10/31/10

Since i wasnt in class this week I can not comment on the exciting lecture i missed from Dr. Elder :(  However, what I have been thinking about this week, not necessarily related to branding, but to health communication marketing in general.  This week I was sick and able to stay home to watch some mid-day TV...not only are the shows awesome (um, hello divorce court!!!) but the commercials are very different and obviously aimed at the stay at home family members.  One commercial that I was able to catch was targeting Rheumatoid Arthritis patients and their physical exercise.  It was such a sophisticated commercial I almost thought i was watching an info-mercial about a piece of exercise equipment rather than a funded campaign to improve RA suffers physical activity.  The commercial really addressed all the problems and questions/concerns that RA suffers face (my mom's BFF was diagnosed in HS and I have grown up watching her struggle).  The website and subsequent physical activity plan was developed and implemented by the University of California, Berkeley and The Cooper Institute.  The activity plan is adjustable and has the capability to be tailored to the individual's needs and limitations by still stressing increasing physical activity for better health and increased joint mobility.  Here is the link to the website and the commercial...


http://myrafitkit.com/rheumatoid-arthritis-exercise-program.aspx

Janice's Reflection #8

Our group's creative juices are really beginning to flow! This weekend we brainstormed our print media ideas for our focus groups and we even posed as models for our own campaign posters. It was really interesting getting our thoughts down on paper for both groups (high and low involvement). We had to get ourselves in the right mind set for each group in order to create appropriate slogans. Like we learned in this week's readings, we want to be able to deliver on our promises and make sure we have memorable quotes. Branding is an important aspect of our project. Our group has to draw up creative ideas that will make our health campaign stand out among others.

I recently 'stumbled upon' this health campaign for HIV testing. What is it? It's a sticker that was unknowingly 'slapped' on the recipient's back. The result "In the first month of the campaign, there was an 80% increase in phone calls to the clinic; the calls resulted in 70% increase in HIV tests." My thoughts: simple and smart.

Credits: http://pzrservices.typepad.com/advertisingisgoodforyou/2007/01/page/2/

10.30

I thought this week's discussion about branding was interesting and perplexing all at the same time. When I think about how we all knew the words to some of the commercial jingals, and how I was able to recognize and associate the logos Dr. Elder showed us within a couple seconds of seeing it, I think these branding designs are genius. On the other hand, I feel kind of like a sheep in the crowd. The more we learn in this class, the more I am amazed at the way different campaigns target different audiences, and realize that I too am targeted in a specific population. When I wanted to be a doctor I used to think "if I know it and study it, it won't happen to me," and I somewhat feel that way now like "if I know what to recognize and how it works, I won't be as affected by the message." Yet every time I see the golden arches, I think about the steaming, golden, delicous chicken McNuggets in the TV commercials and how tasty they are.

I like what Dr. Elder said about keeping it simple, and when I think of the brands and messages that always stick out to me, they are simple but memorable. Our group met today and started designing our campaign products with our messages: "You are what you eat" for the High involvement group, and "Think about it..." for the low involvement group. I think we have some great ideas planned out for the posters we are going to use and I am confident that our message in combination with the pictures we have will show our audiences that healthy and delicious food substitutions are easy and smart.

One last note, I saw the commercial Whitmore's friend was in for Dominos and I think I liked the way Stephanie told it in class better than it was depicted on TV, although it had me thinking about Dominos the next time I saw spinach which made me laugh.

Branding

Have you ever wondered what it was about those two golden arches that made you automatically scream "McDonald's!" as a kid? Or why a simple check mark makes us think "Nike...Just do it!" How did a simple red addition symbol become associated with the American Red Cross? This is the great marketing miracle. Branding and creating a slogan that sticks is the goal of successful marketing firms. This is also what we are doing in health communication. Earlier today I was thinking about ways to effectively create a brand and slogan that would help our group come up with an effective health marketing campaign focused on increasing healthy eating habits and utilizing healthy substitutions. Dr. Elder gave really great advice. Simplicity is key. Something short and sweet that gets the point across. But who knew simplicity could be such a creatively complex process? How does one encompass such a big message without creating tunnel vision, or creating unnecessary restrictions to the message?

