Exploring the Link between Obesity and Food Purchasing Behaviour in the West Midlands: Research Methodology & Key Findings Professor Andrew Fearne

About Us Research Methodology Key Findings Conclusions Outline About Us Research Methodology Key Findings Conclusions

About Us

Centre for Value Chain Research 8 Core Staff 12 PhD students Focus on applied research with strong industry links and multiple stakeholder engagement Demand Management NPD (key success factors) Promotions (evaluation) Sustainable consumption (behaviour change) Value Chain Management Value Chain Analysis (process improvement) Co-regulation (food safety) B2B Relationships (organisational Justice)

Research Context - Sustainability Social Environmental Economic FOOD Solutions: Holistic Multi-disciplinary Cross-functional Multiple stakeholders Challenges: Complex Dynamic Universal

Research Focus Focus on understanding and changing behaviour Individual (consumer) Collective (organisations) multi-disciplinary frameworks mixed research methods collaborative networks (government, industry, NGOs)

Research Methodology

Behaviour Change Use behaviour data to target (design and implement) and evaluate interventions People rarely do (did) what they say (have done) they lie they forget they misinterpret their circumstances change

Behaviour Change Change behaviour Attitude – Intention - Behaviour Gap Need to evaluate impact here not here Attitude – Intention - Behaviour Gap Change attitudes Necessary but not sufficient Increase Knowledge AF Raise Awareness

Create enabling environment Behaviour Change Change behaviour Need to evaluate impact here not here Create enabling environment Change attitudes Necessary but not sufficient Increase Knowledge AF Raise Awareness

Supermarket loyalty card data 2 years of weekly supermarket transactions Population = 17 million households Sample = 10% (1.7 million shoppers) Representative of 40%+ of UK households Over 30,000 food products (265,000+ total)

Why is this useful? The data allows us to understand What is bought When it is bought What it is bought alongside Where it is bought Who it is bought by The data is segmented by: Lifestage Lifestyle Region Geodemographics This allows us to understand the purchasing behaviour of different consumer groups

Case Studies Increasing the use of carbon labels – young families Reducing obesity – single parent & low incomef amilies

Key Findings

Obesity Project - Research Objectives Establish the potential value of combining supermarket panel data with other data sources to target specific consumer segments with differentiated interventions to achieve behaviour change that will result in a reduction in the incidence of obesity Provide DHWM with an evidence base from which they can develop targeted intervention strategies for reducing the incidence of obesity in the region

Obesity Project - Research Methodology Phase 1 Identify target area Analyse dunnhumby data to identify Tesco store with the highest penetration of ‘unhealthy’ food products and lowest penetration of ‘healthy’ products amongst single parent and low income households Explore attitudes, perceptions and purchase drivers Four focus groups with single mothers all with BMIndex >30 (plus two control groups with BMI <30) Quantify barriers, enablers and potential impact of targeted intervention Face to face interviews with 200 shoppers in target area, all with BMIs over 30 and on-line survey of 200 households across the UK with varied BMIs Phase 2 Develop, implement and evaluate targeted intervention

Obesity Project – Key Findings (Phase 1a) Identify target group Two Cameo (Geo-demoghraphic) segments Poorer and single parent households (10.1% UK householdds) Poorer council tenants including many single parents (10.7% UK households) Identify discrimnating products 15 ‘unhealthy’ food categories (361 products) 11 ‘healthy’ food categories (216 products)

‘Healthy’ & ‘Unhealthy’ Products Source: dunnhumby (2010)

Shopper Profiling – ‘Unhealthy’ SKUs Source: dunnhumby (2010)

Shopper Profiling – ‘Healthy’ SKUs Source: dunnhumby (2010) Slide 20

Penetration of ‘unhealthy’ baskets Source: dunnhumby (2010)

Penetration of ‘healthy’ baskets Source: dunnhumby (2010)

