The psychological trigger in the supermarket cereal aisle most adult shoppers miss
To the average shopper, the cereal aisle is just a wall of choices. With up to 110 distinct ready-to-eat cereal boxes lining standard supermarket shelves, the competition for your cart is fierce.
But while adult-targeted brands fight for your wallet using trendy health claims like “high-protein” or “gut-friendly,” the boxes targeting children on lower shelves are playing a much quieter, high-stakes mental game. They are targeting your kids.
Take a closer look at cereals targeting children. (Sorry for the nightmares.) Jo Abi
Beneath those vibrant mascots and neon fonts sits a calculated psychological tactic engineered to hook a child’s gaze before parents even notice.
Concerns over these predatory design strategies have prompted groundbreaking research from Deakin University.
Most of the characters on these boxes look downwards, to meet a child’s eye level. Jo Abi
Scientists equipped children with eye-tracking glasses to document the precise split-second triggers brands use to captivate young eyes and drive impulse buying on the family shop.
How ‘character gaze’ builds instant trust
One of the most effective tricks being used on these children’s cereals is one most shoppers miss, Gavin Northey, a consumer expert at Griffith University explained to nine.com.au.
Many of the characters on cereals targeted at kids are angled down to “make connection with the children, while ‘adult’ cereal characters look straight ahead,” Gavin Northey, consumer expert at Griffith University, told nine.com.au.
Angling the gaze of cereal box characters down to meet children’s eye level “generates trust in the product”.
“That deliberate design angle means kids are far more likely to want a cereal that features a seemingly fun character looking directly at them, drawing their attention to what is inside the box,” Northey explained.
This manufactured connection ‘generates trust in the product’ for younger shoppers. Jo Abi
Then there’s the deliberate product placement of other items targeting children on the lower shelves, where they are more likely to notice them.
A recent study by Deakin University confirmed as much. Fifteen children were fitted with specially fitted glasses and tracked as they walked through a supermarket, with everything that caught their eye recorded.
This lower shelf placement is designed to attract the attention of children. Nine
Not surprisingly, they were drawn to the lower shelves and brightly coloured snacks and drinks.
“We found that one in every five minutes they were in the store, they were visually engaged with products that are displayed in prominent areas around the store,” Christine Dove, a researcher at Deakin University told 9News.
The study also exposed items targeted to children on display at supermarket entrances and top and end of aisle displays, including chips, chocolates, and confectionary.
The study also exposed items targeted to children on display at supermarket entrances. Reddit
These tactics, coupled with enticing displays on lower shelves, and that means so-called ‘pester power’ can be on full display for parents who choose to shop with their children.
Northey added: “In those situations, lower shelves are usually more effective because eye-level for a seven-year-old is much lower.”
The power of the shelf scanning zone
Clever cereal character designs, prominent supermarket displays and lower shelf product placement work hand in hand, Northey said.
“Humans generally only pay attention to a fraction of what they see in their visual field,” he explained.
“[This] means supermarket shoppers only really pay attention to a narrow horizontal band, which is typically at eye level.
“As a result, lower shelves as a whole will often fall completely outside the typical shoppers ‘shelf scanning’ zone, meaning lower shelves will typically perform worse, all other things being equal.”
By placing children’s products lower down, brands bypass adult eye-levels entirely and put their products directly into the line of sight of their intended younger audience, he added.
Every inch of supermarket shelf space is optimised to influence how shoppers navigate the store. Jo Abi
Why visual attention drives purchases
Ultimately, every inch of supermarket shelf space is optimised to influence how shoppers navigate the store.
“Shelf placement is critical not because of the location itself, but for what it does to the consumer,” Northey said.
“The mechanism that makes the shelf placement so effective is the level of visual attention it commands.
“Essentially, placing a product at the consumer’s eye level maximises the amount of visual attention the consumer is likely to dedicate to the product.
“Again, the eye-tracking research that has been undertaken tells us the more people look at and see a product, the more likely they are to purchase that product,” he added.