When we discussed the importance of simplicity I also thought it was, in some ways, contradictory to what we learn in this program. We are taught there are multiple levels that can affect a person's behavior. It's not just intrapersonal and interpersonal, its their environment and the policy and an effective intervention targets all these levels. Then how can we promote this, but then say that we should keep it extremely simple and not do too much at once. How does one balance this concept of working on multiple levels and multiple factors but create a brand or media campaign that is nothing more than basic? I guess that is the balancing act that an experienced health communicator can do efficiently. Let's see how we do...*fingers crossed*

Branding

I thought Manpreet's presentation today in class about the "VERB" campaign was pretty interesting. I had never heard about this campaign before (I guess not having cable TV may be one reason why). But I was really surprised to watch the video about the VERB yellow balls and the mission to promote physical activity among children. I was intrigued by how they came up with the idea of distributing balls to kids to encourage them to play outdoors, then log-on to the website to blog about their experience (at least those who have Internet access) and lastly pass the ball onto another friend via mail or in person. To me it seemed like a pretty novel even though only about 20% of kids passed the ball on. However, Dr. Elder brought up some good points about the branding of this campaign. I agree that the decision to use the word "VERB" as the brand/slogan didn't seem like an ideal choice to me to use in targeting children. Most adults don't even know the definition of the word and I highly doubt that kids know what it means. But on the other hand, I can understand the rationale for wanting to use a word that signifies action. Maybe selecting a word that children use to describe physical activity would have been a better approach in addition to using a symbol or logo that is easily identifiable.

I'm excited about working on our group messages. Hopefully we can incorporate our group name of "delish&nutrish" into the creative designs that we've brainstormed.

Reflection for 10/24

While I was not in class this week, I was at home deeply in thought about fear messages. Looking over the slides and the readings for this week, I was reminded about some discussions I have had with brother about quitting smoking. I often invoke the fact and fear arguments with him in trying to get him to quit smoking, and have failed pretty regularly. Now my brother would be considered low motivation to quit smoking and so I would normally think that a fear message would be on target for getting him motivated. However, as it turns out, money was the only thing that got him to quit. He figured out that if he stopped buying cigarettes, he would save so much more money each month that he could actually afford the things he likes on the weekends like golfing. I bring up this story because it reminds me that fear messages while affective with some groups, are equally as ineffective with other groups. Liz brought up an important point about how fear messages have often been good at stopping negative behaviors, but this experience with my brother, and the lecture slides mentioning that “too much fear = not effective” makes me think about our current project.

If our goal is to increase a positive behavior (selecting healthier options), we will simultaneously have to encourage decreasing a negative behavior (eating fat, crappy food). Therefore, I think I have just long-windedly expressed that fear messages will not be the way to go for our target audience, I think. I feel like if we move from the weight gain approach as Stephanie mentioned (ie you don’t want to gain the freshman 15), we are going to have a difficult time; Weight is something that can happen over such a period of time that people don’t notice it’s happening until those jeans they brought to college no longer fit. I think that this weight gain will not only be something that is “too much fear” for some but just plain out of sight for others. I think if we use the freshman 15 approach we are going to have to use that with the group that already has some involvement/ motivation as it is likely they are already thinking about this when they make their healthier food substitutions.

I like the idea of a humor or even slice-of-life approach, especially with our target audience. However we are going to have to be very thoughtful as to how we frame this message to our audience in order to be most effective.

Framing Messages

The article by Tversky & Kahneman (1981) was so confusing! As I was reading it, I just kept thinking about the TV show called "Numb3rs" because there was so much math concepts and terminology involved their explanations. Luckily, the Rothman (1999) article was much easier to follow and understand.

I agree with Janice that for our group's nutritional message, gain-framed may best. Focusing on the benefits of a healthy diet (i.e. increasing fruits and veggies) and how they can prevent the negative health consequences will be key. Hmm... what could our selling point be? Avoiding the freshman 15?

In class as we were discussing the use of humor in health messages, I had a really hard time trying to recall a particular ad that used that approach. But then I remembered a video clip we watched in class a couple of weeks ago. It was the one about the kid throwing a tantrum in the grocery store. The first time I watched it I never predicted it would be about a commercial about condoms. But at the end of the clip, I chuckled and laughed at the surprise ending. I'm sure not everyone was amused by the ad but I thought it was a good example of how humor can be incorporated into a message, even it it's only for a few seconds.