Obesity Project – Key findings (Phase 1b) Focus groups identified four key barriers to healthy eating amongst our target group cost (healthy foods were widely perceived as more expensive) time (in buying ingredients and preparing healthy meals) lack of cooking skills (fuelled by habitual purchase of convenience foods) and perceived lack of taste of healthy options “Putting a meal together is sometimes hard – with a burger it’s really easy, you know it goes with chips and peas or beans, but when you have a bunch of vegetables in front of you, you might not know what to do with it, so meal cards would be helpful… free, everyday cooking and within a budget as well – healthy and cheap because you are more likely to use all the ingredients” “I don’t buy much healthy food because the kids won’t eat it, so why should I buy it if I end up throwing it away.... I have had 3 kids screaming at me all day so mealtimes I want to be peaceful, so I give them what they want” Slide 23

Obesity Project – Key findings (Phase 1c) Survey results supported the focus group findings regarding attitudes and perceptions Slide 24

Obesity Project – Key findings (Phase 1c) Survey results highlighted the dominant role of price – information alone is unlikely to change behaviour Slide 25

Obesity Project – Intervention (Phase 2) Intervention focussed on the preparation of simple, quick and tasty family meals using a limited number of healthy ingredients. Intervention designed to overcome the perceived barriers to healthy eating in two ways: changing attitudes - raising awareness about healthy eating and increasing knowledge/skills with respect to the preparation of healthy meals creating an enabling environment – making it easy to ‘purchase’ a small number of healthy ingredients for a tasty family meal KBS Research Seminar, December 15th, 2010

Obesity Project – Intervention (Phase 2) Recipes = Simple, Quick, Tasty, Healthy, Inexpensive Sausage & Bean Casserole Tuna & Pasta Bake Easy Chilli Vegetable Stew

Obesity Project – Intervention (Phase 2) Four weekly cooking demonstrations outside the focal store (Tesco Coventry Ricoh Arena) People recruited from survey respondents, focus group participants and local agencies (e.g. Groundwork) Offered free ingredients along with written cooking instructions, to enable them to try the dishes at home

Obesity Project – Evaluation Focus on three elements: attitudes and perceptions (individual) Semi-structured interviews one week after each demonstration Photo diaries (disposable cameras issued with each set of ingredients) food purchasing behavior (community) actual sales of the ingredients used in the cooking demonstrations at the Ricoh Arena store lifestyle and health (individual) follow up interviews 6 months after the intervention

Obesity Project – Evaluation (attitudes and perceptions) Claire – week 4 “I enjoyed it because it was a cheap affordable meal” “As a child I wasn’t given vegetables, so I didn’t try them, and I’ve now got the strength to try these vegetables, and I’ve now realised that I like turnip too” “I think children these days have a got a lot of changes in store, we’ve been giving them all these fast foods for too long now. And even myself, and I know with a busy lifestyle it was quite easy just to go to the chip shop and takeaway and McDonalds, its all on your doorstep now people are delivering, and now the fun in the kitchen starts, and I’ve got all the stuff there, I’ve got the food processor, I’ve got the food blender, I’ve got everything there but I never use it. They were ornaments in my kitchen, but not anymore! Now I actually use them”

Obesity Project – Evaluation (attitudes and perceptions) Anuradah – week 4 “It’s really nice and what I really like about the food here, is that he uses a small amount of spices and there is no oil and it’s so healthy for that. I was surprised cos I didn’t use even a single drop of oil, and I was so impressed by the food because it tastes (so good)… because we have a notion that when we fry something if you don’t add oil to something then it doesn’t taste much. But when I made my vegetable stew and I made my husband eat it, and both of us was so surprised because nobody can make out that we have not used oil... I said to my husband look at this dish, I have never made a dish before without a single drop of oil that tastes so good” 

Obesity Project – Evaluation (food purchasing behaviour) All Shoppers Target Group Source: dunnhumby (2010)

Conclusions

4. Conclusions Interest in and application of social marketing is increasing in response to the growing need for behaviour change on a grand scale Changing behaviour is difficult, multi-faceted and takes time Evaluation of interventions (impact on behaviour) is critical given scarcity of resources and need to protect vulnerable groups We still have much to learn about what to do and how to do it!

Thank you! Keep in touch with us… Website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/cvcr Blog: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/value-chain-thinking Follow us on Twitter: @valuechains