Abstract
Objective
To analyse the content and extent of marketing of ultra-processed food products (UPP) and their brand pages on Facebook, which are highly accessed by Brazilians.
Design
Descriptive.
Setting
Sixteen UPP brand pages on Facebook were selected from 250 pages that were the most liked by Brazilians in October 2015.
Subjects
We analysed the frequency of ‘likes’ and members ‘talking about’ each one of the pages, in addition to fifteen marketing techniques used in the previous year (September 2014 to October 2015). The number of posts, likes, ‘shares’ and ‘commentaries’, and the mean number of likes, shares and commentaries per post, were collected for one month, from 23 September to 23 October 2015.
Results
The two most liked pages were: Coke® (93 673 979 likes) and McDonald’s® (59 749 819 likes). Regarding the number of people talking about the pages, McDonald’s led with 555 891 commentaries, followed by Coke (287 274), Burger King® (246 148) and Kibon® (244 523). All pages used marketing techniques, which included photos, user conversations, presence of brand elements and links. Videos were observed on 93·8 % of the pages; promotions on 68·8 %; and celebrities on 62·5 %. In one month, Garoto®, Outback® and Coke were brands that published more than one post per day. Kibon achieved the highest ratio of likes per post (285 845·50) and Burger King had the highest mean shares per post (10 083·93), including commentaries per post (7958·13).
Conclusions
UPP marketing is extensively used on Facebook pages and is highly accessed by Brazilians, with UPP companies employing a diversity of marketing strategies.
Keywords: Advertising, Industrialized foods, Facebook, Marketing, Social media, Food publicity
Brazilians’ dietary patterns and nutritional status have changed adversely in the last few decades( 1 – 4 ). The percentage of total energy acquired from ultra-processed food products (UPP) in Brazilian households increased from 20·8 to 25·4 % between 2002–2003 and 2008–2009( 5 ), and more than 50 % of the adult population is now overweight( 6 ).
UPP are ‘ready-to-consume’ products, made up mostly or entirely of substances extracted from other foods (oils, fats, sugar, proteins) and derived from food constituents (hydrogenated fats, modified starches) or synthesized foods based on organic materials (dyes, flavourings, enhancers and other additives)( 7 ). They are energy-dense foods, highly palatable, and available in most food stores. These foods lead to overconsumption, weight gain and development of non-communicable diseases. Some examples of UPP are carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, cookies, mass-produced packaged breads and buns, breakfast ‘cereals’, ‘meat and chicken extracts’ and ‘instant’ sauces( 7 ). UPP are the main type of products promoted in food marketing techniques.
Scientific evidence about food marketing and indivi-dual food consumption is centred on television publicity and its impact on children’s dietary intake. The number of hours a child is exposed to television is associated with body weight and unhealthy food consumption. Early exposure to food marketing contributes to food brand loyalty, which can last one’s whole life( 8 – 13 ).
With the advent of the Internet, new types of food marketing emerged for use in social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. These apps allowed more attractive and persuasive marketing techniques with greater interaction with the consumer; they include photos, videos, music and games. The impact of this type of marketing on food consumption remains unknown for all age categories( 14 – 16 ).
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in Brazil. It is estimated that sixty-two million Brazilians access this app every day( 17 ). Facebook is available for individuals or companies, including the food industry. Few studies exist on food marketing on Facebook and only one study has investigated food marketing content on Facebook in Australia( 16 ).
Considering Brazilian’s epidemiological scenario and the spread of food marketing on Facebook, the present study aimed to analyse the content and extent of marketing of UPP brand pages, which are continuously accessed by the Brazilian population.
Findings from this investigation provide a description of how UPP brands promote their products on Facebook and which marketing techniques are used. We believe this description is the first step in understanding the marketing of UPP on social media, their influence on consumer behaviour and the possibility of regulations. The study will also help assess the specifics of food marketing around the world by providing data to be used in country comparisons.
Methods
We identified the 250 most liked pages on Facebook by Brazilians in October 2015 using the Socialbakers’ rank (www.socialbakers.com). Socialbakers provides a freely available list of the top 1000 Facebook pages by ‘likes’ across a range of industries, with the option to filter likes by user country. From these pages, 234 were excluded because they were related to television stations, soap operas, celebrities, banks, beauty products, soccer players, alcoholic drinks or other products. Therefore, the sample for the present study consisted of sixteen pages related to UPP (Table 1). Pages can be from Brazilian companies or global brands that Brazilians ‘liked’ and were printed in the Portuguese language.
