Helping Mother Earth: young children's responses to sustainability labels on food packaging

ABSTRACT

Children are an essential group in the path toward sustainable diets. This study (N = 240) therefore experimentally investigates childrenʻs (8 to 12 years) brand attitude and purchase request intent after exposure to a verbal sustainability label combined with a visual cue on food packaging. Results indicate that childrenʻs environmental concern is an important moderator of the efficacy of such sustainability labels. For children low in environmental concern, it is beneficial to add a visual cue to a verbal label, as it positively affects packaging evaluation, and consequently, brand attitude and purchase request intention. This visual cue diminishes the efficacy of a verbal label, however, when children are high in environmental concern. Findings can assist food manufacturers, marketers and policy makers to more effectively stimulate children to adopt sustainable diets.

KEYWORDS:

• Food marketing
• children
• product packaging
• environmental concern
• sustainability label
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the day-care IBO Tanneke, Sint-Jozefsschool in Ieper, HEHA-School in Dendermonde, De Zonnebloem in Kalken, VLS Wonderster in Lede, Sint-Camillus in Sint-Niklaas and Mandelbloesem in Oostrozebeke for their cooperation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest that might have influenced the performance or presentation of the work described in the manuscript was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), grant number FWO.3E0.2015.0035.01 (Liselot Hudders) and the Special Research Fund of Ghent University, grant number BOF.2018.0031.01 (Dieneke Van de Sompel).

Notes on contributors

Marloes de Brabandere

Marloes de Brabandere is a PhD Researcher at the Department of Communication Sciences of Ghent University and member of the Center of Persuasive Communication. Her research focusses on (fitness) influencer marketing and the impact of food product packaging on children and their parents.

Liselot Hudders

Liselot Hudders is an associate professor at the department of Communication Sciences and a postdoctoral fellow of the FWO (grant number FWO.3E0.2015.0035.01) at the department of Marketing, Innovation and Organization at Ghent University (Belgium). Her research focus lays on how children and adults cope with digital advertising, and on how these digital persuasion techniques can be used to foster sustainable consumption choices.

Dieneke Van de Sompel

Dieneke Van de Sompel is an assistant professor at the department of communication sciences and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the department of marketing, innovation and organisation at Ghent University. Her research interests include the effects of (social) marketing and persuasive communication on childrenʻs (consumer) behavior.