Understanding dimensionality of children’s food shopping behaviour in retail stores

Abstract

Purpose – Marketers try to influence food shopping behaviour of children through various in-store food promotional strategies (FPS). These in-store FPS comprise of attractive packaging, accessibility, availability of foods in wide varieties and presence of helpful and friendly sales personnel. However, little is known about how children buy and the extent to which these marketing strategies are successful. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores and to study the effectiveness of in-store FPS and demographic factors (age and gender of child and monthly family income) on food shopping behaviour of children. Design/methodology/approach – Data have been collected from 473 mothers of children in age category four to 11 years. Data have been analysed through descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations), bivariate correlations, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. Findings – The study explores and validates four factor structure of food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores in Indian settings. These factors include children’s active assessment of foods, impact of availability and variety on children’s purchases, influence of TV food ads on children’s purchases and influence of packaging on children’s food purchases. Further, the findings also reveal that in-store FPS are truly effective in influencing food shopping behaviour of children. Practical implications – Marketers may highlight packaging attributes in food advertisements as they can help escalate food purchase requests of children in retail stores. In addition to this, food advertising is strongly associated with assessment of foods in retail stores and looking for availability of advertised foods in retail stores. This suggests that food advertising as a medium of communication should not be ignored. However, sales personnel can also be used more effectively as they are seen to help children in identifying availability and variety of foods in retail stores. Originality/value – As no such study has been conducted so far (to the best of researcher’s knowledge), this study potentially helps in bridging gaps in literature.