Table 1.
Ultra-processed food product brands marketed on Facebook in Brazil, October 2015
| Likes* | People talking about† | Members talking about‡ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Socialbakers’ rank | Category | Creation | n | % | n | % | % |
| Coca-Cola® | 7 | Soda | Dec/14 | 93 673 979 | 35·0 | 287 274 | 13·3 | 0·31 |
| Guaraná Antártica® | 8 | Soda | Mar/07 | 16 476 248 | 6·2 | 60 777 | 2·8 | 0·37 |
| Garoto® | 17 | Chocolate | Mar/12 | 13 053 655 | 4·9 | 30 073 | 1·4 | 0·23 |
| Cacau Show® | 56 | Chocolate | Jun/11 | 7 994 167 | 3·0 | 104 369 | 4·8 | 1·31 |
| Lacta official® | 58 | Chocolate | Dec/11 | 7 866 224 | 2·9 | 27 233 | 1·3 | 0·35 |
| McDonald’s® | 81 | Fast food | Oct/10 | 59 749 819 | 22·3 | 555 891 | 25·7 | 0·93 |
| Bis® | 102 | Chocolate | Sept/10 | 6 145 118 | 2·3 | 42 977 | 2·0 | 0·70 |
| Halls® | 108 | Sweet | Jan/09 | 6 046 791 | 2·3 | 143 314 | 6·6 | 2·37 |
| Subway® | 114 | Fast food | Nov/11 | 5 846 228 | 2·2 | 148 168 | 6·8 | 2·53 |
| Trident® | 140 | Chiclet | Jul/10 | 13 929 932 | 5·2 | 36 892 | 1·7 | 0·26 |
| Guaraná Kuat oh yeah® | 155 | Soda | Sept/10 | 4 968 720 | 1·9 | 22 184 | 1·0 | 0·45 |
| Burger King® | 159 | Fast food | Jul/11 | 4 962 731 | 1·9 | 246 148 | 11·4 | 4·96 |
| Kibon® | 197 | Ice cream | Aug/10 | 7 562 994 | 2·8 | 244 523 | 11·3 | 3·23 |
| Mundo Fini® | 217 | Sweet | Sept/10 | 4 092 352 | 1·1 | 71 331 | 3·3 | 1·74 |
| Outback® | 229 | Soda | Aug/04 | 2 838 419 | 4·6 | 74 505 | 3·4 | 2·62 |
| Mentos® | 233 | Sweet | Mar/11 | 12 387 567 | 4·6 | 68 202 | 3·2 | 0·55 |
| Total | – | – | – | 267 594 944 | 100·0 | 2 163 861 | 100·0 | 22·91 |
The number of unique users who added a page to their news feed and a section about their profile.
The number of unique users who created a story about a page in a 7 d period. On Facebook, stories are items that are displayed via news feed. Users create stories they like, post on a page wall, like a post, comment on a post, share a post, answer a question, RSVP to a page’s event, mention the page in a post, tag the page in a photo, check in at a place, share a check-in deal, like a check-in deal, write a recommendation or claim an offer.
The percentage of people talking about a page divided by the number of users who liked the page.
For each brand in the study, we investigated its Socialbakers’ ranking, product category (soda, chocolate, fast food, sweet, chewing gum, ice cream and restaurant), date (month and year) of the first posting, and absolute and relative frequency of likes and people and members ‘talking about’ the page.
We also analysed fifteen marketing techniques (Table 2) used by brands in the year before the present study (September 2014 to October 2015). The techniques were those defined by Freeman et al.( 16 ).
Table 2.
