AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLABORATIVE
OBESITY RESEARCH NETWORK
Update on Food Marketing Research
RWJF Food Marketing Roundtable
Washington, DC
April 5, 2011
DEFINITIONS

Marketing – 4 P’s



Target marketing


Product, promotion, placement, price
Integrated system
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 healthadverse 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-2/54366800006.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
Adult and youth interactions with the food marketing
environment: products, promotions, availability, and cost
Adult
Caregiver food
purchasing for the
household
Chicago, IL
Birmingham, AL
Youth
Caregiver – child
interactions
around food
purchasing
Durham, NC
Personal food
purchasing of
adolescent girls
Adult and youth
perceptions of
food marketing
environments
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore,
MD
Chicago, IL
Durham, NCAL
Birmingham,
Philadelphia, PA
*Food Research for African American Marketing Equity
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