Laurie Balbo, GEM; Marie-Claire Wilhelm, Grenoble IAE Graduate School of Management and Stéphanie Verfay, Lumière Lyon 2 University
On June 14, 2021, during a press conference ahead of a Euro soccer match, Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo pointedly pushed aside the two bottles of soda from the tournament’s official partner, Coca-Cola. He held up a bottle of water before declaring in his native language: “agua”! The scene quickly went viral. According to some, even if the causes of the phenomenon are up for debate, the impact on Coca-Cola’s stock price was immediate: the share price fell from $56.18 on June 11 to a low of $54.67 on June 16. The company lost nearly $4 billion in market capitalization.
Beyond the financial aspect, Ronaldo’s gesture seems to prompt us to question the overconsumption of sugary drinks. This consumption is skyrocketing worldwide, to the point where it now accounts for 13% to 25% of adults’ daily energy intake. This is more than double the maximum of 5% to 10% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Because of its addictive properties, excessive sugar consumption can lead to symptoms similar to those associated with addictions to alcohol and tobacco. However, unlike these substances, sugar is not subject to regulation. Moreover, its ubiquity in the food environment and unclear nutritional information make it difficult for individuals to self-regulate their sugar intake.
Understanding consumers’ attitudes toward nutritional information and how it influences purchasing decisions has been the focus of various research studies aimed at supporting public health policies. In particular, systems that highlight the sugar content of products in terms of the number of sugar cubes could prove to be especially effective.
Taste Sensations and Memory
With regard specifically to sugary beverages—whether carbonated or not—a comparison of 53 products conducted by Que Choisir shows that, on average, a 25-cl glass contains the equivalent of 4.5 sugar cubes. Coca-Cola, the French people’s favorite soda, contains 34 g of sugar in a standard 335-ml can.
Despite intense lobbying by the food and beverage industry, some countries—such as France in 2018—have adopted a “soda tax” that applies to foods based on their added sugar content. This measure has encouraged manufacturers to reformulate their recipes and reduce the amount of sugar in beverages in order to mitigate the financial impact of the tax.
Nevertheless, efforts also appear to need to be directed toward consumers in order to encourage them to change their behavior. This would involve a kind of “demarketing” campaign for sugary drinks, similar to the approach taken in the fight against smoking.
To this end, in addition to taxing and regulating the sale of sugary beverages in stores and schools, it seems necessary to implement educational and support initiatives to reduce sugar consumption. Solutions exist and can draw inspiration, in particular, from work on nutrition labeling.
Nutritional information is, in fact, generally not very prominent; it is presented on the back of packaging in the form of a table that is often difficult to interpret. When deciding whether or not to consume a food product, most consumers do not even read it. Instead, they imagine the taste sensations the food will provide or rely on their memory. An image of the product or its ingredients triggers automatic multisensory mental representations.
In sugar cube equivalents
Many countries then began using a new method, with labels on the front of packages that summarized the information, making it more visible and easier to understand.
There are various labeling formats, which generally combine text, images, and colors. These can range from a smiley face or stars to a more complex system that assigns a color code (green, orange, red) to each nutritional component of the food (for example, fats, carbohydrates/sugars, and salt). Research shows that consumers process simplified formats more quickly and recommends using this type of nutrition labeling in a shopping setting such as a supermarket.
Still, even in these cases, the information often remains abstract. Researchers have shown, for example, that consumers have a hard time converting the amount of sugar expressed in grams into its equivalent in calories or sugar cubes.
Articles explain that displaying a bottle of soda (60 cl) alongside sugar cubes representing the amount of sugar in the beverage (26 sugar cubes) significantly reduces its perceived appeal and the intention to purchase. Our research, currently under review for publication in a scientific journal, reaches similar conclusions.
Surprisingly, however, there is still very little research in this area. Yet these various studies are intended to inform public policy. Outside the lab, Chile—rankedthirdglobally in terms of overweight and obesity rates—was able to reduce consumption of these products by nearly 25% in 18 months by placing a black logo on packaging and banning soda advertising targeted at children.
Laurie Balbo, Associate Professor of Marketing _ Director of the MSc in Marketing Management Program, GEM; Marie-Claire Wilhelm, Lecturer at Grenoble IAE, CERAG, UGA / Co-Director of the Mi2S Chair, Grenoble IAE Graduate School of Management and Stéphanie Verfay, Associate Professor, COACTIS Laboratory, Lumière Lyon 2 University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.