Buywell: evaluation of a targeted marketing intervention to influence food purchasing behaviour by low income consumers

Whilst many factors influence diet, it has now been established that the marketing of food plays a significant role in determining what we eat and is implicated in the recent increase in levels of obesity. This project will assess the potential for reversing this effect; that is, for using marketing to encourage healthier eating. In collaboration with the Co-operative supermarket chain, researchers at Stirling, the Open and Dundee University will examine what happens when the tools of modern marketing - including price promotions, mail shots, and point of sale advertising ? are put behind healthy rather than unhealthy foods. Research will be conducted with customers to identify what sorts of marketing promotions would be most effective in encouraging them to buy healthier products. These promotions will then be used in a number of Co-operative food stores over a fixed period. The study will examine electronic point of sale (EPOS) data over several months to measure whether people?s shopping patterns are influenced during and after the marketing promotions. In addition, a survey of customers will be conducted to examine their views on and responses to the marketing promotions, and any impact this activity has on their knowledge and attitudes.

BUYWELL aims to use marketing levers to influence the food purchasing behaviour of low income consumers. Formative research with low income consumers will be used to develop a targeted marketing intervention to encourage and facilitate healthier food purchases. The intervention will be implemented in a sample of 10 Co-operative Group stores in one or two television regions of the UK, and will include direct mail price promotions linked to specific products, tailored messages promoting the benefits of dietary change, and other marketing strategies (for example, loyalty card points/vouchers linked to one-off and repeat purchases of specific products, in-store and shelf-edge signage). A sample of 10 stores matched on area and trading characteristics will serve as a control group. The impact on purchases of targeted and associated products will be assessed through analysis of electronic retail sales data in both intervention and control stores for a period of 8 months pre-, during and post-intervention. Consumer views on and response to the marketing intervention will be assessed through a post-intervention in-home survey with 1,500 intervention and control store consumers. Process evaluation will assess the quality of implementation and intervention feasibility and sustainability. Economic evaluation will assess the costs and benefits of the intervention from the perspective of the retailer, and potentially also from the consumer perspective.

The study will add to the evidence base on the effectiveness of ecological interventions in general and marketing interventions in particular, for addressing health inequalities in diet. By demonstrating the impacts and costs of marketing interventions delivered by food retailers, its findings will have important implications both for nutrition policy and for industry.