Sainsburys: Active Youths

J Sainsbury PLC. (2016) J Sainsbury plc / Our commitments. Available at: http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/responsibility/our-sustainability-plan/our-commitments/ (Accessed: 11 January 2016).

We’ll encourage kids to lead a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

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WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

There are growing concerns about child obesity and activity levels with one in three children in the UK overweight and one in five obese. When we launched our Active Kids programme in 2005, it was about getting as many young people enjoying physical activity as possible. Over time we’ve evolved the programme to consider both ‘calories in’ and ‘calories out’, because it is important to maintain a balance of eating well and being active.

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Our Active Kids programme supports registered schools and clubs with equipment, experiences and education for cooking and sports. This year, two winning schools received £10,000 worth of new kitchen equipment through our Active Kids Superstar Cooks competition, which was run in conjunction with ready-made lesson plans that helped teachers educate students about the curriculum’s cooking programme.

The 2015 Active Kids voucher collection period resulted in the redemption of over £11 million worth of vouchers, benefitting more than 34,000 schools and clubs across the UK. Redemptions for healthy eating products grew by 42 per cent compared with 2014 as we helped more children learn about and enjoy a balanced diet. Prime Minister David Cameron also awarded the scheme with the prestigious Big Society Award, in recognition of our work in encouraging thousands of children across the UK to live healthier, more active lifestyles. We have now invested more than £160 million of our £200 million commitment to the scheme, to the benefit of over 47,000 schools and clubs.

 

WHAT WE'LL DO

1. We’ll continue to develop our Active Kids scheme, investing £200 million in activities for kids of all abilities.

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KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• £10,000
  of new kitchen equipment won by schools through our Active Kids Superstar Cooks competition
 
• >34,000 
  schools and clubs across the UK benefitted from the 2015 Active Kids voucher collection
 
• >£11m 
  worth of vouchers redeemed from the 2015 Active Kids voucher collection
• 42%
  increase in voucher redemptions for Active Kids healthy eating products in 2015 compared with 2014
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
• >£160m
  invested in the Active Kids scheme to date

Tesco: Eat Happy Project

3 November, 2015

The Eat Happy Project reaches one million children

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Tesco has today announced that one million UK children have now been involved in the Eat Happy Project, the retailer's long-term commitment to help children gain the knowledge and skills they need to have a happy, healthy relationship with food.

The milestone comes just 18 months into the project, which was developed in response to new research that found 80% of children today were less healthy than their parents.

The Eat Happy Project was launched in March 2014 alongside an in-depth study highlighting a growing concern among British parents about their children’s relationship with their food. The study, undertaken by global consumer trends experts Future Foundation, also revealed that even though 90 per cent of children said they know which foods are healthy, fewer than ten per cent achieve their five-a-day target. More than half (52 per cent) believed potatoes count towards the total, and one in ten (10 per cent) counted carrot cake.

The study also found that two-thirds of parents believe children eat much more convenience food than they did as a child, and half said they feared the impact of their children’s diet on long-term health.

The Tesco Eat Happy Project takes education out of the classroom and actively shows children where their food comes from. Schoolchildren aged 4-11 have visited suppliers at their farms or factories and gone on in-store Farm to Fork trails at 787 Tesco stores UK-wide where specially trained colleagues provide practical demonstrations helping children explore fresh fruit and vegetables, taste cheeses, see how bread is baked and learn about the different species and origins of fish.

More than 18,000 pupils have also been transported around the world virtually using Google+ Hangouts for Online Field Trips, where they have talked to worldwide suppliers from banana growers in Costa Rica, to pasta makers in Naples.

The Tesco Eat Happy Project, however, does not just engage with children through schools. In January, a new partnership was launched with the Scout Association and since then almost 18,000 Cubs and Beavers have earned their Farm to Fork badge on the trails.

During school holidays, the Project invites parents to bring their children to free Let’s Cook classes in its stores in partnership with the Children’s Food Trust. To date these classes, teaching recipes from spaghetti Bolognese to veggie kebabs, have been held in 95 stores, with more than 7,000 children taking part. More than 10,000 children will also get the chance to learn to cook in after-school clubs set up through the partnership this term.

Rebecca Shelley, Group Communications Director for Tesco said:

“Our plans for The Tesco Eat Happy Project were always ambitious - through engaging one by one with a million children we have shown that we can play our small part in helping children have a more healthy relationship with food.  We want to do everything we can to serve our customers a little better every day, and this is an important part of that.”

The Tesco Eat Happy Project has now set its sights on new goals, aiming to provide the next million children with an Eat Happy Experience within twelve months as well as increasingly engaging with parents for activities that can be undertaken in the home.

