Point-of-Purchase Messages Framed in Terms of Cost, Convenience, Taste, and Energy Improve Healthful Snack Selection in a College Foodservice Setting

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-8223(01)00223-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective To examine the effects of a point-of-purchase (POP) intervention emphasizing various properties of healthful food items on college students’ snack purchases.

Design In Study 1, vegetable baskets (containing cut pieces of vegetables), fruit baskets (containing cut pieces of fruit), pretzels, and yogurt were promoted in separate POP interventions. Food sales were monitored over 2-week baseline, 4-week intervention, and 2-week follow-up periods. In Study 2, yogurt was promoted across a 2-week baseline, 2-week intervention, and 2-week follow-up periods and an intercept survey was conducted.

Subjects/setting Approximately 2,280 university students were potentially exposed to the intervention, and 72 students responded to the intercept survey.

Intervention POP messages were placed on an 11×17-in poster located at the cafeteria entrance, and two 4×2.5-in signs placed next to the targeted food item. Messages emphasized the Budget-friendly, Energizing, Sensory/taste, Time efficient/convenient (BEST) stimulus properties of food.

Main outcome measures Daily sales of the targeted food items.

Statistical analyses performed Analyses of variance with Tukey post hoc tests were used to compare food sales during the baseline, intervention, and follow-up periods.

Results In Study 1, yogurt and pretzel sales increased during the intervention and post-intervention periods (P<.05). Interventions had no effect on fruit basket and vegetable basket sales (P>.05), but whole fruit sales increased during the fruit basket intervention and follow-up (P<.05). In Study 2, yogurt sales were significantly greater during the intervention and follow-up periods than at baseline (P<.01).

Applications/conclusions Using the BEST properties in POP interventions may be beneficial in promoting the consumption of healthful foods among university students, particularly when the targeted foods are priced comparably to less healthful foods. J Am Diet Assoc. 2001;101:909-913.

Section snippets

Study 1

Whereas entrées or whole meals have been the targets of previous POP interventions (4), our study focused on snack foods (13). Because students tend to snack frequently and have an array of snack food choices in cafeterias, snacks were considered an important target for intervention to improve overall diet quality (20) Four foods were targeted: fruits and vegetables, which tend to be underconsumed by students (2); pretzels, a lower-fat alternative to potato chips; and yogurt, which was targeted

Study 2

The primary purpose of Study 2 was to investigate the impact of a 2-week POP intervention that targeted a single snack food, yogurt, in order to examine the intervention's effects without bias from other preceding or antecedent POP promotions. It was hypothesized that yogurt sales would increase significantly from baseline to intervention, and from intervention to follow-up. A secondary purpose was to determine the extent to which customers saw, read, and were influenced by the POP messages. An

General Discussion

Although studies have produced mixed findings regarding the benefits of POP interventions in college foodservice facilities (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), our studies show that POP messages can increase healthful snack consumption. However, we suspect that the success of our intervention was largely due to the placement, graphics, and message content of our promotional materials. Specifically, a large, professionally designed poster was situated at the entrance to the cafeteria, and our POP messages

Applications/Conclusions

With respect to implementing POP interventions in university cafeterias, we offer several recommendations.

■ First, because the BEST properties are easy to understand, even persons who have no nutrition knowledge may be able to translate messages into specific eating behaviors when the intervention is framed with these characteristics (23). The BEST properties should be highlighted in brief POP messages.

■ Second, creative marketing techniques allow healthful food promotions to be noticed by a

References (24)

  • D Wiley et al.

    Assessing the health behaviors of Texas college students

    J Am Coll Health.

    (1996)
  • S Haberman et al.

    Weighing in college students’ diet and exercise behaviors

    J Am Coll Health

    (1998)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text