Janice's Reflection #7

Children are our future! One day when we're old and gray, today's youth with be the ones taking care of us old folks. I love kids! I don't have my own yet, but already dream about one day having my own. So, for the mean time, I borrow my little cousins, nieces and nephews and grandchildren and allow them to teach me everyday life lessons. They are little sponges that absorb everything... which is why we must always watch what we're saying when we're around them. Children, in general, are the reason why I decided to take upon grad school. I am so passionate about protecting our youth's health and educating our public with skill sets they can use to prolong our children's lives.

I couldn't help but share the following Youtube link that used child actors to promote health and of course advertise the health insurance company:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wowJsEM7Blk

The funniest, yet most important point that is made on the video is at the very end when the African American boy states "we're doing business here." That phrase means many things to me, but mainly that we can't take our health for granted.

This week's readings touched on gain vs. loss framed messages. Depending on your target audience and target behavior change, deciding which of the two types is critical in allowing people to have the efficacy to make the proper lifestyle change(s). In our project, I'm currently brainstorming gain-framed messages. Since eating for most people is an enjoyable action to partake on a daily basis, I would like our group to promote the 'gains' of increasing fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, etc. I currently have message ideas in my head, which I hope our focus group will approve.

Fear tactics reflection

This week our readings and class lecture were about the use of fear tactics within health communications.   Personally, this is one of my favorite tools to use to elicit behavior change.  For me, fear is an effective motivator to either engage or terminate a behavior.  The video that Brian showed during his presentation was actually the reason why I stopped texting while driving.  There is a lot of literature and studies that state that fear tactics are not effective in increasing positive behavior.  To me, it seems like the only real way to convince people to stop negative health behaviors.  The concepts Brian discussed in his presentation also correlate with the fact that people are motivated by fear and by addressing it we as public health specialists can use it to our advantage.

Another construct identified this week was humor in marketing strategies and if it might be applicable to health promotion communication.  Be a jester myself, I think that humor is a great way to catch attention.  Looking back on social marketing in the 40s and 50s, they would never have been caught dead using humor in their ads for fear of possibly insulting someone.  Depending on your audience i think both fear and humor can be used effectively to influence behavior change

Framing a Message

Framing a message in a way that is simple, easy to understand, and focused on impacting your target audience in however you may want seems like a no-brainer. But the truth of the matter is, different people are affected by different messages depending on how they are relayed. Our target population for the nutrition campaign is college students. As a group we need to focus on what is important to college age students with low and high involvement in their nutrition beliefs and behaviors. Since undergrad was not a long long time ago I try to think on what types of ads affect me most when it comes to my nutrition and health and why they affect me the way they do.


Kaiser Permanente's Thrive Campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tNlSKfLO2o

This campaign is short and sweet. "THRIVE" because that is what people want to do. Don't just live, but thrive! Live well. And this commercial is simple, not much is said, but it motivates me to go out and be active.

With fear tactics...I was suprised to hear there was only a slight impact. I feel that if it scares me I tend to remember it. Red Aspalt made me weary of bad drivers and bad driving...this is your brain on drugs promoted my feelings about anti-substance abuse messages and behaviors. But my question is, is this because my involvement is already high? Does it only have little effects for those with low involvement? If you think about it, it would makes sense. I am already against certain behaviors and ads that emphasize why it should be scary should only enforce my pre-existing ideas. But it doesn't seem like the article Brian discussed in class looked at this factor. I think this would be an interesting aspect to look into because it can really impact the way one reacts to a health message.

We also talked about how ineffective humor seems to be. I feel that makes sense. If you think about funny commercials, can you recall who's advertisement it was? What was being advertised? If you remember, was it because you it was the first time you heard of the product? If you are anything like me...probably not. Everyone remember's the Budweiser frog commercial but it's probably because Budweiser is already a well known product, and the advertisement is used more for product placement and a reminder of yes we're still around. But it doesn't seem like new products start with humor as a their main form of advertisements.

