College - Author 1

College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences

Department - Author 1

Agribusiness Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BS in Agricultural Business

Date

8-2011

Primary Advisor

Eivis Qenani, College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Agribusiness Department

Abstract/Summary

This consumer study was conducted to assess how effective shelf talker advertisements with nutrition related health claims are at selling fresh produce. Background research was conducted to determine the appropriate displays and FDA defined label claims. The study posted visually appealing shelf talker advertisements next to their respective produce item and compared the recorded sales a week prior to the advertising campaign to the following week with advertisements. Two separate observation periods were conducted at Spencer’s San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande locations after the first period in June 2011 produced a surprisingly small amount of statistically significant data. The study ended with eleven produce items’ unit sales results with and without shelf talker advertisements from both Spencer’s locations after two strong, but unsuccessful attempts to positively influence produce sales from a statistically significant standpoint.

The data for each location was entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to run paired t-tests for means. The results for each store communicated similar analysis to the basic sales data comparisons, which lead to rejecting the study’s proposed hypothesis that sales would increase during the second week of the study with advertising. Despite unfavorable results, this study can be used as a guide for future studies assessing consumer responses to different types of FDA nutritional claims as well as a reference to how custom produce displays and product placement in grocery stores can influence consumer purchasing behaviors.

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Agribusiness Commons

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