Out of Home Digital Market Food Promotions Research in Scotland report

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) commissioned Ipsos to conduct research exploring the impact of promotions and other marketing strategies on consumer behaviours when ordering from the Out of Home Digital Market (OOH Digital Market) in Scotland. The OOH Digital Market covers takeaway food and drink ordered for collection or delivery via outlet websites and apps and third-party aggregator apps, such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat. This report details the findings of research undertaken August-December 2024 among consumers in Scotland who regularly use the OOH Digital Market to explore how they interact with outlet/aggregator apps and websites and the decisions they make when presented with digital promotions. 

Scotland's National Performance Framework emphasises the importance of a healthy and active population. The Scottish Government's 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, echoed by the 2021 Diet and healthy weight: out of home action plan, sets out a key goal to "create a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight” and has a renewed focus on diet as a priority area of public health. Evidence suggests that the average Scottish diet remains too high in calories, fats, sugar and salt, which are linked to poor health outcomes and obesity. 

The 'food environment,' which includes physical, economic, and socio-cultural contexts, has a significant impact on what and how much people eat. Research by Public Health England highlighted how ‘nudge’ interventions targeting the food environment and making healthier options more easily visible tend to be more effective in addressing poor diet than those relying on individual decision-making. 

A Public Health Scotland and Food Standards Scotland briefing paper highlighted that the food environment in Scotland is saturated with advertisements and promotions for food that is high in energy, fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods). The persistent promotion of unhealthy food options can make it challenging for consumers to make healthier dietary decisions, according to a FSS report. A 2019 evidence review, commissioned by the Scottish Government, highlighted that food marketing strategies used by outlets, such as price promotions, upselling, and placement of HFSS foods in prominent locations, have had a direct impact on increased consumer purchasing of these items. Research focusing on children found a clear causal link between in-premise marketing and increased purchasing and consumption of HFSS foods among this group. A systematic review by Whitehead et al also suggests that marketing of unhealthy foods outside the home can act to perpetuate socioeconomic health disparities, as areas of lower economic status typically have a higher concentration of, and easier access to, fast-food and takeaway outlets. A recent economic modelling report from Scottish Government found that interventions to restrict advertising and promotion of unhealthy foods may reduce average calorie intake, while a separate modelling study by Thomas et al (2022) estimating the impacts of advertising restrictions on HFSS products implemented by Transport for London found it promoted positive health outcomes.

FSS’s Energy Density report indicates that food from the OOH environment is typically higher in energy, fat, salt and sugar than food prepared in the home. This forms a significant part of our diet, with an estimated 25% of calories consumed from the OOH sector. In 2023, people in Scotland made an average of 3.8 trips to the OOH sector weekly, and it is estimated that adults buy around 300 calories per person per day from the OOH sector in Great Britain. OOH meals frequently exceed the recommended calorie intake of 600 calories per meal, which can potentially lead to energy overconsumption and exacerbate current trends in overweight and obesity, which already affect 65% of adults and 28% of children in Scotland. Thus, monitoring the OOH food environment in Scotland is crucial for understanding the drivers of consumption and poor dietary choices which, in turn, enables informed recommendations for improving public health

According to research conducted on behalf of FSS, the OOH market has seen a significant growth in Scotland in recent years, most noticeably with respect to outlet websites and apps and third-party aggregator apps. The growth of the OOH Digital Market was further amplified during the Covid-19 pandemic – there is currently an estimated 45,000 OOH outlets across Scotland. Research conducted by FSS in 2023 on consumer attitudes towards the diet and food environment in Scotland, found that over half of adults in Scotland order food for takeaway or delivery online, with those aged under 45 more likely to do so than older people. The same research found more than half of Scottish adults agreed that it is so easy to order using an app that they probably order more often than they otherwise would and that 37% of consumers who order food online often order more food than originally planned. The study also identified the types of promotions that consumers reported having the most influence on consumer behaviour, including meal deals, free add-on items, financial discounts and loyalty scheme discounts. 

Previous Scottish Government research also provided an overview of the prevalence of marketing strategies used in-premise and online by OOH businesses in Scotland. In relation to the OOH Digital Market, the research showed that the most common marketing strategies were meal deals (35% of visits) and price promotions (25% of visits) and that discounts for minimum spend was the most common type of price promotion (55% of all price promotions observed). 

While both the FSS and Scottish Government studies have provided insights into the availability of promotions and other marketing strategies in the OOH Digital Market, as well as consumers’ perceptions of how they affect their ordering behaviour, there is a need for further evidence on the impact of these promotions and other marketing strategies on consumer behaviour. In particular, do they result in consumers ordering food from the OOH Digital Market more often and/or ordering more food than intended. The current research was commissioned to provide real-time insights into consumer ordering behaviour and to understand more about the influence of different promotional and marketing strategies.

