NICHD U13 conference grant)

Three-part study exploring food price influences on food purchases of black women (Aetna Foundation)

http://www.aacorn.org/uploads/files/AACORNSSBBrief2011.pdf