Communicating healthy nutrition among young people: Innovative techniques to measure the efficacy of alternative media and messages

Abstract

[eng] The present thesis chapter presents the study of Millennials´ attitudinal and emotional effects on the perceptions towards advertising in social media and the consequent impact on the effectiveness of the message in that context of communication. In this sense, in the present thesis, the role of the subject´s attitudes toward advertising in social networks is determinant to measure the effectiveness of the message in social networks and then, their purchase intention or their recommendation among peers, so common for young consumers, the so- called Millennials. The term Millennials is used to define a segment of the society born between 1980 and 2000 and the world´s first generational cohort raised with the Internet (Howe & Strauss, 2009). The main contribution of the present thesis is to approach a new market segment that is globally recognized as the new young consumers. A new generation that has influenced and is being influenced by technological advances. Millennials are, with their particular perception of their own reality, game-changers in the marketing field. Millennials are special for marketers because of their economic power, specifically, because they are early adopters of technology, they influence other cohort´s consumption, they are used to share brand preferences over the social media, they want to participate and co-create advertising content and they do not rely on conventional mass communication (Laurie, et al., 2019). Millennials are unique, they are an influential consumer group as they represent a large affluent market segment (Küster et al., 2019) and whose behaviour is often discussed but not fully understood (Valentine & Powers, 2013) and research on them is still scarce (Tarabashkina et al., 2016; Küster et al., 2019). In recent years, technology has changed consumers´ lives and, also, it has changed the way companies do business and approach their marketing activities. As a matter of fact, marketers have now access to huge amount of data that might be useful for decision-making (Arenas-Gaitán et al., 2019). Technology provides a platform for personalization and immediate gratification. Millennials are more active in integrating technologies into their daily lives using mobile devices and traditional Internet. For Millennials

the buying process is a time for joy and loyalty to brands, is relative for them, as they are very sensitive to electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) advertising because it is considered more credible than traditional advertising (Moreno et al., 2017). Advertising avoidance has been one of the strongest obstacles for advertisers and marketers. Ducoffe Web Advertising Model (Ducoffe, 1996) is a well- defined theoretical framework to predict attitudes toward advertising and evaluate consumer options (Nyheim et al., 2015). The present thesis focuses, mainly, on the foundations of this model and creates a new one based on it to be tested and adjusted. The approach integrates traditional research techniques (in this case, a questionnaire) with innovative techniques (such as ones usually performed in neuromarketing studies) that could bring added value to the present work. Traditional research methods for testing and predicting advertising effectiveness depend on consumers´ willingness to describe how they feel when exposed to an advertising piece (Morin, 2011). On the other hand, advertising and marketing professionals are more and more showing their interest in new innovative techniques that help them to create effective marketing campaigns. In this sense, Neuromarketing techniques offer cutting-edge methods without requiring demanding cognitive or conscious participation, to counter the limitations of the traditional approaches (Hsu, 2017). Furthermore, neuromarketing methods are becoming more and more common not only at the academic level but also at the company level, too. Regarding the objectives pursued, there are two broad ones: I. Create a model to test advertising effectiveness on social networks oriented to highlight attitudinal and emotional variables on Millennials’ perceptions. II. The use of innovative techniques to test the proposed model And those broad objectives can be divided into two groups of objectives – general and specific ones – as follows:

Regarding the general objectives, from a marketing perspective the present thesis tries: (1) to get closer to the new generations of young people (called Millennials) (Kraft &Weber, 2012); (2) to understand how companies must shape their messages to reach these new generations (Sweeney, 2006) amid the digital environment; and (3) to make an alert on the risks for the future of (somehow) unhealthy food (Rubio, 2002). Related to the specific objectives, this research tries: (1) to analyses the use of innovative techniques to know in deep how this young generation respond food messages (Küster & Vila, 2013); (2) to find the critical factors on the election and or preference of healthy food (Story et. Al., 2008); and (3) to promote the use of innovative marketing techniques to properly design food communication (Küster & Vila, 2013; Story et al., 2018);

[spa] En el primero se presentan las principales características de la generación denominada comúnmente Millennials. El segundo capítulo comprende una exhaustiva reflexión sobre el marketing, sus avances a partir de la aparición de internet y profundiza en las relaciones a través de la comunicación en redes sociales. Los capítulos 3 y 4 plantan las hipótesis las preguntas de investigación. En el tercer capítulo se escogen y desarrollan tres modelos clásicos para medir la eficacia publicitaria y a partir de ellos generar uno nuevo, así como las variables moderadoras (tipo de producto y tipo de mensaje), todo ello formando parte de la columna vertebral de la tesis doctoral. En el capítulo 4 se presentan, se describen y se profundiza en las diferentes modalidades y herramientas de neuromarketing y su aplicación a las diferentes estrategias de comunicación. El capítulo 5 se centra en la metodología de carácter cuantitativo y cualitativo. Se especifican las metodologías a emplear y las características de las muestras. Desde la óptica cuantitativa, se ha seleccionado la utilización de cuestionarios y desde el punto de vista cualitativo, se realiza un estudio aplicando online eye tracking. En el capítulo 6 se exponen los resultados tanto desde el punto de vista cuantitativo como cualitativo. Y finalmente el capítulo 7 que presenta las conclusiones, las limitaciones propias de cada uno de los estudios y las implicaciones gerenciales.