In the midst of an onslaught of articles and studies bemoaning the poor physical condition of America's young people, consumer attention has turned to food manufacturers in efforts both to place blame and seek solutions. Manufacturers have responded in a variety of ways, perhaps none more disparately than in their means of advertising to those young consumers.
Prepared Foods' KidsFoodTrends (KFT) bi-monthly newsletter reports that the food industry spent an estimated $10 billion in direct marketing aimed toward children in 2004. Those dollars influence family purchases in the grocery store. However, manufacturers achieve another goal: establishing a marketing relationship with consumers at a young age. As Mary Story and Simone French of the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota noted, “Marketers believe that brand preference begins before purchase behavior does. Brand preference in children appears to be related to two major factors: 1) children's positive experiences with a brand, and 2) parents liking that brand. Thus, marketers are intensifying their efforts to develop brand relationships with young consumers, beginning when they are toddlers.”