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Children, Marketing and Food: a drawing collection study There is some concern about the obesity crisis that is assoiling the United States. Some think that marketing professionals and companies have some responsibilities’ in this. Anyhow, this research effort is implemented in order to gain a better understanding on how children present food related issues in their drawings about going shopping. Drawings from high income and low income children were collected and analyzed. Results indicate that high income children have a better knowledge of the market. Supermarkets were widely represented by children, both segments (high and low income) demonstrating having a great understanding of how they operate. On one hand children drew the McDonalds brand and stores several times, but on another hand children also drew themselves in the process of buying fruits. This is somehow surprising, because there isn´t much effort among fruit companies to generate this. Children, drawings, food

1. Introduction

The kids market or children’s market once had very small importance to companies and marketing professionals. Since the Baby Boom and the social transformations that occurred in the end of the last century this is not true anymore. Nowadays, millions and millions are invested in product development, advertising and other related marketing mix strategies focused on the kids market. This has heightened the importance of children to marketing professionals and have also triggered some harsh responses from society in general. Groups are gathering in order to fight back the marketing influence on children. One of the key topics

Children are generally viewed as a difficult research subject. This is so mainly on behalf of the natural characteristics of children. Children can be shy; can have difficulties in verbally explaining their opinions and attitudes and so forth. That said, it is clear that there is the need for a research technique that can overcome these problems. This paper proposes that the collection of drawings can be a useful data collection technique for research with children. Therefore, the aim of this piece is to present a research protocol that can be followed by marketing researchers in order to effectively collect drawings and extract information from the resulting data. This will be done using real drawings as examples of different aspects of this kind of research.

2. Method

Children, especially of lower age have some difficulties in verbally explaining the

felling, opinions and thoughts. This is one of the reasons that studies that have used verbal and non verbal measures to research children have encountered conflicting results (Bree, 1995; Donohue, Henke and Donohue, 1980). Besides that children have historically demonstrated much pleasure in drawing (Cox, 1992). Drawings are very useful, because they allow the research to gain insight into the thoughts and feeling of the artist, in this case the child (THOMAS; SILK, 1990; MALCHIODI, 1998; FOKS-APPELMAN, 2007). But as any research toll, the collection of drawings also have some drawbacks. First of all, small children cannot draw. Until 2 years old children will only draw circles, squares, rectangles and crosses (Malchiodi, 1998; Gross; Hayne, 1999). The age that children gain the capacity to draw varies

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across cultures, but usually happens around age 4 (Foks-Appelman, 2007). Until age 3, children only scribble on paper (Leo, 1970). After age 9 children will start to want their drawing to have a certain level of realism that is only attainable trough training, since this usually does not happen children grow away from drawing (Cox, 1992).

Despite being a very used technique in other fields, such as psychology, education and medicine, drawing as data collection method is still underused and studied within the marketing academy. Major players in the children’s market, such as Nickelodeon and Disney, have been using this method for some time now. In the last decade, some author such as McNeal and Ji (1996, 2003), Lindstrom (2003), Yuen (2004), Chan (2006), Veloso and Hildebrand (2007) have experienced with this method with interesting results.

The process of collecting drawings with children has to be very well organized by the researcher, because if children are left to their own business they will draw what is their main interest at that time. If that is the aim of the researcher, then there is no problem. Otherwise, there is the need to follow a sequence of steps to secure that the aimed data is collected.

First of all, the research has to have a clear understanding of what is his research focus. With exemplary intention in mind we collected drawings with a few children. We established that our focus was to gain a deeper understanding of what kind of products children valued the most for having in their rooms. Having a clear objective established, then the researcher has to create a stimulus in order to direct what children will draw. This stimulus can be a phrase, a word, another drawing, figures or any piece of information that will drive children to draw something related to the research interests of the researchers. We decided to ask children to draw their “dream room”. This stimulus closed the range of drawings that would be made to where children spend part of their day and sleep. This also prompted children to draw not only what they had on their rooms, but also what they wanted to have.

The second step in this process is the collection of drawing itself. Most research initiatives in this field have depended on schools and their teachers to allow access to children. It is easier to collect drawing in schools because you will find groups of children of similar age that are already used to draw during class time. The researcher should be present during the drawing process in order to identify any data collection problems, such as children copying their peer’s drawings, excess of information given by the teacher or lack of focus during the drawing process. When children have finished their drawing it is useful to talk to them to obtain some explanation on what were they drawing, since sometimes it is difficult to understand the meaning of the drawing, especially for younger children or for those that lack drawing skills. It is important to elaborate questions to children in as specific way that will bring more solid answers. If you ask children if this is a television set, they can say that it is even if what they meant was to draw a video-game. It is more useful to ask to the child what that item in the drawing is. This kind of open question, that cannot generate a yes or no answer, is much more constructive.

