Out of home businesses - marketing strategies: research

8. Conclusions

There are numerous ways in which the in-premise environment makes it challenging for consumers to make healthier choices and not purchase more than they had intended. The prominent placement of products close to the tills, price promotions and meal deals were common and, overall, less healthy products were far more likely to be promoted than healthier ones. However, there are some encouraging findings with at least one healthier option being available in the majority of meal deal offers.

It is also a positive finding that shoppers are not, on the whole, having a different experience based on the deprivation profile of the area, the exception to this being the higher proportion of meal deals offering healthier items in less deprived areas.

Overall, price promotions and meal deals were less common online than in the in-premise environment. However, discounts for minimum spends were the most frequently reported type of price promotion online, potentially encouraging consumers to purchase more than they had intended. Given the online sample was small, and the research did not take into account digital marketing strategies, such as emails/texts encouraging customers to order and discount codes, further research is required to obtain a fuller picture of the online OOH environment.

Across both in-premise and online outlets, there were also notable differences by business category. For example, coffee shops were much less likely than other types of outlet to have promotions but more likely than others to encourage upsizing, and meal deals were particularly common in supermarkets and convenience stores.

The three main ways which the environment can influence consumers' food choices are summarised below, in turn.

Encouraging people to eat more (and more than they may have intended)

Upselling, upsizing, multi-buy promotions and meal deals were prominent throughout the in-premise outlets visited while discounts for minimum spends were common online. This is likely to encourage customers to purchase more than they might otherwise have and, as noted below, less healthy foods were often available as part of these promotions.

Encouraging consumers to purchase less healthy foods rather than healthier foods

The majority of the common marketing strategies (product placement, price promotions and upsizing) were on less healthy products. While, more positively, healthier items were available within meal deals, these were primarily drinks (water and low/no sugar soft drinks) rather than food items. The research, of course, does not give us any indication of how frequently consumers choose the healthier options as part of meal deals. As noted above, less healthy meal deal options were less available in more disadvantaged areas.

Consumers not always being able to make an informed choice

For consumers wishing to make informed choices, having calorie/nutrition information readily available within premises is key. It was present at just over half of outlets, meaning there are high numbers of cases in which consumers are not able to make informed choices. This is particularly true of independent outlets in this study who did not have it available at all.