Who would have thought that cereal boxes with "spokes-characters" do indeed speak with children to bring them down and take them home?
A study entitled Eyes in the Aisles: Why Is Cap'n Crunch Looking Down at My Child?, researched and authored by Aviva Musicus of Yale University and Aner Tal and Brian Wansink, both from Cornell University, says that there's a psychology behind the positioning of cereal products that targets both young and adult consumers.
Apparently, the researchers used two key questions for the study. First, they looked into the angle to find whether cereal spokes-characters make eye contact with both the young and adult consumers. Second, they also looked into whether eye contact with cereal spokes-characters influenced consumer's choices.
The study reveals that cereals being marketed to children have been placed half as high on grocery shelves as those cereals for adults.
"We calculated the average height of cereal boxes on the shelf for adult- versus children-oriented cereals (48 in. vs. 23 in.) and the inflection angle of spokes-characters' gaze (0.4° vs. -9.6°). We found that cereal characters on child- (adult-) oriented cereals make incidental eye contact at children's (adults') eye level," the study says.
Okay, parents know all too well that there's some reason behind those colorful characters being marketed to the young consumers, but this new precise finding is interesting, isn't it? That's not all.
The second study also discloses that even the angle of the eye contact of the spokes-characters in cereal boxes brings some psychology to it.
"In Study 2, we showed that eye contact with cereal spokes-characters increased feelings of trust and connection to the brand, as well as choice of the brand over competitors," researchers said.
The findings show that the average angle of the eye contact of these cereal box spokes-characters for children is at a 9.6-degree downward angle, while those cereals for adults is at .43 degree upward angle looking nearly straight ahead at them.
The researchers came to such conclusions by evaluating 65 cereal types and 86 diverse spokes-characters in 10 different supermarkets or groceries in Connecticut and New York. Of the 86 spokes-characters assessed, marketed to children are 57 that present the mentioned downward gaze angle.
This latest study agrees with previous studies conducted, saying cereals for children have been put at the lowest two shelves, as opposed to cereals for adults placed on the upper two shelves. Which comes to the calculation that the average height of the gaze of spokes-characters for adult cereals is 53.99 inches, while it's 20.21 inches for children's cereals.
Sixty-three persons from a private Northeastern university participated in the study. They have been asked to look at a Trix box, and then rate their feelings of connection and trust to the said cereal brand.
The participants have been shown one or two versions of the Trix box at random. In one version, the rabbit looked straight ahead at the viewing consumer. In the other version, the rabbit looked down. These tests show that when the rabbit made eye contact with the consumer, brand trust is 16 percent higher and a feeling of connection to the brand is 28 percent higher. The participants also indicated they liked Trix better as compared with another brand of cereal when the rabbit made the eye contact with them.
Such results tell us -- both consumers and product sellers -- that spokes-characters making eye contact may bring about an increased positive feeling toward the product and also influences consumers to purchase it. Which brings us to this question: does the cereal industry follow such guidelines?
When Huffington Post contacted Kellogg's for comment on the study, the company simply said it follows industry standards on marketing food to young consumers or children.
"Personally, I don't think it's a deliberate strategy," said Tal, one of the study authors and a post-doctoral research associate at Cornell.
"I think it's incidental... But the finding could be used for good," he added.
Wansink, another author of the study and director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab, also shared two points of view on the results.
"If you are a parent who does not want your kids to go 'cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,' avoid taking them down the cereal aisle," he said.
"If you are a cereal company looking to market healthy cereals to kids, use spokes-characters that make eye contact with children to create brand loyalty," he added.
The Environment and Behavior Journal published the study on April 2.