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a group of super heroes, all of whom wanted to change the world. In a span of a few weeks, this large cohort divided into 3 divisions and decided to tackle different issues plaguing their world. Well, something like that. The truth is, this week our class was taught how powerful storytelling can be. It can transform someone's detailed, boring, tedious, data-driven (albeit super important and informative) presentation into the most exciting thing since Glee! (maybe...) The point is, I think the video that we watched in class this week was eye opening. As a graduate student, I have had many years of sitting in lecture halls and seminars being bored out of my mind (not in this program...obviously this was undergrad :P). You would think as someone on the other side of the podium, I could come up with the idea of storytelling on my own. But I suppose it's something we are never really taught. The truth is, in research, presentations are short and to the point, and you need data to back up any claims to fame you make. The concept of starting with something tangible, that everyone can relate is so simple, but so easily taken for granted. This is a great idea, and I hope to perfect the art of storytelling throughout my career. I espeically would like to work directly with communities, and this is definitely an approach I feel I should familiarize myself with.

I personally really appreciated watching that video/lecture last week. Hopefully I will put it into practice sooner rather than later, as I try to find the story behind all the data I encounter in the world of research so that I may remember the method behind the maddness of what we do...and that is to impact real people with real problems and concerns.

Post for 10.17

This week definitely had a focus on presentations for me. I thought the video we watched was great because I feel like storytelling is something I am always engaged in when I watch other's presentations, but it was nice to have that validation of it being a great presentation skill. In regards to our class presentations it was nice to see how everyone else was interpreting their information and also how they arranged it into one cohesive presentation; as our group went first I was able to reflect on ways we could have improved our own presentation and I think that will help in the next part of our project.

I also had two work presentations this week which I felt more nervous about. One of them was the first meeting with parents that I was able to facilitate myself and I received great feedback from my work mentor. The other presentation was for my teaching credential class in which I had to show video of myself teaching, which was a very strange experience. I thought this was really helpful though for evaluating how I present not only to students but to other groups as well. I think long term professionally speaking it could be beneficial to record myself practicing presentations before I actually have to give them. I know presentations are something I will have to do in my future career, whether it is informally to students or more formally to PH professionals. I thought this week was a great way to start evaluating presentations skills.

Reflection on Storytelling

I'm really glad that we watched the video clip in class about storytelling. Prior to class, I skimmed through the author's book on bad presentations. The info from the book was helpful but for me the video was more impactful and helped me grasp the author's argument about the power of storytelling. I liked the example the author highlighted in the video involving the wordy, detailed PowerPoint presentation. It's definitely something that I could relate to from having personally designed a few of my own wordy presentations and from viewing others as an audience member. But what I really found helpful was how the author framed presentations around the idea of "storytelling". Everyone has a story. Either you are listening to someone's story, retelling a story, or telling your own story. For instance, in the Native American culture storytelling is part of the traditional knowledge of sharing information orally and passing it on from one generation to another. As the video demonstrated a lot of information can be conveyed from oral communication.

I also liked how the physical activity group applied some of the storytelling tips into their presentation. The cliché that "a picture is worth a thousand words" is so true when composing a PowerPoint slide. I've personally struggled with making short and concise presentations in the past, even recently with my 663 article presentation. I find that I tend to get overwhelmed with trying to convey lots of information to others and unfortunately I rely on slides with a lot of textual informational. But in the future, I hope to try and apply some of the storytelling skills that I learned about from the video.

Janice's Reflection #6

This past week's presentations allowed for good feedback from our professor as well as our fellow classmates. We viewed a short video that offered a helpful tip when giving a presentation. The point of this video was that 'storytelling' makes a presentation. I completely agree. In my professional work, I myself, have given my own personal story about growing up with dental disease during my young childhood years. I work for a children's dental disease prevention program and once I've captured the audience's attention with my personal testimony, they realize that dental disease is real and can happen to anyone if preventive measures aren't used.

Once we receive our classmates' feedback about our presentation, our group will be able to make our project more efficient and effective. We are already learning that project planning is an arduous task. It will be exciting once we start on the finer details of our project.

presentation skills

This week's class was on presentations and presentation skills.  As we know this class is about proper communication and presentation skills.  In class we watched a video given by a professional speech coach.  His presentation skills were amazing.  Learning all the little tid bits that make up a great speech are important.  I used to think that presentation skills were all about the person and that anyone could deliver a great presentation is they were a skilled public speaker.  After 6 weeks of instruction I am learning that I was wrong, and that is a hard thing for me to admit!  I have noticed my fellow classmates grow in their presentation skills just by digesting the information presented in PH 663.  Of course I still think that in the moment when the rush of adrenaline hits you as you are about to "take the stage" will probably wipe all your known skills from your mind...setting yourself up for a good presentation with key constructs will help tremendously.

