Hertfordshire Business School
Full Time PhD Fee Waiver Studentship
Social Media, Food Marketing and Eating Habits: What Role for Social Marketing?
High obesity rates and growing food-related non-communicable diseases in both children and adults are leading to a substantial health, societal and economic burden. Eating behaviour is influenced by a range of factors at the individual, micro, meso and macro-environmental levels. Persuading individuals to adopt healthier diets is a complex issue, and social marketing deals with understanding how to tackle such issues. Conceptually, social marketing focuses on how behaviour change is influenced by social, psychological and cultural factors. Practically, social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviours that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good. The food industry has come under criticism for deploying sophisticated marketing strategies to motivate consumers to purchase unhealthy foodstuffs, such as highly processed products rich in fat, sugar and salt. Increasingly these marketing strategies involve extensive use of online social media as well as conventional marketing techniques.
The research aims are to explore the current state of commercial food marketing on social media, to investigate current social marketing initiatives to promote healthy eating, and, to examine what influence these factors have on social media users’ eating habits. How do social media users interact online with food brands and social media food marketing, and how does this influence their eating behaviours? What are the implications for social marketing and other initiatives to change behaviour towards healthy eating? A focus on vulnerable groups, such as children and the less well-off, is likely. It is expected that this research project will contribute towards advancing and broadening the theoretical scope for developing positive and sustainable behaviour change by means of social marketing.
A mixed methods approach is likely to be appropriate which can include a combination of qualitative, quantitative, experimental research design and eye-tracking technology (eye-tracking equipment and training are available).
Applicant Requirements
• Completed UH application form, including two academic references.
• A research proposal on ‘Social media, food marketing and eating habits: what role for social marketing?’ of approximately 2000 words and including rationale for the topic of study; research aims; methods; expected contribution to knowledge.
• Copies of qualification certificates and transcripts.
• A copy of your passport.
• Candidates for whom English is not their first language will require certification of English language competence (minimum IELTS 6.5 or equivalent).
Applicants should have at least an upper second-class honours degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. marketing, psychology, sociology, food-related studies). A Masters degree in a relevant field will be advantageous.
This fee waiver studentship is open only to Home UK/EU nationals.
For an application form see:
For enquiries regarding research degrees at the University of Hertfordshire and this application process, please email Abiha Nigath (). Abiha can also supply you with our PhD Schedule on request.
For enquiries concerning this studentship please email Dr Ariadne Kapetanaki ()
Please send completed applications to
Deadline for applications: 5 July 2017. Interviews will be held 18-21st, 24-26th July 2017. If you do not receive an invitation to interview by this time you may assume your application has been unsuccessful.