Marketing techniques used by ultra-processed food product brands (n 16) on Facebook in Brazil, September 2014–October 2015
| Marketing techniques | Technique description | n | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand elements | Logo, slogan or any other element related to the brand | 16 | 100·0 |
| Links | A link for access to an external page to Facebook | 16 | 100·0 |
| Photos | Use of digital images of the product or of the users | 16 | 100·0 |
| Conversation | Brand’s page administrator directly talks to users through posts | 16 | 100·0 |
| Videos | Videos published directly on Facebook or accessed through YouTube | 15 | 93·8 |
| Promotions, special prices, contests, prizes, gifts | Reduced prices, promotions (money, electronic products, travel), awards for a specified time | 11 | 68·8 |
| Celebrities | Celebrities from media and entertainment (actors, singers, presenters) | 10 | 62·5 |
| Brand characters | Character created by the brand | 8 | 50·0 |
| Sponsorship and partnership | Post in which the brand supports or sponsors other brands or services | 8 | 50·0 |
| Events | Organization of events in which users can participate | 7 | 43·8 |
| Children’s characters | Children’s character from movies, books, television, Internet | 4 | 25·0 |
| App | Links to smartphone apps or other apps present on Facebook | 3 | 18·8 |
| Media content that exposes the user | Fans can interact with the page, using photos or videos and share it on their timeline | 3 | 18·8 |
| Social responsibility and philanthropy | Philanthropy and sustainable promotion | 3 | 18·8 |
| Athletes | Sports players | 2 | 12·5 |
| Games | Interactive games created by the brand | 1 | 6·3 |
Finally, each page was analysed for one month, 23 September to 23 October 2015, regarding publicity comprehensiveness. The numbers of posts, likes, ‘shares’ and ‘commentaries’ were registered, and the mean number of likes, shares and commentaries per post were calculated.
All analyses were conducted by two researchers, with the results compared and the divergences verified. Data were tabulated with Microsoft® Excel 2010, in addition to absolute and relative frequency calculations.
Results
Among the sample, two brands were more popular (the combined number of likes represented 50 % of the total number of likes): Coke® (93 673 979 likes, 35·0 %) and McDonald’s® (59 749 819 likes, 22·3 %; Table 1).
Regarding people talking about the pages, McDonald’s ranked highest with 555 891 (25·7 %) commentaries. This was followed by Coke (287 274 commentaries, 13·3 %), Burger King® (246 148 commentaries, 11·4 %) and Kibon® (244 523 commentaries, 11·3 %; Table 1).
Burger King had the highest percentage of members ‘commenting’ on the posts (4·96 %; Table 1). All brands used photos, elements, links directing users to other pages and conversations. Videos were registered on 93·8 % (n 15) of pages; promotions that offer advantages such as special prices and rewards on 68·8 % (n 11); and celebrities on 62·5 % (n 10) of pages (Table 2).
Finally, in terms of marketing comprehensiveness over one month, some brands published more than once per day: Garoto® (1·83), Outback® (1·43) and Coke (1·07). Kibon reached the highest mean of likes per post (285 845·50) and Burger King had the highest mean number of shares per post (10 083·93) and commentaries per post (7958·13; Table 3).
Table 3.
Monthly coverage of ultra-processed food product marketing on Facebook in Brazil, 23 September–23 October 2015
| Brand | Posts | Posts/d | Likes | Shares | Commentaries | Likes/post | Shares/post | Commentaries/post |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coca-Cola® | 32 | 1·07 | 1 270 872 | 15 704 | 10 497 | 39 714·75 | 490·75 | 328·03 |
| Guaraná® | 12 | 0·40 | 27 824 | 3310 | 551 | 2318·67 | 275·83 | 45·92 |
| Garoto | 55 | 1·83 | 148 110 | 4984 | 12 585 | 2692·91 | 90·62 | 228·82 |
| Cacau Show® | 19 | 0·63 | 183 552 | 11 382 | 6549 | 9660·63 | 599·05 | 344·68 |
| Lacta official® | 5 | 0·17 | 56 552 | 632 | 534 | 11 310·40 | 126·40 | 106·80 |
| McDonald’s® | 18 | 0·60 | 765 665 | 19 751 | 42 647 | 42 536·94 | 1097·28 | 2369·28 |
| Bis® | 5 | 0·17 | 143 127 | 1297 | 1076 | 28 625·40 | 259·40 | 215·20 |
| Halls® | 4 | 0·13 | 441 619 | 10 635 | 11 031 | 110 404·75 | 2658·75 | 2757·75 |
| Subway® | 19 | 0·63 | 679 792 | 6287 | 10 226 | 35 778·53 | 330·89 | 538·21 |
| Trident | 11 | 0·37 | 629 304 | 4975 | 2918 | 57 209·45 | 452·27 | 265·27 |
| Guaraná Kuat oh yeah® | 14 | 0·47 | 105 179 | 2798 | 4061 | 7512·79 | 199·86 | 290·07 |
| Burger King® | 15 | 0·50 | 1 032 651 | 151 259 | 119 372 | 68 843·40 | 10 083·93 | 7958·13 |
| Kibon® | 2 | 0·07 | 571 691 | 13 306 | 9955 | 285 845·50 | 6653·00 | 4977·50 |
| Mundo Fini® | 31 | 1·03 | 113 712 | 8364 | 4061 | 3668·13 | 269·81 | 131·00 |
| Outback® | 43 | 1·43 | 268 180 | 65 132 | 22 805 | 6236·74 | 1514·70 | 530·35 |
| Mentos® | 14 | 0·47 | 155 393 | 1180 | 2758 | 11 099·50 | 84·29 | 197·00 |
Discussion
The present study is the first to describe the scope and diversity of marketing strategies by UPP brands on Facebook, which is frequently accessed by Brazilians. In this medium in which people interact with each other, brands are also part of the marketing techniques to improve consumption, including UPP brands. Approximately 6 % of the 250 most liked Facebook pages are for UPP brands, and among the ten most liked Facebook pages by Brazilians, two are UPP brands.