In our field, giving a comprehensive, information rich yet attention keeping and fun presenting is the holy grail.  In my work with the Health Promotion Department within Student Health Services, I have learned on the fly how to adapt a presentation to the audience intended.  I recently gave a presentation to a sorority on campus about alcohol safety.  Throughout the presentation I tried to tie in the aspect of civil responsibility and love for their fellow sisters.  I hope that they took away the important messages from my presentation.  After seeing the video in class, I can only hope that it helped.

Janice's Reflection # 5

Health literacy is an important topic to review. It doesn't surprise me that those who have the highest medical expenses are those (patients) that have the hardest time understanding their health care provider in terms of medical conditions and prescriptions. Through conversation, I hear about my friends' experiences about doctor's visits and how they always feel rushed. In reality, we seem to wait in the waiting room longer than it takes to be diagnosed with the flu, an ear infection or any other kind of medical ailment. So, patients feel too rushed by their medical provider to ask questions regarding their medical regimen or any other questions they may have to better understand their conditions. I feel that medical providers should practice taking their time so that their patient better understands how to take care of him/herself when they are at home. But, this would mean that medical providers would not be able to see as many patients in a day as they would like.

Word-of-mouth communication is an easy way to advertise a product or service. I, myself, have been asked numerous times by my friends about where good places are to eat (and by good, this includes: taste of food, customer service, and price of the meal). I am always happy to tell them about good experiences I have had certain restaurants. However, there are times when I've had unsatisfactory experiences and I will let my friends know about them. I feel that I'm just 'looking out' for them so that they may spend their money on something more worth while.

Now that our group is getting into the meat and potatoes of our project getting out there doing interviews and surveys, it will be important to keep the two topics above in our minds. Word-of-mouth communication would be especially important if the dining hall begin serving healthier alternatives, students would need to spread the word about this added portion to the menu which would make the on-campus dining hall more appealing to eat at.

10/10 Reflection

I also found this week’s readings interesting and informative. Since I work at a school I sometimes try to think of how what we are reading about and discussing in 663 translates into my classrooms. This week I kept thinking about the material I designed for our health class at the school and whether or not the readability level is appropriate. We learned about the SMOG readability guidelines in 662 last semester but I did not think about the impact of the reading level on the literacy acquisition for my students. I am looking forward to using the website to help restructure the reading level of my health curriculum.

It is interesting too to consider Manpreet’s point about our current medical literature and material reflecting an actual 5^th or 6^th grade reading level. I think about the materials I give out in my health class to my students and I do not really think that reading level is at 5^th or 6^th grade level. I think for the most part those in the health communication field have been moderately successful in designing materials that speak to these literacy levels, however, I definitely feel like there is more work to be done.

10/10/10 Reflection

Last week's readings were interesting and they made me evaluate how information is shared with patients and among patients in the clinic where I work. Last year in 662 I learned about SMOG and how the average adult reading level is around the 6th grade. But I've never actually reviewed the brochures and print materials at my work to analyze the reading level. Now, I'm interested in scoring some of the materials against the SMOG guidelines to find out if the information is appropriate for average reading level or too high. From my experience in the clinic, I have also learned how important word-of-mouth communication can be when assisting patients one-on-one and between patients-to-patients. Sometimes when assisting patients one-on-one, I notice that patients will opt out of taking print materials during their visit (maybe for some of the reasons Manpreet highlighted). Therefore, verbal communication becomes extremely important. Also, many patients that I've met have said that they were referred to the clinic via word-of-mouth from their friends or family who had a positive experience. While on the other hand, if a patient has a negative experience at the clinic their word-of-mouth feedback can influence the potential outcome that another person does not visit the clinic.

Nowadays, word-of-mouth communication can also be shared via technology (email, cell phone, and internet). Among our target population of on-campus undergrad students, we've learned that internet usage (i.e. Facebook) is the most popular form of media. Considering the antecedents and consequences for this type of word-of-mouth approach will be important for our group project.

