Soft drink company marketing tactics: the experts sound off

[Guest guest]

Soft drink company marketing tactics: the experts sound off JoAnn Guest Apr

07, 2005 10:50 PDT

 

This is a compilation of quotes about soft drink company marketing

tactics from some of the leading authors on health, food marketing and

food politics. This full list, and much more information, is included in

The Five Soft Drink Monsters downloadable ebook.

http://www.newstarget.com/003914.html

Marion Nestle

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition (see related

ebook on nutrition) and Health

 

 

 

" In 1997 children spent nearly $8 billion of their own money on food and

beverages, of which $1 billion each went for sweets and soft drinks. The

amounts spent on food increase with age; in 1997, children aged 7-12

spent $2.3 billion of discretionary money on snacks and beverages,

teenagers $58 billion. "

 

" Children also influence a substantial proportion of the total annual

sales of certain foods… 30 percent on soft drinks. "

 

" Soft drink companies unapologetically name 8-to-12-year-olds as

marketing targets. Advertisers encourage marketing directed to

9-year-olds as a logical consequence of the fact that children -- and

girls in particular -- are maturing earlier. "

 

" The reason they chose Coke or Pepsi had nothing to do with taste. . . .

[We] think the advertising media targets their advertisements to appeal

to teenagers because . . . [that's when you] develop buying habits and

that's when you have more pressure to drink the brand that's cool. "

 

" Researchers counted not a single commercial for fruits, vegetables,

bread, or fish…. for the most frequently aired commercials such as those

for sugared cereals, candy bars, and soft drinks. "

 

" Soft drink companies are especially comprehensive in their approach to

young consumers…. Coca-Cola puts its logo on so many items that it runs

a chain of stores to sell them; it even has stores at international

airports. "

 

" Coca-Cola company, for example, sends multiple copies of " Coke cards "

to " teen influentials " -- school officers, cheerleaders, and sports

participants -- expecting that they will pass the extras along to their

network of friends. These " educational " counting books and puzzles for

young children require the use of cereals or cookies as tokens, provide

discount coupons to encourage adults to purchase these products, and

advertise the food throughout. These convert children into advertisers

as well as consumers of soft drinks. "

 

" Critics also are troubled by studies showing that children do not

readily distinguish Channel One's commercials from its entertainment,

news, and public service programs and that they are confused about such

distinctions. Children say, for example, that they believe Channel One

advertisers such as Pepsi -Cola are " deeply committed to helping them

cope with their emotional and psychological problems. "

 

" Recent development in food marketing: large payments from soft drink

companies to school districts in return for the right to sell that

company's products -- and only those products -- in every one of the

district's schools. "

 

" The company's most evident marketing strategy is advertising. Coca

-Cola’s global advertising budget exceeded $1.6 billion in the late

1990s. In 1999 the company spent $867 million for advertising in the

United States alone -- $174.4 million for Coca-Cola beverages, $68.4

million for Sprite, $41.4 million for Minute Maid, and $17.6 million for

Powerade "

 

" PepsiCo spends even more on advertising. Its total domestic advertising

budget was $1.31 billion in 1999 -- $165 million for Pepsi beverages,

$37.7 million for Mountain Dew "

 

" Some soft drink companies go so far as to license their logos to makers

of infant-feeding bottles. "

 

William Duffy

Sugar Blues

 

" A product like Coca–Cola, which contains known poisons and destroys

[one’s] teeth and stomach, has one of the most stunning ad campaigns in

the history of the Western world…. Coke executives have learned from

extensive research that young America is searching for what is real,

meaningful in this plastic world, and one bright ad executive comes up

with the idea that it is Coke. Yep, Coke is the real thing and this is

drilled into the minds of 97 percent of all young people between the age

of six and nineteen until their teeth are rotting just like their

parents' did. "

 

" Another congressman asked if the doctor had made any tests of the

effect of cola beverages on metal and iron. When the doctor said he

hadn't, the congressman volunteered: " A friend of mine told me once that

he dropped three tenpenny nails into one of the cola bottles, and in

forty-eight hours the nails had completely dissolved. " Sure, " the doctor

answered. " Phosphoric acid there would dissolve iron or limestone. You

might drop it on the steps, and it would erode the steps coining up

here.... Try it. "

 

Eric Schlosser

Fast Food Nation

 

" In one of the most despicable marketing gambits, " Michael Jacobson, the

author of " Liquid Candy " reports, " Pepsi, Dr Pepper and Seven-Up

encourage feeding soft drinks to babies by licensing their logos to a

major maker of baby bottles, Munchkin Bottling, Inc. " A 1997 study

published in the Journal of Dentistry for Children found that many

infants were indeed being fed soda in those bottles. "

 

Greg Critser

Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World

 

" The soft drink industry alone spends upward of $600 million annually to

promote its trash (compared with the National Cancer Institute's paltry

$1 million budget for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption), such

promotional campaigns can be highly effective "

 

Richard Brodie

Virus of the Mind:: The New Science of the Meme

 

" In psychology, the word conditioning often refers to implanting

association-memes. When the Coca-Cola Bottling Company pays millions of

dollars to show you young people in bathing suits having a good time

drinking their products, they are conditioning you to associate good

feelings with their brands. "

 

" Another effect of meme evolution on advertising is the divergence of

advertising content from product content. I remember noticing, as a kid,

the Coca-Cola Company changing its slogan from " Drink Coca-Cola " to

" Enjoy Coca -Cola " to " Things Go Better with Coke. " Somewhere along the

line, somebody realized that they didn't really have to discuss the

product itself, just create a mood full of enough attractive elements

that people took notice and felt good when they saw the product -- they

created an association-meme in the customer. A recent Diet Pepsi

campaign featured celebrities and showgirls smiling, cavorting, and

grunting " uh-huh! " for half a minute. Not exactly a logical delineation

of the product's features and benefits. "

 

John Robbins

" The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our

World "

 

" Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies are giving millions of dollars

to cash-strapped school districts in return for exclusive rights to sell

their products in schools. In one such deal, a school district in

Colorado actually requires teachers to push Coca-Cola consumption in

classrooms whenever sales fall below contractual obligations. "

 

Earl Mindell PhD and Virginia Hopkins MA

Earl Mindell's New Vitamin Bible

 

" There's a good chance that one of the leading contributors to

osteoporosis in the U.S. is carbonated soft drinks containing

phosphorus. Research has shown a direct link between too much phosphorus

and calcium loss. "

 

H J Roberts MD

Aspartame (Nutrasweet): Is It Safe?

 

" Many TV commercials featuring household-name stars are targeted to

child viewers. A major manufacturer of aspartame-containing soft drinks

has already taken aim at children watching Saturday morning television,

known as the " moppet market " (The Wall Street Journal December 9, 1988,

p.B-1). Producers had previously avoided such targeting due to concern

over the unique vulnerability of children, and the possible exacerbation

of obesity among sedentary young video viewers. "

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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