Tesco PLC. (3 November 2015) Tesco PLC - Media - New Releases - The Eat Happy Project reaches one million children. Available at: http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=17&newsid=1237 (Accessed: 11 January 2016).

Primary Research: Supermarkets

As another form of primary research, my plan was to contact some of the larger supermarkets to ask them questions which will help me outline some of the more positive effects of food marketing. I was hoping they could outline some of the positive steps they have taken in the past or are currently taking in order to use food marketing in a positive way and to promote a healthy lifestyle.

I wrote to 6 different supermarkets including Marks and Spencers, Aldi, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose. 

I asked the following:

Hi There,

I’m wondering if you could point me in the right direction. I’m currently a university student writing my final year dissertation focusing on food marketing to children.

I’m hoping to pursue a career in food marketing and so I’d like my essay to focus on the positives of food marketing, rather than the negatives which seem to be portrayed in the media a lot. So far, I have struggled to find enough content which portrays food marketing to children as a positive and so I was hoping I could gather some research by gaining knowledge from some large supermarkets.

Is there any chance you would be able to highlight any steps you have taken in the past or are currently taking in order to promote healthy eating and lifestyle to your customers in terms of advertisements, packaging, products, slogans or even where certain products are placed in stores.

I truly believe that food marketing has far more positive effects than negative and would really appreciate any help in gathering some information which will help back me up throughout my dissertation and give food marketing a much more positive reputation to the general public.

Thank you for your time,

Jessica Parry

email: jessica.plant@hotmail.co.uk tel: 07931535536

University of Cumbria - Year 3 BA(Hons) Graphic Design Student

Out of all 6 supermarkets, Waitrose, Marks and Spencers, Tesco and Sainsbury's got back to me. Aldi and Morrisons did not reply.

None of the supermarkets gave me any direct answers but they did give the following responses:

Waitrose

Hi Jessica, thanks for your message and interest in Waitrose.

I'm afraid that due to the number of requests we receive, we’re not able to respond precisely to every question we get.

You can find a wide range of information about Waitrose via the following link - www.waitrose.com/ourcompany/index.aspx which you may find of interest and should give you some ideas and information for your studies.

To download Waitrose Environment report please use the following link -www.waitrose.com/ourcompany/CSR.aspx

www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk contains downloads of the John Lewis Partnership brochure and Annual reports.

On the link below we have put together a Resources section on the John Lewis Partnership website to help you find out more about the retail industry. This includes a selection of the main trade associations, commercial information and news sources, Government sources, academic institutions and consumer interest groups that together should help you find what you need. You will also find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Partnership - www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/resources.html

For Nutritional information our Nutritionist recommends the following links -www.nutrition.org and www.waitrose.com/food/healthandnutrition/index.aspx

Employment opportunities within the John Lewis Partnership can be accessed by the following link - www.waitrosejobs.com

On behalf of Waitrose I’d like to wish you every success with your studies. Thanks.

Sainsbury's

Hi Jessica, due to the number of requests we receive, we can't help you with a specific project. There is however, a wealth of information available about our company on our corporate website. http://tinyurl.com/bsxhves Liz

Tesco

Hello Jessica,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us via Facebook. That sounds like a very interesting topic to write on for your dissertation.

All of our publicly available information can be found on our Tesco PLC website which you can view by following this link: http://www.tescoplc.com/

Kind regards Matthew - Customer Care

Marks and Spencer

Hi Jessica, thanks for your message. We can't send anything direct but please follow this link to our Student Section: http://bit.ly/1ywtEkj. Merry Christmas, Donna smile emoticon

I plan to look into the links given in more detail and see if I can gather any answers this way.

Taste Tests (RESULTS)

As mentioned earlier, I wanted to complete two different taste tests on children to find out which type of marketing is most effective to children and if children think that a food tastes different depending on which packaging it comes from. I have now gathered my results to date which are based on 80 participants.

Before completing the taste tests, I ensured that parents gave permission for their children to take part and explained the tests to them, including the foods that were going to be used. They then had a choice whether or not their children could take part and they were also there to supervise.

Here is the letter which they received beforehand: 

Hi there,

My name is Jessica and I am a university student currently writing my final year dissertation on the subject of ‘Children’s Food Marketing’. I would like to complete two different ‘taste tests’ on children in order to gather research for my essay. The aim of my essay is to discover how food marketing is affecting children and their health—whether that be in a positive or negative way. I’m hoping to find more positives than negatives.

There will be two different tests in total and the aim of the tests is to discover A) which type of marketing is most effective to children, e.g television advertisements, free toys or popular cartoon characters and B) If children think that a food tastes different depending on which packaging it comes from. 

The first test will be to find out which type of marketing is most popular with children and will involve three different food products as follows:

- McVities Chocolate Digestive Biscuits.

- Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles

- Haribo Minions

Each child will be given a choice between the three products and has to choose one.

The first product will come with an accompanying television advertisement (shown on a tablet device). 

The second product will come with a free toy.

The third product will have a popular cartoon character on the packaging.

The second test will be to find out whether the appearance of a product effects the children’s idea of the taste of that product.

This test will involve three of exactly the same food product, packaged in three different boxes/packets. 

The food used will be a Cadbury Mini Animal Biscuit.

The first will have a plain packet.

The second will have a popular character on the packet.

The third will have a popular brand name on the packet.

Each child will taste all three of the products and then decide which one they thought tasted the best.

The results collected on the day will be used within my essay for university. 

If you would allow your child/children to take part in the above two tests, please could you sign the following consent form and confirm that they have no allergies to any of the foods listed:

The results were as follows:

TASTE TEST 1: The children are given a choice between three different foods and have to pick only one which they are allowed to then consume. Before the children are given the option, they have to watch a television advertisement for option 1, they see the free toy they will receive if they pick option 2 and finally, they see the packaging which option 3 uses.

The options were as follows:

Option 1: McVities Chocolate Digestive Biscuits (TV AD)

Option 2: Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles (Free Toy)

Option 3: Haribo Minions (Characters)

17.5% chose Option 1.

52.5% chose Option 2.

30% chose Option 3.

These results show that being given a free toy is the most popular form of marketing. Coming in second is popular characters and finally, television advertisements were the least popular form of food marketing. 

TASTE TEST 2: The children are given three different forms of packaging, each with the exact same food inside. They have to taste all three of the foods and tell us which one they thought tasted the nicest. 

The options were as follows:

Option 1: Plain packaging.

Option 2: Popular character on the packet.

Option 3: Popular brand name on the packet.

3.75% chose Option 1.

58.75% chose Option 2.

22.5% chose Option 3.

15% said that the foods all tasted the same.

This result shows that the most popular form of packaging was that with a popular character on the front. Brand names came in second place and plain packaging came last, as expected. However, 15% of the children asked figured out that the foods were all the same product which shows us that taste is still a strong contender to children's food choices.

Survey: Insight into children' food habits and diets. (FURTHER RESULTS)

The survey I created has since provided more results compared to my previous results post. It has now been completed by 100 people and so I feel the results are much more precise. Here are the new results broken down:

Question 1 asked: When shopping with your children, do they ask you to purchase certain foods for them?

24% answered Yes, most of the time.
47% answered Occasionally, they sometimes ask for certain things.
29% answered No, my children do not ask me to purchase certain products.

The majority of the children in these families sometimes ask for products in particular, but not always. There are almost as many children asking for products 'most of the time' as there is not asking for products at all, but the strong majority is that children are asking for products a percentage of the time.

Question 2 asked: If you answered Yes or Occasionally to question 1, do the foods your children ask for tend to be healthy options or unhealthier choices?

33% answered Healthy
12% answered Unhealthy
55% answered Both

Most children ask for a range of both healthy and unhealthy products, or they do not have a preference when it comes to choosing a food based on it's nutritional value. Some children ask for healthy foods specifically, whereas none of the children in question ask for unhealthy foods. These results tell me that children who are asking their parents for foods are not asking them for unhealthy foods specifically, most of them are asking for a range and therefore may not be taking into consideration whether or not they are 'good for them'. This is good to hear as it means that the reasoning behind them eating the unhealthy options is not down to them knowing that can be bad for them. 

Question 3 asked: Do you purchase the foods that your children ask for? 

8% answered Yes, I purchase the foods which my children ask me for.
66% answered Sometimes, I compromise and purchase certain foods which they ask for but not everything.
26% answered No, I purchase foods which I personally think are most appropriate.

The majority of children are getting a percentage of food which they are asking their parents/guardians for, but not everything. These results show that parents are giving in to their children's demands to a certain extent, but are compromising and not letting them have absolutely everything that they ask for. Only 26% buy foods that they personally think are most appropriate and only 8% buying everything that their children ask for. These results show that parents do still have a lot of control over what their children eat and they have the final say, not the food marketers.

Question 4 asked: Has a television advertisement ever made your children ask for a certain food product?

66% answered Yes, TV adverts have had an impact on my children wanting a certain food product.
34% answered No, TV adverts have never had an impact on whether my children want a certain food or not.

This shows that there are more children influenced by television advertisements than there are not influenced at all. This means that the advertisers taking to the television to advertise are getting their message out there loud and clear, and it's working too. It is one of the biggest platforms to advertise on and to get around the country fast and children seem to pay a lot of attention to this type of advertising. This could work in their favours if the foods being advertised on the TV were healthy foods that would have a positive effect on the children's health. 

