Purchases of ready-to-eat cereals vary across US household sociodemographic categories according to nutritional value and advertising targets
The objective of this study was to describe ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal purchases in 2008 in the USA according to cereal nutritional quality, marketing strategy, and household sociodemographic characteristics.
Purchases of RTE cereals were highest in households with one or more child and lowest in African-American and Asian households, as well as those earning <$US 30 000 per annum. The lowest-quality products were purchased by four times as many households as the highest-quality cereals, but loyalty to these products was lower. Purchases of cereals by households with children and in African-American and Hispanic households increased as cereal nutritional quality declined. Compared with non-advertised products, advertised child-targeted cereals were purchased thirteen times more frequently; family-targeted brand purchases were ten times higher; and adult-targeted cereals were purchased four times more frequently. These findings suggest that improving the nutritional quality of RTE cereals with advertising targeted to children could also lead to increased consumption of healthier products by young people.
Full citation: Castetbon K, Harris JL, Schwartz MB. Purchases of ready-to-eat cereals vary across US household sociodemographic categories according to nutritional value and advertising targets. Public Health Nutr. 2012;15(8):1456-1465. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980011003065