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Impact of an in-store supermarket marketing and coupon campaign on skim and low-fat milk purchases
Many food-purchasing decisions are made in grocery stores, which provide a promising venue for environmental, policy, and pricing initiatives focused on improving dietary health outcomes. This presentation will describe how one public-private partnership worked to launch an in-store marketing campaign targeted toward low-fat milk purchasing in a population that typically buys full fat milk.
Methods
Sales of full-fat milk purchases were tracked through customer loyalty cards in Food City stores in Arizona. Out of the population who purchased full-fat milk (73,000), 20,000 shoppers were randomly selected as a control group and 53,000 were eligible to receive the coupon over the 16-week period. Radio ads, refrigerator clings and hang tags were implemented in all stores to promote the purchasing of lower fat milk, and coupons were issued to a randomized group of consumers who had exclusively purchased full-fat milk in the past year.
Results
44,050 coupons were issued over the 16-week period and 5.3% were redeemed. Sales of low-fat and skim milk increased among full-fat milk buyers over the course of the intervention, and 42% of those who tried low-fat or skim milk and who received a coupon repurchased the milk.
Discussion
Overall, efforts to advertise and incentivize with a coupon offering a lower-calorie milk enticed consumers to try products that they are not accustomed to purchasing. Such shifts in purchases can represent a substantial calorie savings per purchase, which is promising in the fight against obesity.
Learning Areas:
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programsLearning Objectives:
describe how one public, private partnership worked to launch an in-store marketing campaign targeted toward low-fat milk purchasing in a population that typically buys full fat milk
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an Associate Director of The Center for Research in Education and Social Policy, Associate Professor of Education and Associate Professor of Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware. I hold faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University. Before UD, I served as the Director of Research and Evaluation at The Food Trust in Philadelphia for 11 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.