Food Marketing: A Primer

Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0) ABSTRACT Marketing may be regarded as comprising four key elements known as the 4 Ps: product, price, place and promotion. Food marketing describes any form of advertising used to promote the purchase and/or consumption of a food or beverage. It can influence food behaviors by moderating socio cultural elements of the food environment. This paper provides a primer on food marketing.


INTRODUCTION
Every generations must find creative ways to integrate production, marketing, distribution, and technology to achieve the optimal usage of scarce food resources. Food marketing activities play a critical role in bringing together agricultural stakeholders, enhance food security, simulate food safety, and the consumer. Food marketing activities bring together the food producer and the consumer [1]. Marketers use a wide range of marketing techniques to add value to a food product and persuade the consumer to purchase it. They also provide the reasons consumers purchase their product and track how much a person is willing to pay for the product [2]. Marketing allows customers make informed decisions about food choices and influence their choices.
The food marketing industry worldwide is one of the largest employers. The marketing strategies used by food industry affect many people, influence the price, volume, and quality.
The food and beverage industries (such as Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola) formed the American Council for Fitness & Nutrition (ACFN), a national consortium of marketers, scientists, and fitness experts. In the US, demographics have significantly affected demand for certain food products.

MARKETING CHARACTERISTICS
Marketing is crucial to the success of any business. Several characteristics of the food market determine its structure and operation.
Packaging: Most food products are processed, packaged, stored, and transported as they move through the marketing channels. Packaging a product is an important part of marketing the product. Just as a book is judged by its cover, a product is judged by its packaging. People depend on food labels to tell them the nutritional value of a product Food packages often indicate nutrient content claims such as "organic," reduced sugar," or "high in fiber" [3]. As shown in Figure 1, the truth about the food shown appear on the label [4]. Both the food and the packaging need to be intriguing. Packaging also should be earth friendly, less wasteful, and more informative.
Price: Some consumers value a product more than others and are willing to pay more. Marketers are interested in getting each customer to pay as much as he or she is willing. Prices that farmers receive for their commodities and other products depend on supply and demand. The total cost for determining the price is equal to the variable cost plus the fixed cost. Variable costs consist of the cost of goods sold and operating expenses. Fixed costs include rent, insurance, property taxes, depreciation, and interest on debt [5].
Advertisement: Advertisements are attempts made by a company to persuade consumers to think favorably about their product and buy it. Some food items have great potential for sales growth. One way to spread food products is through massive advertising. Common broadcast media used for food advertisement include TV, radio, magazines and newspapers, the Internet, text messaging, product placement in movies and video games, schools, product packages, toys, video games, blockbuster films, celebrity advertising, online marketing, etc. The use of social media to market foods and beverages has exploded. The majority of the food advertisements are for unhealthy foods, with poor nutritional quality. Remarkable associations exist between TV food advertising and food preferences and consumption [6].
Distribution: Distribution entails getting the product from the manufacturer to the consumer. In the US, food is sold in a diversity of outlets. Supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants all sell a broad assortment of goods to customers. Many manufacturers find it difficult to get their products into retail stores which have limited space [7]. Regulations: There are no worldwide food marketing laws or legislation, giving strict guidelines for food international marketers. Each nation can adopt their own legislation with regards to food marketing standards. Several countries including US, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, and Korea adopted some form of legislation to protect children and reduce their exposure to advertisements. The regulation of unhealthy food marketing to children is good strategy for obesity prevention.

FOOD MARKETING ETHICS
Ethics deals with moral principles behind marketing operations. All forms of marketing pose considerable risk. Marketing can be used in ways that either promote or harm health. With fierce local and international competition among new products, a successful marketing campaign can make the difference between a global success and a financial disaster. Marketing to young children is regarded as unfair and deceptive because those children are not developmentally capable to understand the purpose of the ads. There are serious life-long, far reaching consequences to consuming an unhealthy food as a child. These include overweight, obesity, heart disease, dental disease, asthma, sleep apnoea, cancer, strokes, and arthritis. These are serious health problems too big to ignore. Food marketing directed at children is pervasive, powerful, and pernicious. It can undermine parental efforts to promote healthy diets in their children [8]. Industry self-regulation is a common approach to regulating food marketing to children.
Governments and industries worldwide are calling for change to protect young people from the negative effects of food marketing. The World Health Organization encourages governments and industry to reduce the impact of foods high in saturated fats, free sugars, and salt.

CHALLENGES
The food industry faces some marketing challenges. The challenge facing food markets is creating great-tasting choices that also deliver the health benefit. The food and beverage makers, especially those responsible for promoting fattening foods, are being criticized and blamed for causing obesity since 30% of U.S. adults are considered obese.
Childhood obesity is a significant and increasing global problem. Food marketing is often singled out as the leading cause of the obesity. Food marketing directly or indirectly influences children's food preferences, their food consumption, and their food related behaviors. Youths are vulnerable to the influence of unhealthy food marketing. Some wonder if fast food could become "the next tobacco." Some companies have shown a heightened sensitivity to the issue and ensure that their marketing does not encourage anything but a healthy lifestyle. That is a significant challenge looming for snack makers. Sodas and snacks have been kicked out of public school vending machines. Professionals, from marketers to nutrition experts, realize that that obesity is a complex problem with no quick fix [9].
There is growing consensus to regulate food marketing and advertising to children. In addition to targeted advertising, the packaging on less healthy foods is often misleading to parents and children. Competition is increasingly global, with both suppliers and buyers being spread across the world. The food industry faces pressures not only in terms of nutritional value, but also from environmental concerns.

CONCLUSION
Marketing performs the services necessary to move food from the producer to the consumer. Food marketing has significantly shaped consumer food choice and behavior. Food marketers must resist the temptation of being all things to all people. The Institute of Medicine, World Health Organization, and others agree that food marketing works. The food marketing system in the United States and other advanced economies may be considered as effective. The food industry relies heavily on our senses. Marketing of food and beverages to children has emerged as a key contributing environmental factor to the childhood obesity. More information about food marketing can be obtained from the books in [10][11][12].