The overall aim of this research was to understand the impact of promotions and other marketing strategies in the OOH Digital Market in Scotland on consumer behaviour. The specific research objectives were: 

1. To understand if, and why, promotions and other marketing strategies result in consumers ordering food more often from the OOH Digital Market. 
2. To understand if, and why, promotions and other marketing strategies result in consumers ordering a greater volume of food, and therefore more calories from the OOH Digital Market. 
3. To understand whether different types of promotions and other marketing strategies within the OOH Digital Market influence consumer behaviours in different ways. 

This research also explored how often consumers receive promotions and other marketing strategies from the OOH Digital Market. 

The study covered a wide range of promotions and other marketing strategies that are commonly used in the OOH Digital Market including price promotions, upselling, upsizing and placement strategies. A full list of promotions covered is included in the Method chapter.

FSS would ideally have liked the study to provide a quantitative measure of the extent of any impact. However, it was recognised that collecting quantitative data on the impact of promotions and other marketing strategies on consumer behaviours without relying solely on retrospective perceptions of behaviour, was challenging and not possible within the confines of the study. 

With that in mind, a primarily qualitative design was agreed. However, FSS expressed a desire for any available information on the extent of the impact of digital OOH food promotions to be provided, if possible. 

Overview 

The study sought to overcome the issue of reliance on perceptions and self-reporting by collecting real-time data on consumer behaviour, accompanied by qualitative data to help explain it. The study was small scale and primarily qualitative in nature. A summary of the method is provided here, and a more detailed methodology can be found in Appendix A. 

Twenty-nine consumers, who regularly used digital methods to order food and drink from OOH outlets, took part in: 

• a four-week online diary task using the Indeemo mobile app (an online video research platform) to record their online orders. 
• follow-up in-depth video interviews to further explore and understand the impact that exposure to any digital promotions or marketing strategies had on their ordering behaviours. 

Sampling in qualitative research aims to ensure the research captures the range of different views and experiences of an issue, rather than statistical representativeness. The sampling approach was designed to target consumers who have the greatest potential to be influenced by OOH Digital Market promotions and other marketing strategies, defined as those who order from OOH Digital Market at least once a week, and live within Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow (reflecting the profile of the OOH Digital Market in terms of where prevalence of outlets is highest). 

Sampling was designed to ensure good coverage across key demographic groups, including gender, age, ethnicity, working status, household type and SIMD. Participants were also recruited to achieve a mix in terms of the digital platforms and websites generally used to order food and drink from the OOH environment. The profile was skewed towards those living in more deprived areas. The final sample profile is provided in Appendix A. 

Given the research sought to capture participants’ behaviours in real time, careful consideration was given to ensuring that, as far as possible, their behaviour did not change as a result of taking part in the study. With this in mind, they were provided with a relatively broad definition of the purpose of the research (ordering takeaway food online) that did not draw attention to the focus on promotions and other marketing strategies. It was also emphasised to participants at the onboarding stage that they should not change their ordering behaviour during the fieldwork period and, in particular, should not feel any pressure to order more often that they would have done otherwise during that time. The information sheet and privacy noticed provided to participants at the recruitment stage can be found in Appendix B. Participants were offered a payment of £120 for their participation, with £80 received after completion of the diary task and £40 received for the follow-up interview.

Indeemo diary task 

The Indeemo fieldwork period ran from August – November 2024, with participants starting their four-week diaries at different points throughout this time. As part of the recruitment and onboarding process, participants consented to install Indeemo on their mobile phones over the diary task fieldwork period. 

Participants were asked to record every takeaway order they made during the four-week period by uploading a mobile phone screen recording of their order being made and completing a short questionnaire attached to each order. The questionnaire (Appendix C) included questions on when and why they decided to order a takeaway, whether their decision was impacted by a promotion, what app/website they used, what outlet they chose and why, and whether there were any leftovers. 

The research team closely monitored engagement throughout the fieldwork period in order to pick up on any specific issues. However, reminders were minimised given the risk that they could act as prompts to order takeaway food. Reminders were also sent at times when it was least likely to have an effect on ordering, e.g., mid-week and in the morning. Where participants forgot to screen record their order, they were still invited to complete the questionnaire and attach any relevant screenshots or photos. 

Follow-up depth interviews 

Following completion of the Indeemo four-week diary task, between September and December, participants took part in an in-depth interview, lasting around an hour and conducted over video (MS Teams or Zoom). The purpose of the interview was to reflect on the orders made throughout the fieldwork period and to discuss wider ordering behaviour, outside of the fieldwork period. Discussion guides were developed to ensure all relevant issues were covered in interviews (Appendix D). 

