Examining the effects of brand and licensed characters on parents' perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals.

Autor: Ruggles PR; Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA., Taillie LS; Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel, USA., Lee CJY; Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA., Prestemon CE; Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel, USA., Duffy EW; Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA., Rojas CFU; Department of Design, University of Joinville Region, Brazil; Laboratory of Information Design Systems (LabDSI), Federal University of Paraná, Brazil., Hall MG; Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel, USA; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Electronic address: mghall@unc.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Appetite [Appetite] 2024 Sep 01; Vol. 200, pp. 107557. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 14.
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107557
Abstrakt: Brand and licensed characters frequently appear on children's breakfast cereal boxes and are known to affect children's product perceptions, selection, and consumption. However, less is known about their impact on parents' perceptions of foods they purchase for their child. The present study assessed the impact of brand and licensed characters featured on three children's breakfast cereal packages on parents' intentions and perceptions in an online experiment. Parents of children aged 2-12 years (n = 1013) were randomized into one of two conditions: breakfast cereals containing brand and licensed characters or breakfast cereals without any characters. Within each condition, participants viewed three breakfast cereal brands in random order per their assigned condition and reported their purchase intentions, healthfulness perceptions, and perceptions of appeal to children using 5-point Likert scales. No significant differences in purchase intentions (p = 0.91), perceived healthfulness (p = 0.52) or perceived child appeal (p = 0.59) were observed between the experimental and control groups. However, exploratory moderation analyses revealed that educational attainment moderated the impact of experimental condition on purchase intentions (p for interaction = 0.002) such that participants with a bachelor's degree in the character condition reported 0.36 points lower purchase intentions compared to the control with no difference between conditions for those with an associate's degree/trade school or high school degree or less. This study did not find an impact of brand and licensed characters on children's breakfast cereals, suggesting that their primary appeal is directly to children. Parents with higher educational attainment may be skeptical of characters on cereal brands. Additional research on the impact of brand and licensed characters on other products, in real-world settings, is needed.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No financial disclosures or conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors of this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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