When I heard about the study where preschoolers were found to prefer foods in McDonald's wrappers, I told my husband that the paper wrappers were a conditioned reinforcer. I was joking when I said it, but then realized it was true! The study showed that not only did kids prefer identical menu items wrapped in the familiar label compared to plain-wrapped food, but they even preferred healthy foods like carrots and milk when served up in the familiar McDonald's packaging!
What effective marketing McDonald's has created—youngsters have such a positive association with their brand. I wonder if the combined effects of play and socialization also contributed to the conditioning?
The research findings were published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine; an abstract is available here.
Tia Guest is Program Director of Karen Pryor Academy, as well as a professional animal trainer.
I think
Laurie has a very good point... comparing brightly coloured packings to McD's would be very interesting
Christina
How Nestle sold Coffee to the Japanese
This is similar to the interesting story I read recently about how Nestle sold coffee to the Japanese market.
Tea has been the preferred drink of the Japanese for centuries. It is almost sacred, to the point that drinking tea can be ceremonial.
When Nestle first tried to market coffee in Japan in the 1970s it was a complete failure. The Japanese did not want to drink coffee, they wanted to drink tea.
Nestle's solution? They made a coffee flavoured dessert for children (de-caf, they didn't want to get carried away!)
Sure enough, as those children grew up to become adults, they wanted to drink coffee! Today Japan consumes 500 million pounds of coffee each year. That's a lot of coffee.
That's a powerful conditioned reinforcer.
Regards,
Aidan
http://www.PositivePetzine.com
Interesting Findings
I wish they would have done another piece to this experiment. Instead of a plain wrapper, I wish they would have put a cartoon wrapper (with no childhood icons like Elmo or Barbie -- just cartoon drawings of houses and trees) with vibrant primary colors on and *then* run the experiment. Would McD's still have come out so far ahead? Heck, *I* would choose the McD's wrapper over a plain wrapper, and I'm no kid! :)
There's no way of sorting out if the kids chose the McD's food because it was brilliantly colored or if it truly was the McD's brand.
Another interesting twist would have been to put the child's last name in bright colors on the plain white wrapper. Would that have made a difference?
Laurie Luck, CPDT
Certified Pet Dog Trainer
Smart Dog University
http://smartdoguniversity.com