The final step, after all drawings are collect is to analyze the content of the drawings. This can be done at first in a descriptive way, such as the products and brands depicted or the number of people that children drew in each drawing. Afterwards, a more qualitative analysis should be done, such as content analysis. 3. Data Analysis

First of all we conducted a descriptive analysis of the drawing to understand what kind of products, stores and brands were represented. For school A, the top three stores were supermarkets (11 appearances), toy stores (10 appearances) and shopping centers (9 appearances). Among children from school C, results were not as concentrated as for school A. Movie theaters appeared 5 times, soccer stadiums, supermarkets and low income street

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shopping zones (Bras and 25 de Marco) appeared 4 times. With 3 appearances we observed shopping centers and the Zoo. Teachers of both schools should have only solicited children to draw what came to mind when they thought about going shopping. But some differences in the results could be due to different stimulus explanation. We suggest that researchers be present when the data collection takes place. Besides that, we suggest that children put their names, age and gender at the back of the drawing. This can facilitate the analysis process afterwards. Another suggestion is to inquire the child about what has he draw, this should be done by the class teacher otherwise the child will be overwhelmed by the presence of a strange adult. Four brands appeared in both drawings from school A and C: Carrefour, Extra, McDonalds and C&A. Carrefour and Extra are two of major Brazilian players in supermarket retailing. They have stores that both upper and low class individuals patronize. C&A can be found in both because, despite selling middle price clothing, they have a strong presence in both high end and low end shopping malls across town.

Figure 1. McDonalds

The drawings of the McDonalds brand demonstrates how well positioned is the brand among children. There is always a scent of love and pleasure when children represent the golden arches. McDonalds is one of the fast food companies focused on the kids market that has constructed a retail environment which is full of rewarding stimulus to children: playground, happy meals and toys, Ronald McDonald’s, drawing material etc. They have done a god job reinforcing the presence of children in their stores. National and International competitors’ of McDonalds haven´t done such a god job in Brazil. Burger King has entered the Brazilian market only a few years ago and haven´t invested so heavily in children directed marketing efforts. For example, their stores are not so focused on children as a McDonalds stores. Giraffas, a Brazilian fast food chain, has tried to copy the happy meal strategy, but with not so good results. Therefore, it is natural to verify the prominence of the McDonalds brand in the Brazilian market.

Accuf and Reiher (2005) consider that the consumption of fat, salty and high caloric products generate obesity, tendency to become diabetic, depression and lower school performance. Among children and adolescents between 2 and 19 there are 17% (or 12.5 million) obese (CDC, 2011). Sugar drinks and less healthy food are one of main factors of children obesity (CDC, 2011) and are readily available fast food stores, which in turn are positively evaluated by children.

High income children represented themselves eating ice-cream and buying fruits in several different locations, such as supermarkets and food fair. In each case, as can be seen on the drawings presented, children appear to have good and positive emotions related to food buying and consumption.

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Figure 2. High income (girl and ice cream) Figure 3. Low income (popcorn at the movies) Children are not entirely free to choose and decide on the food habits (Brian, 2003).

Parents and other’s can play a significant role in mediating how children are feed. On the other hand children are often viewed as having a certain level of say on what to be bought by the family (Sheikh & Moleski, 1977). This is especially true when we think about pester power. If children have positive views of healthy foods, such as those presented in figure 3, then it should be easier for parents to deal with food related issues regarding obesity.

Figure 3. High income children and fruit

On the other hand, low income children drew themselves at supermarket buying

products that can be considered as normal for day to day Brazilian eating habits. Among those, pasta, sugar, bread, rice and beans. Two examples are presented in figure 4.

Figure 4. Low income children and supermarkets

It is interesting to note that children are already familiar with other aspects of the retail

environment. They drew shelves, shopping carts and even prices. The appearance of price was very scarce among low and high income.

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Figure 5. Pão de Açucar supermarket

High income children drew in several occasions the Pão de Açucar supermarket brand. This brand is orientated and positioned for the upper class. Offering a more premium product portfolio and a higher service level. Both high and low income children presented drawings with more popular supermarket brands, such as Carrefour and Extra. Therefore, it´s possible to imagine that there is some juxtaposition between the segments in their consumer behavior.

Figure. 6. Other examples High income children appear to have a wider knowledge of the market, because they drew other types of food related stores. Gero Café is a premium coffee house in Brazil. They also drew a bakery. In general high income children were more focused on drawing very well known brands, when low income children drew more general stores and brands. 4. Discussion

Children have a positive relation to food and retail environments where food is bought

and consumed. This can be understood as something natural as eating is one of the primary aspects of life. Another explanation is that supermarkets and convenience stores are positioned among the first experiences children have when having their first shopping trips (McNeal,1999).

McDonalds, has staidly invested in television advertising and therefore is the only fast-food store found in children’s drawing. There are some huge competitors in Brazil, such as Burger King, Girrafas, Subway, Pizza Hut, that advertise as well, but none of them appeared among the drawings. This is so because they haven´t focused directly to the children´s market, as did McDonalds and besides that, they are not so well prepared to receive children in their service environment. Therefore McDonalds will probably stay in vivid color in children´s memory.

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On a more positive note, children presented several drawings with fruits and normal food for the Brazilian eating habits that are considered healthy. Efforts should be made to reinforce such perception in order to generate better eating habits among children.

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