How can food become fun? Exploring and testing possibilities…

Valérie-Inès de La Ville (), Gilles Brougère () and Nathalie Boireau-Ducept
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Valérie-Inès de La Ville: CEREGE [Poitiers, La Rochelle] - Centre de recherche en gestion [EA 1722] - UP - Université de Poitiers = University of Poitiers - ULR - La Rochelle Université, MSHS de Poitiers - Maison des sciences de l'homme et de la société de Poitiers - UP - Université de Poitiers = University of Poitiers - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Gilles Brougère: EXPERICE - Centre de recherche interuniversitaire, Expérience, Ressources Culturelles, Education - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
Nathalie Boireau-Ducept: Danone Research - Groupe DANONE

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Abstract: This paper aims to understand, from a theoretical standpoint and from an empirical perspective, why food products can be designed and perceived as "playful" and "funny". Drawing on the experiential framework developed in marketing research and recent advances in theories of play, it seeks to clarify the conceptual articulation of "play" with "fun" and it seeks to highlight the need to reconsider the contribution of the product in framing situations that children experience as "playful" and "fun". The paper focuses on qualitative data gathered through a combination of observations and in‐depth interviews of 14 dyads "child‐mother" confronted by four product innovations at a prototype stage, and a series of eight focus groups involving children from three to eight years old as well as their mothers. Children were very able to categorize food products by appreciating their different degrees of fun. The study led to the identification and coding of 13 key dimensions associated with "playfulness" and "fun" in a food product. The paper offers a heuristic operational tool to guide marketing managers and R&D teams in their exploration and testing of the possibilities/impossibilities in the association of "playfulness" and "fun" with food products aimed at children. The research demonstrates that some dimensions which characterize play cannot be directly applied to food products, and differentiates "playful" from "fun" by considering the intensity of the social interaction being developed through the food product or food consumption situation

Keywords: Consumption; Food products; Fun food (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Published in Young Consumers, 2010, Fun foods, 11 (2), pp.117-130. ⟨10.1108/17473611011065809⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01627904

DOI: 10.1108/17473611011065809

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