Question 5 asked: Are your children more likely to want a certain food because it uses a certain character on the packaging/advertisements?

14% answered Yes, if the packaging features a character they like then they are more likely to want that food, regardless of the type of food.
54% answered Sometimes, foods featuring their favourite characters makes them more likely to want it, but it depends what type of food it is. 
32% answered No, the characters on the packaging has no impact on whether or not they want that particular food. 

Same as with TV advertisements, there are more children influenced by their favourite characters than there are not influenced at all. This proves that characters do have a big input on whether or not a child wants to eat a certain food. Although there is still 40% who are not influenced at all, these were the older children within the bracket (13-16) and so these results show that younger children (under 13) are more likely to want a product if it shows a character they favour. Another thing to be taken into account with these results is that the type of food that the character is featured on also matters, it is not enough on it's own to make the child want the product. Heinz have definitely overcome this problem by including almost every popular character on their food packaging. 

Question 6 asked: Which of the following is most likely to make your children want to eat a certain food?

11% answered A television advertisement.

22% answered The packaging of the product.

26% answered A free giveaway (e.g a free toy).
32% answered The taste of the food.

5% answered The appearance of the food.

4% answered Because it is good for them. 

Surprisingly, the taste of the food comes up most important in a child's decision to eat it. Free toys and product packaging is next in line before tv advertisements, the healthiness of the products and the appearance of the products. This shows that the most important thing about a food for a child is how it tastes, the other things are just bonuses, which are almost used as bribes in a way, in order to sway children towards a certain food. Again, this could be a good thing if we were 'bribing' children to choose the healthier options over the unhealthy ones. These results show that children don't really take into account whether or not something is healthy for them and they consider the taste of the product to be more important than the appearance.

Question 7 asked: If you make a packed lunch for your children, which of the following items are more likely to get eaten?

33% answered Sandwiches

31% answered Fruits

36% answered Snacks e.g. Crisps, Chocolate, Biscuits etc. 

This shows that it doesn't matter what type of food is put into a child's packed lunch, they don't pick particular items out and leave others, they mostly eat what they are given. This means that parents have more control over what their child eats whilst in school by packing their lunches for them. 

Question 8 asked: If your children had a choice whether they could eat a piece of fruit or have a sugary snack such as a chocolate bar, which would they be more likely to choose?

9% answered A piece of fruit, my children favour fruit snacks over sugary snacks.
37% answered A sugary snack, my children favour sugary snacks compared to fruit.
54% answered It depends, sometimes they would choose the fruit, other times they would choose the chocolate bar.

This shows that the majority of children don't have a preference when it comes to whether a food is healthy or not. They choose the foods they eat based on taste and not nutritional value. Although the results do show that 37% of the children in question prefer unhealthy, sugary snacks compared to fruit snacks, the majority still stands as impartial to a sugary snack vs fruit. 

Question 9 asked: Do your children's diets differ to yours when you were their age?

43% answered No, my children's diets are almost the same as mine when I was their age.
16% answered Yes, I used to eat a much healthier, balanced diet.
41% answered Yes, I didn't have as healthy a diet as what my children have.

These results show that children's diets have either stayed the same or improved compared to their parents diets at their ages. Only 16% said that their diets were healthier and more balanced than their children's are now, the rest are either the same or healthier than their parents was. This is a surprising result as I would have thought that parents had a much healthier and balanced diet when they were younger as all we seem to hear about lately is how children's diets are going down hill. On the other hand, however, if a parent had a poor diet as a child they should be more likely to make a conscious effort for their children to have an improved diet compared to them so that they don't encounter the same problems they may have experienced. Overall, these results show that parents consider their children's diets to be healthy and as far as they are concerned, they are doing right by them by choosing the foods they do. The real problem lies with deceiving advertisements when parents believe the foods are healthy, but they are in fact filled with excessive sugars.



Overall, the outcome of this survey has been successful in answering some of the questions I wanted clarifying. The majority of the time, parents have the final say in what foods their children have access to and so the power remains with them. Children are asking for certain products because they have seen a television advertisement, or it features a character they like, meaning that advertisers are in fact persuading children to eat foods based on gimmicks rather than actual nutrition. I've discovered that the taste of a food is even more important to a child than an advertisement, character or free toy. They take the taste of the food into account more than it's appearance or how healthy it is for them but are still influenced by those things in a smaller amount. They aren't taking into consideration the nutritional value of foods and aren't particularly swayed into eating/not eating a food because of it's healthiness. They don't have a preference when it comes to whether they eat a healthy snack or an unhealthy snack, they choose it based on taste value, packaging or promotional offers. Finally, the families which completed this survey found that their children's diets have either stayed the same as theirs or improved compared to theirs when they were younger, which is a positive result.