Product communication strategies: Emotional versus rational communication strategies and attitude change on children consumers

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Child obesity is generally accepted to be one of the most negative trends in the world that we live in. Since marketing for food products has been recognized to be pushing this trend forward, it is hereby presented some alternatives that prove that marketing may be a solution instead of a problem. For this purpose, an analysis on the intrinsic qualities and consumer perceptions of Compal and Um Bongo juices was produced. An experiment was made with 58 children from 4 to 10 years old, in order to evaluate the possibility of attitude change, based on Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM). In these tests the subjects were initially submitted to a blind profile of the juices, delivering only the emotional attributes currently being communicated by Compal. Then, children’s perceptions regarding the product were analyzed through their drawings. Thereafter, they were exposed to an intervention phase which consisted of rationally communicating the nutritious benefits of the product and other nutrition-related concepts, and we finally evaluated their perceptions post-test using drawing techniques. There is evidence that children in this age range will change their perceptions regarding the product when a rational communication is applied.