Effective Health Communication

Have you ever gone to the doctor's office and given some kind of brochure or handout that you didn't quite understand? How about those slips of paper that have prescription info on it? Do you even read them? Most of don't...why? If you ever have (if you haven't you probably should), you will see why you didn't want to read it in the first place. Some prescriptions look like they are going to do more harm than good, and some informational brochures leave you with more questions than answers. Now think about your parents or grandparents. Do they struggle with medical information that they receive?

The reality is most Americans have a average literacy of 5th or 6th grade. Does our medical material reflect this? In most cases it does not. What is a consent form? What does it mean if you are high risk? What is moderate vs. vigorous exercising? These words and phrases are not everyday jargon, and can easily go over one's head. The issue tackled this week in our Health Communication class is to be aware of this concept of the level of health literacy in the populations we deal with. You may think, well duh! But you would quite surprised to find that most health professionals forget to leave their jargon in the break room. This week's big lesson is keep it simple. It sounds simple enough, but can be harder to do if your profession is surrounded with terminology. The key is to remember the show: Are You Smarter Than a 6th Grader? The smarts and experience may be there...but for most of those who watch that show...you have probably learned we definitely need to simply those questions and make them applicable to everyone. The same needs to be done with our health communication messages.

Reflection week 6

Health literacy is one of the biggest barriers to my Health Promotion work.  To me, Healthy literacy is less about what language they speak but how well the audience can absorb the material.  In the readings we did this week, the authors spoke of key concepts when trying to adjust for health literacy (mother tongue, laymen language, and pictures) i think these are the building blocks that make up a good health campaign.   I personally have created campaign material for various events as well as informational handouts.  Coming from an MPH level, trying to dumb down prescription medication interactions or the biology behind BAC is a little difficult.  Also I constantly have to remind myself that these people dont have the background knowledge i have and obviously would not make the same decisions.

Currently I am working with the VIIDAI program to build an intervention focusing on tick eradication and prevention within a small colonia in Baja Mexico.  Health Literacy is probably one of the biggest factors we face down there.  Being able to explain a virus and how to properly destroy a tick and why are complicated.  The basis for our mission relies on effectively communicating information to a large number of people.  Most of the people in this colonia have only finished the 3rd grade and most are indigenous to central mexico and dont speak traditional spanish.  This presents a whole bag of worms on its own.  Using the advice and techniques from the readings should alleviate some stress on how to address these people.

** When working with our nutritional audience i think health literacy will come into play in the form of how we address the students.  Giving them the information and guidance without being overbearing or hard to understand.  Luckily our target audience is pretty much at the higher education level (some ;) ) it should be too hard.  **

The Art of Segmentation

This week, we focused on audience segmentation. It's a really interesting concept to generate data based on geographic location, habits, hobbies. If I'm understanding it correctly, it's kind of similar to how those ads end up on the sides of your screen when you are on facebook. Some mysterious source (I really don't know what it is exactly...) follows what I search on my computer and like magic I get related ads and links on the sides of my screen. For example, if I go on forever21.com one too many times, my side panels become flooded with where I should shop for new clothes and find great deals. I, like Stephanie, had no idea when asked about my zipcode, stores were tracking my behaviors. I agree with Megan. I was sure it was because they wanted to see how many consumers came from certain areas so they can send me "junk" mail.

Buuut...in someways, to me, this concept of clumping audience data can act as a double edged sword. A good way to explain it is thinking about stereotypes. They are usually generated for a reason (not to hate on Asian drivers or Indian engineers), but they aren't always accurate. I think it's important to realize that clumping can be more effective and cost efficient, but what we should remember is not all Asians are crazy drivers, and not all Indians become engineers...some become Doctors. :D okay not all become Doctors either...some go for their MPH like myself. :P

Overall the concept of segmentation is great, if used properly. There are more and less effectives way of segmenting, like our articles says. Sometimes demographics play a vital role in tailoring a message, but sometime the stronger impact is based on beliefs. I guess, the best way to segment, is to look at what's been done and proven effective, and conduct formative research and effectively analyze your own results. Then take both results and combine them to create your own summary of your target audience. Or at least that's what I'm hoping.

