The Role of Digital Food Marketing in Shaping Consumer Behavior and Sustainability in Emerging Economies
In emerging economies, where smartphones and online platforms are spreading quickly, food brands have gained a powerful new lever over what people eat, not only which products they buy but whether they lean towards healthier and more sustainable choices. This chapter asks how far digital marketing can drive that shift, and what cultural and economic realities shape it.
Combining survey responses, interviews, and case analysis, it investigates how digital food marketing influences consumer preferences and how sustainability-focused campaigns can prompt real behavioural change. The chapter treats marketing innovation and consumer decision-making as intertwined, paying particular attention to the digital tools that can nudge people towards health-conscious and environmentally responsible consumption, while recognising that social, cultural, and economic conditions strongly affect how such campaigns land.
From this evidence the chapter draws practical guidance on optimising strategies to encourage healthier, more sustainable food choices, offering a roadmap for marketers, policymakers, and academics. Its wider contribution is to show how digital marketing, used deliberately, can support long-term sustainability goals across the global food sector.
Across emerging economies, digital food marketing is becoming a powerful influence on what people eat, with the potential to push consumers towards healthier and more sustainable choices. Drawing on survey, interview, and case-study evidence, the chapter examines how sustainability-focused campaigns drive behavioural change, and offers marketers and policymakers a roadmap for using digital tools to advance long-term food sustainability.
- In emerging economies, expanding access to smartphones and online platforms gives food businesses new ways to engage consumers and steer purchasing towards health-conscious and sustainable consumption patterns.
- Combining survey, interview, and case-study evidence, the chapter examines how sustainability-focused digital campaigns can drive genuine behavioural change rather than only awareness, treating marketing innovation and consumer decision-making as closely linked.
- Cultural, social, and economic conditions strongly shape how digital food campaigns are received, so the chapter stresses that strategies effective in one market cannot be assumed to transfer unchanged to another.
- The chapter offers a practical roadmap for marketers, policymakers, and academics, showing how digital tools, applied deliberately, can encourage healthier, environmentally responsible food choices and support long-term sustainability goals.
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