Abstract:

In almost every area of economic life and on every market, entities now operate under the conditions of constant competition. This simple truth applies to the market of goods as well as services (Kawasaki et al., 2019). The segment of carbonated soft drinks seems particularly interesting from the research point of view. This is partly due to the ongoing changes in consumer preferences, their lifestyle, and income growth, which is why the market of these goods is constantly evolving (Anderson & Wittwer, 2020). Carbonated soft drinks have become the subject of intense marketing activities carried out on various levels (Adeigbe et al., 2015). The research conducted by Brownbill et al. (2018) indicates a large role of social media (Facebook) in the promotion of carbonated beverages. According to the authors, advertising and promotion of carbonated soft drinks were largely related to the themes of “sports & fitness” and “masculinity” (Brownbill et al., 2018). In turn, a study by  Brady et al. (2008) suggests that multi-channel promotional marketing messages also widely reach and affect children (Brady et al., 2008). What is more, research by Stoltze et al. (2018), based on the Front-of-Package (FOP) analysis of 1005 carbonated beverage packages, showed that products containing graphics targeted at children had a higher sugar content (Stoltze et al., 2018). Similar conclusions can be drawn from the results of the study by Gómez et al. (2021), revealing that as many as 30% of the websites promoting carbonated soft drinks targeted children and adolescents (Gómez et al., 2021).
A particularly high activity of enterprises introducing carbonated beverages to the market prompts the need for research in the scope of evaluation of the design of beverage packaging and the promotional message it is meant to convey. Neuromarketing techniques may prove helpful in this regard.