Junk food marketing with Mcdonald's case analysis

Introduction
A recent study had shown that 40% of kids’ diet come from added sugars and unhealthy fats (Reedy and Kerb-smith, 2010) “Eating and liking junk food is normal behaviour for teenagers while liking healthy food is an oddity”. (Strugnell, 2000) Junk Food Marketing (JFM) is one of the main causes of this. This essay will first demonstrate how marketers recognize children’s consumer buyer behaviours and target these children in JFM; then it will examine the ethicality of JFM. Finally it will suggest how a continued JFM targeted to children is unethical and recommendations for future studies.
Consumer Buyer Behaviour (CBB)
Junk Food Marketers understood buying decisions are increasingly influenced by children. (Calvert,
2008) Thus, JFM is targeted to influence children’s consumer buyer behaviour which is defined as
“buying behaviour of final consumer” (Kotler et al., 2013) and hope to increase purchase intent. This is why children are exposed to extensive food advertising and these diets are deemed less healthy, as noted in the article.
There are 3 top CBB factors identified:
(1) Cultural factors
Cultural factors reflect and impact consumer’s wants and behaviour as this is a learned behaviour whilst growing up. (Kotler et al., 2013) Thus CBB may vary accordingly to their different region, ethnicity, social and political factors.
This is why every junk food restaurant will ensure to adapt local culture into their advertisements and menus while keeping sure their branding is consistent. For example: McDonalds have a range of different menus for different cultures. By adapting to the socio-cultural environment, McDonald’s was able to penetrate into the different markets and establish itself as one of the most popular eateries.
(Pandita, 2013)
A research by Food Standards Agency (2006) shows that consumers are becoming more health-conscious; thus paving the way for junk food restaurants to include perceived healthier food on the menu and to justify themselves

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