Breakfast Cereal Psychology Explained
Making kids crave sugary cereals is about more than just snappy ads and cartoon mascots. According to Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, there’s a whole psychology behind entrancing kids at the supermarket.
In the video above, Cornell professor of marketing Brian Wansink reveals that, on average, breakfast cereals marketed towards children sit a mere 23 inches off the floor, while adult cereals sit a full 48 inches above ground. It’s a simple trick: Placing cereal at kids’ eye level makes the boxes more enticing to their target audience. (Who doesn’t remember plucking a box off the shelf while posing the question of the ages, “Mom, can I get this?”)
But Wansink and his colleagues also noticed a sneakier marketing gimmick. They found that figures on the boxes of children’s cereals—like Cap’n Crunch and Scooby Doo—tend to point their eyes downward, effectively meeting the upward-facing gaze of young children. In contrast, figures like those on Wheaties boxes, which are geared toward adults, tend to look point-blank at fully-grown consumers.
Get a load of the phenomenon, illustrated in the cartoon below:
Photo credit: Cornell University (Click here for larger image)
"One of the things we’ve found," Wansink explains, “is that if you have eye contact with something, even somebody in a box, it looks more trustworthy and it increases your likelihood to purchase things.”
Wansink suggests that this trick could be used for good—perhaps companies could start marketing healthier, whole grain cereals to children using the same tricks? Until then, beware the Cap’n's commanding gaze.
