Correlations between Health and Communication Trends: An Analysis of the Impact on Swedish Supermarkets

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to examine the development of health trends in Sweden, since it is argued that they will prevail and even become more extreme in the near future. Supermarkets will have to understand the impact of those health trends on consumer behaviour and therefore are required to comprehend the sociological, cultural and psychological factors behind these. It is proclaimed that the current health trends stand in close connection to the developments within communication, since they are exacerbated by social media. This thesis uses the theory of new sociological institutionalism in order to examine the emergence of health trends and the trends within communication. It is the purpose of this thesis to understand how the decline of traditional institutions is influencing the development of both trends. It further seeks to evaluate how supermarkets can use the trends within communication in order to attract more customers. Moreover, the authors will provide suggestions regarding how supermarkets can best adopt current health trends to their marketing strategies. The authors used semi-structured interviews in order to obtain the best available knowledge for an analysis of the two trends. It was decided to collect empirical data from two groups of professionals, where the first one entailed academic researchers from different business areas and the second one consisted of managers and owners of Swedish supermarkets. This thesis discovered that institutional decline has given rise to an individualisation of society, which is using particular eating patterns as substitute for traditional structures. Furthermore, the authors argue that the online community on social media platforms has managed to create a new sense of belonging in a destructured society. It became apparent that supermarkets need to understand the trends within communication in order to successfully adopt the current health trends. Throughout this study, the authors came to the conclusion that the discipline of promotion is the most appropriate form of marketing in order to advertise products that are in line with current health trends.