Reflection: Week (idk what week it is)

this week we read about audience segmentation and how it is important when implementing and evaluating interventions.  Honestly, when I first started ready the articles all I kept thinking was "Wow this sounds like  they are just homogenizing the target population and tailoring their efforts exactly" almost like a cop-out.  To me it seems extremely difficult to get a completely homogenous audience.  Coming from someone with field experience (MOI) I know that even when you are breaking down a population into smaller more manageable groups, getting a completely similar audience is very difficult.  the amount of time and energy spent on tailoring the needs to the group exactly seems tedious and not worth it.  Looking at it from an evaluation standpoint, being able to target your audience so well and keep the material relevant seems immeasurable.
**
when thinking about how we can incorporate segmentation into our project, there are a lot of ideas that come to mind.  First I think we might be able to address the students based on a stages of change model.  whereas depending on whether or not they even want to eat healthier options vs those who havent thought about it.  maybe targeting men vs women because their eating habits are different.  After I tall with some RAs i feel like I should have a clearer picture as to how we might be able to incorporate segmentation into our program plan.

Janice's Reflection #4

Our team is getting ready to survey our target population. In order to conduct our survey, we are brainstorming questions that can fine-tune our project in a way to segment our audience. We will need to ask creative yet simple questions on a Likert scale survey so we can find out who is dining at the dining halls. Audience segmentation allows us to tailor our health program to the individuals in our target population based on an assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. As we have already witnessed, in a 'private investigation' of our campus dining hall, fresh fruits and vegetables are not as readily available as our team would like. Once our team segments our target population, we will be able to figure out how to implement a behavior change.

In our class discussion, the business marketing tool was quite interesting. I found myself looking up zip codes around San Diego to check out how they described the population. It was entertaining to see where people shopped for clothes, what products they searched for online, and what make and model of car was typical for that area. I found out that where in live (Alpine/Rural suburb of San Diego), sounds like the boondocks where the older folks order from L.L. Bean, watch Antiques Roadshow, ride AARP magazine, drive GMC Yukon Denali's and non-Hispanic White. This was such a crack up since we are one of just a handful of Filipino families in Alpine who definitely don't fit these criteria!

Week 5 Reflection

I also found this weeks discussion on segmentation interesting. I had always thought that marketing companies had used demographic information to target different audiences, but never really thought about how they did this. It is interesting this idea of zip-code segmentation, but also as we discussed in class the segmentation based on lifestyle, behavior, media use and so on. I thought it was really helpful for understanding to review the “Dimensions of Segmentation” slides and the “Segmentation Process” slides again.

For our group project, I think Stephanie is correct in thinking there will not be much segmentation based on geographic distribution as we are only looking at on campus or off campus. I think we are going to need to be more creative in our segmentation efforts for our audience and this is something we definitely need to discuss when we meet as a group on Monday. One idea we could think about depending on what we find with our gatekeeper interviews, is possible segmentation based on audience attitudes or readiness stage.

10/3 reflection

The main idea that I took away from this week's topic of audience segmentation was that one, single social marketing approach does not effectively serve the collective target audience. Basically, in planning a health program it is important to first know what types of segments or subgroups exist with the target population. Audience segmentation is one technique that can be used to identify common characteristics among subgroups in relation to a variety of variables including demographics, behavior, and psychographics. Initially when I first read the articles by Slater and Maibach, I compared segmentation to the idea of analyzing the segments based on the principles of the stages of change model. Yet, an additional layer of segmentation that can be helpful is learning what message and communication channel preferences exist among different subgroups for program planning purposes.

I was surprised to learn how zip code information obtained in retail stores is actually collected and used for the PRIZM market segmentation. I guess I never really thought about why cashiers at certain stores sometimes ask me for my zip code. I just thought it was so they could continue to send me coupons in mail. But now I know they were just trying to analyze my shopping behavior for segmentation purposes!

The target audience for our group project is students living on-campus. Therefore we can anticipate that the only variance in geographic information for this audience will be based on whether or not students live in a dorm room or on-campus apartment. But I think it will be interesting to learn about the different behaviors, attitudes and knowledge among this population of students. In addition it will be important to learn about channel and media preferences for nutrition information and whether or not these are being currently met by campus offices.