Our findings similarly corroborate findings of an analysis of UPP marketing on Facebook in Australia, in which twenty-seven UPP brands used photos and other marketing techniques to promote their product. In addition, many of these brands also used videos, celebrities, gift offers and rewards( 16 ). Studies conducted in other countries can offer more evidence about UPP marketing on Facebook worldwide, thereby providing more data for comparison.
Other studies that analysed marketing content in digital media indicated similar results. In the USA, websites directed at children used brand elements, links to other pages, promotions and special prices, gifts and rewards( 18 ). Another study demonstrated that soda is the main product promoted online on a website directed at children in the USA( 19 ).
The problem of promoting UPP is related to the fact that their consumption is associated with dyslipidaemia in children, metabolic syndrome in adolescents and obesity at all ages( 20 – 23 ). In addition, their means of production, distribution, marketing and consumption lead to damage to culture, social life and the environment( 7 ).
Although eating habits are understood as individual preferences that coincide with the principle of freedom, they are influenced strongly by food advertising( 24 ), denoting the relevance of assessing new forms of advertising food products on social media and of controlling its content.
Marketing on social media is not what tends to be used on television networks, which also allow multidimensional actions involving social media and online apps( 14 ). With the advent of mobile devices, Facebook can be accessed anytime v. television commercials, which are limited to breaks in programming, while marketing on Facebook is available continuously( 14 , 16 ).
Social media allows the user to interact with the brand page content, which can be visible to all other users of the app and enhance the extent of marketing savvy. Thus, social media facilitates word-of-mouth marketing to go viral and spread a message to an exponential number of people( 25 ).
In Brazil, in 2015, 42 % of the population accessed the Internet and 76 % of them used it daily for approximately 4 h. The main reasons given were to obtain general information (67 %), to have fun and be entertained (67 %), to enjoy one’s free time (38 %), and to study and learn (24 %). Among social media and chat programs, Facebook (83 %) and WhatsApp (58 %) were the ones most used by the population( 26 ). Although almost all Brazilians have access to television (97 %) with 73 % of them watching it daily, the number of hours spent viewing television (4 h 30 min per d) is close to that mentioned for Internet use( 26 ).
Regulating UPP marketing in Brazil faces divergent interests between governing sectors and the food industry. On the one hand, there are strategies proposed by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária; ANVISA) that aim to promote the protection of human rights to adequate and healthy foods by examining the purpose and content of food marketing. On the other hand, there is a regulated sector that claims the control of food publicity interferes with economic freedom and that such regulations would constitute censorship of commercial expression( 27 ).
In accordance with our results, discussions about UPP marketing regulation in Brazil must be extended to all social media. One potential way of regulating food marketing in the media is defining which techniques can be used for each type of product and for which sector of the population. For example, in accordance with the study of the impact of each marketing technique on children’s food consumption, legislation could better define abusing the interaction with children on specific pages and the use of photos or videos. Social control can help achieve successful regulation, with the concomitant proposition of a complaint channel inside Facebook.
Our study presented the size and profile of UPP marketing on Facebook in Brazil. Despite its relevance, it did not include paid publicity; in this vein, we expect a greater extent of food publicity on Facebook than what has been described herein. In addition, we did not study the profile of fans of brand pages. Finally, the study was descriptive, thus disabling hypothesis formulation. Further studies in this field will contribute to an understanding of the UPP food marketing on Facebook and its impact on food consumption and health profiles of Facebook users.
Acknowledgements
Financial support: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. Conflict of interest: None. Authorship: P.M.H. participated in project preparation, data collection, database construction, data analysis and manuscript writing. F.T.R. participated in data collection, database construction, data analysis and manuscript writing. L.C.S. participated in project preparation and critical revision of the manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: Not applicable.
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