Before conducting the interviews, the research team reviewed each participant’s Indeemo data, including screen recordings, to select and prioritise recordings to review with participants in the interview based on the prevalence and uptake of promotions or other marketing strategies. As part of this process, each order was coded (see Analysis). In total, 58 orders were discussed across 29 interviews. As well as reflecting on specific orders, participants were invited to discuss what they saw as their typical ordering patterns and behaviours, beyond the scope of the orders they made during the course of this research. This allowed for exploration of the extent to which behaviours exhibited during the fieldwork period were typical for participants and provided additional context for analysis.

Indeemo data 

Analysis of Indeemo data (screen recordings and questionnaire) was primarily quantitative and undertaken using Microsoft Excel. A codeframe was designed to record and analyse each order placed during the fieldwork, alongside demographic data relating to participants (see Appendix E). All screen recordings were analysed and coded by the research team. The review of screen recordings involved recording every instance of a promotion or marketing strategy appearing on screen, where in the ordering process the promotion/marketing strategy was encountered (homepage, browsing or basket/checkout page), what type of promotion/marketing strategy it was and whether it was taken advantage of in the order. Promotions and other marketing strategies observed in recordings were coded by strategy type using categorisations commonly used in the OOH Digital Market, as well as others added by the research team, in conjunction with FSS, to cover any promotions or marketing strategies observed that did not fall into an existing category. Codes are shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Coding of promotions and other marketing strategies

The impact of promotions or other marketing strategies on the number of calories ordered was assessed if nutritional information was available and participants confirmed during interviews that additional items were ordered directly as a result of them, and where nutritional information for ordered items was also publicly available from the food outlet (See Scope and Limitations). 

Interview data 

The analysis of qualitative data is focused on drawing out themes and understanding the reasons behind behaviours rather than their prevalence. Our approach to qualitative analysis involved data from interviews being summarised into thematic matrices based on the topic guide (including lifestyle and general food behaviours, reviewing specific Indeemo orders, and more general views on ordering from the OOH Digital Market and perceptions on the role of promotions and other marketing strategies). 

The present research is qualitative in nature so cannot provide an indication of the extent of the issues, only indicative data on whether there appears to be a link between promotions and ordering behaviours, and the reasons for this. The small-scale exploratory nature of this research and limited sample should be noted throughout, with any frequencies or patterns of ordering reflective of the 29 sample cases which should not be generalised to the wider population. 

To minimise risk of any consumer behaviour changes as a result of taking part in the study, a number of steps were taken: keeping the information provided to participants in advance to a minimum, while still enabling informed consent, reassuring participants that they should not order any more as a result of taking part; keeping reminders to upload screen recordings to a minimum; and not asking participants to make a note of any emails, texts and notifications received from the OOH Digital Market during the fieldwork period (as it was felt it would draw too much attention to them and mean that the ability to analyse their impact in a real world setting was lost). 

The research only included those who typically order at least once a week, to ensure that a sufficient number of orders would be placed during the fieldwork period. However, this group may differ in unknown ways from those who order less often in terms of their response to promotions and other marketing strategies. Almost certainly, they will be more familiar with the 
available promotions and marketing strategies in the OOH Digital Market, their reasons for ordering may differ, as well as their financial considerations around ordering takeaways. 

Depending on the number of orders, there was not always time to cover all orders made by a participant in the follow-up interviews. This means that, for some orders, there is not sufficient data to show whether orders were influenced by promotions. For example, if a participant used a discount with minimum spend promotion, but it was not covered in the interview, it is not known whether this influenced them to order more food. To mitigate this, orders selected for discussion at interview were selected on the basis of use of promotions, and participants were asked general questions around how they usually respond to promotions at the end of the interview. 

Furthermore, although attempts were made to reduce recall bias (e.g. by conducting the follow-up interview as soon as possible after the four-week Indeemo task), there were still some instances where participants were not able to fully remember the details of a particular order and those where their recollection did not match what they had recorded in Indeemo in the time (for example, stating in Indeemo that an order had been prompted by a promotion or other marketing strategy and in the interview that it hadn’t). 

Finally, it had been hoped that the research could provide an indication of the extra calories ordered in cases where participants stated that a promotion or other marketing strategy had resulted in them ordering more food. This calorie analysis has been conducted, but only for seven out of 106 orders, where there was both certainty around the extra items ordered as a result of the promotion and nutritional information available on the outlet’s website (see Appendix F).

Report structure and conventions The remainder of this report is structured as follows: 

• Chapter 2: Overview of ordering from the OOH Digital Market. 
• Chapter 3: The decision to order from the OOH Digital Market, covering reasons for ordering and the influence of promotions and other marketing strategies (with case studies and journey maps based on participant’ experiences to help illustrate themes). 
• Chapter 4: The ordering process, exploring prevalence and uptake of promotions and marketing strategies (with case studies and journey maps).
• Chapter 5: Conclusions, drawing together a final summary and pulling out themes.