Measuring brand awareness as a component of eating habits in Indian children: the development of the IBAI questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE

To develop an instrument that allows one to estimate the Indian children's brand awareness of alimentary products.

METHODS

The IBAI (International Brand Awareness Instrument), an age specific tool composed of 12 sheets with images reporting brand logos of alimentary products, has been adjusted for the Indian context in order to investigate on infants' cognitive skills of recalling and recognizing. The IBAI was piloted in a sample of 100 children aged from 3 to 10 y and enrolled in New Delhi schools.

RESULTS

Children aged 7-10 y showed an higher brand awareness as compared to those of 3-6 y.

CONCLUSIONS

The IBAI instrument may be a component for further analysis of the influence of food marketing on child's diet, foods' choices and preferences within the Indian social and cultural macro-context. Findings suggest that children over 6 y are particularly gullible by brands and TV promoted advertising. Prevention through information should, therefore be offered to school aged children and their parents, involving teachers, nutritionists and experts in developmental psychology also.