Table 3.
Illustrative quotes for key themes
| Themes | Fruit‐flavoured drink quotes | Toddler milk quotes |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing messages that imply benefits for children and/or hide problematic ingredients | …40% less sugar, that would be something that I would be more likely to pull off the shelf if I was looking for that type of food or drink. (DC) | I feel like the marketing does a really good job of playing to like a mother's fears. Because who wants to feel like, I didn't give my child the thing to support their immune system? Or they're not going to have brain or eye development if I don't give them this. (Hartford) |
| When you look, and you see pictures of kiwi and strawberry on something, you could think that it's made of kiwi and strawberry. (DC) | ||
| …it feels like as a mom, there's a lot of judgments, or there's a lot of things that you feel like you're doing wrong. And so these marketing, whether it's necessary or not, it definitely plays to that fear. (Hartford) | ||
| But even the Capri Sun says they advertise it as Roaring Waters. So it's the false advertisement of saying this is a water, so it's good for you…The Roaring Waters, you would think it would be like a seltzer or flavored water. (Hartford) | ||
| DHA [Docosahexaenoic acid] for the brain, that was one of the reasons why I wanted to try to give them the Enfagrow, to keep getting those. (Hartford) | ||
| Because marketing‐‐ they do a good job marketing. Marketing people know how to market‐‐ all natural, oh, 100% of vitamin C, oh that's cool. Yeah, but also 100% of your sugar for the day. It didn't mention that on the front. (Hartford) | Because I got sent a little pamphlet of the Enfagrow. And then it listed like the milk, and then it listed the Enfagrow, and then it showed what the milk had and what the Enfagrow had. …so that kind of made me want to try it. (Hartford) | |
| So it's really concerning to me that you'd be adding all of those [non‐nutritive sweeteners] to children's drinks, especially children's drinks that are not marketed as diet drinks. (DC) | I think they [toddler milks] are formula, or [a] transition from formula to whole milk. (Hartford) | |
| I just think the marketing of these‐‐ it makes it seem like it's actually really good for your kids, especially for picky eaters. (Hartford) | ||
| I guess I didn't realize that there's both the sugar and the zero‐calorie sweeteners together in some of the juice drinks that children are offered. (Hartford) | ||
| …the Go & Grow. I never thought of that as a sugary drink. (DC) | ||
| …they have the sugar plus the alternative sugars, which you don't realize in addition to. So it would be nice if that were more, like, prominent on the packaging. (DC) | ||
| …they're leading you to think something without explicitly saying it. So like you see fruit. And you're like, oh, this must have fruit in it. This is healthier, and it's not. (DC) | ||
| It's the way it's marketed on the front. And I'd like to think that I can see through that, but maybe always, you know, I can't. (DC) | ||
| I'm not a dietitian. I have no idea what all of these things mean. (DC) | ||
| Confusion between product categories | Yeah, that's why I don't want to give them no juice. Because I know that most juices have sugar in it. (referring to pictures of fruit drinks). (Hartford) | So because my son is almost one year, one year old. So I gave him the first Enfagrow formula as a transition. (Hartford) |
| I was certainly led to believe that toddler formulas were the equivalent of infant formula. (DC) | ||
| And so having a tricky thing like “juice” on a box that's not actually fruit juice, that can be misleading and cause mistakes. (DC) | ||
| I think it's very misleading labeling. The fact that, I thought that, other than the name change from infant to toddler, it was the same product maybe with slightly different ratios of vitamins for what a toddler needs versus what an infant needs. And that's not the case. (DC) | ||
| Is it even regulated? I don't know. I don't know. I know you can't call it juice if there's no juice. But how much juice you need? I don't know, which is‐‐ because these, I'm sure, would all be called juice if they could be called juice. (DC) | ||
| Cross‐branding and product extensions | I don't know what it is, but a lot of people think Capri Sun is like the next step from 100% juice from kids. It's so popular. (DC) | But I know that a lot of the formula companies have started making toddler formulas that they advertise, as like, oh, this is the next step when your kid doesn't need formula anymore‐‐ as a toddler, keep giving them this. (Hartford) |
| Yeah, I think, for whatever reason, Capri Sun has managed to kind of slip through the cracks a little bit, and is believed to be a little bit healthier than it probably is. (DC) | ||
| They look just like the formula canisters. (Hartford) | ||
| I trust the formula companies so much. Blindly trust. (Hartford) | ||
| They advertise this as a‐‐ it's a juice box, right? And so you think you're just giving them juice. (Hartford) | ||
| That's why they keep it right next to the toddler, I mean, the baby's things so that, you know, they want to make sure everyone does this. (Hartford) | ||
| I mean, I've bought stuff in the grocery store, and then got home and been like, oh, it's not 100% juice, and then had to return it. So I think just sometimes when you see the labels, especially, I think, when you're in a rush… I'm like, OK, juice, and I grab it. (DC) | ||
| ….you're in the grocery store, and you think, well, you know, like they're only eating crackers this week… So here's something that looks good. And it's from a trusted company. (DC) | ||
| Especially when you're shopping with children, it takes so long to go shopping anyway. So you're really only looking at the quick front. You don't have time to flip it over on the back, because you've got this one screaming for this, you've got this one reaching out for this, this one knocking over things. Or you know nap time is coming, and you're trying to rush. (Hartford) | ||
| Pricing | I really try to buy the 100% juices. But sometimes you just have to go with what's on sale, and that could be the juice boxes at $1.50 a box versus the 100% at $3.50. It really makes a difference sometimes. So even though you try your hardest, you end up buying sugary drinks at times. (Hartford) | I don't know if some people switched the infant over to the toddler based on price. Because you're like, “it's Enfamil,” “it's Similac.” But there is a price difference. I think it was like $30 for a similar size of the infant [formula]. And I want to say this [toddler milk] was like $22. If you're on a budget‐‐ I don't know if parents are switching to this earlier and you're thinking, “oh, it's the same company.” And I don't think that's a coincidence. I think, probably, from a marketing standpoint, there's probably a strategy there. (DC) |
| …you're going to a place like a Walmart, these [fruit drinks] are always on sale…Are parents making the decision based on what's healthier, or what can actually afford? (DC) | ||
| I think that Enfamil is very cognizant of that, that they know infant formula is cheaper‐‐ or, excuse me, very expensive. So to make the next step [toddler milks] a little bit cheaper probably plays into the consumer psychology, I'm guessing. (DC) | ||
| Targeted marketing to children and/or parents | …it looks cool to kids. … a bottle of water is clear. And then you see Hi‐C, and it's all bright, so they want it. (Hartford)So when you walk into Stop and Shop they have those little a circle cylinders of like stuff in them, and that's what your kid walks up to. (Hartford) | They started doing marketing to me directly via email and mail. And when they knew my son was getting close to 12 months, they started sending me the toddler formula stuff. (DC) |
| I get stuff in the mail and my email all the time for Enfagrow‐‐ coupons, advertisements, whatever. Because they are sending me all the Enfamil coupons. And then once we got closer to a year, they start sending me all the Enfagrow. (Hartford) | ||
| They're [children] attracted to these things, because they're flashy colors and all this other stuff. And you also are thinking, oh, it's 100% vitamin C, so whatever. She'll be fine. (Hartford) | ||
| My pediatrician's office had coupons and samples of some of these (toddler milks). (DC) | ||
| [On YouTube] the ads that are geared towards them [children] are, like, toys and food. And the food is always, like, some crazy juice, or something that is not milk and water. (DC) | ||
| We did use the Enfagrow Toddler Next Step. They always had coupons at my doctor's office. (DC) |