School of Marketing, Tourism and Leisure Publications

Appealing to Positive Motivations and Emotions in Social Marketing: Example of a Positive Parenting Campaign

Nadine Henley et al. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:23:38 PST

The decision whether to adopt a positive or negative appeal is fundamental to all social marketing campaigns. There is no universal agreement on what constitutes a"positive" and "negative" appeal, though the terms are used frequently by practitioners(Donovan, Henley, Jalleh & Slater, 1995). In the literature, positive appeals aregenerally considered to be appeals eliciting or promising positive emotions as a resultof using a product or adopting a recommended behavior. Conversely, negative appeals are considered to be those eliciting or promising negative emotions as a result of not using the product or adopting the behavior.The effective use of negative emotions such as fear has been researched extensively since the 1950s (see reviews by Higbee, 1969; Sutton, 1982, 1992; Boster &Mongeau, 1984; Job, 1988; LaTour & Zahra, 1988). There is some controversy over the use of fear in social marketing, particularly high levels of fear that may induce defensive or maladaptive responses in the target audience (Stuteville, 1970; Job, 1988).A few studies have examined the relative effectiveness of positive vs negative appeals(Brooker, 1981; Menasco & Baron, 1981; Donovan et al., 1995) while a number ofstudies have looked at positive and negative message framing (e.g., Maheswaran &Meyers-Levy, 1990; Block & Keller, 1995). However, to our knowledge, there is little research on the effective use of positive appeals per se in social marketing. This paper presents the theoretical basis for appealing to positive motivations and emotions, and evaluates a recent positive parenting campaign conducted by the Western AustralianFamily and Children's Services.

The Prevalence And Usefulness Of Market Research - An Empirical Investigation Into 'Background' Versus 'Decision' Research

R. Ganeshasundaram et al. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:20:19 PST

Using information effectively has become a critical determinant for gaining competitive advantage and enhancing business performance. The type and extent to which market research information is used can play a significant role in a firm's level of performance. Surprisingly, little empirical research has been conducted on the usefulness of market research. This paper examines the prevalence of type ('background' and 'decision' research) and perceived usefulness of market research commissioned for enhancing business performance. Information relating to 6036 research projects collected from 68 organisations was reviewed, and a sample of 1550 market research projects was selected for the study. The data were collected by personal interviews and a mail questionnaire relating to 1550 projects on four dimensions of 'usefulness' (overall usefulness, actionable, value and market understanding) and on respondents' level of 'involvement' on those projects. 'Background research' predominates over 'decision research' as a research activity, but was regarded as less useful by managers over the first three dimensions of usefulness. This result was not compromised by the extent of manager involvement. The result was more marked when the dimensionality of the ratings was studied using a factor analysis. The study has produced evidence that if the current emphasis on 'background research' were to shift to 'decision research' then market research would be deemed more useful by managers.

Executing Effective Road Safety Advertising: Are Big Production Budgets Necessary?

R. J. Donovan et al. — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:47:47 PST

Twelve (12) road safety television commercials (TVCs) ranging in production costs from $A15 000 to $A250 000 (current prices) were evaluated using standard advertising pre-test procedures. The twelve ads covered four road safety behaviours (speeding; drink driving; fatigue; and inattention), and included a variety of executional types within and across behaviours. One ad in each of the four behaviours was an expensive TAC ad ($A200 000 or more). The testing procedure assessed respondents’ self-reported impact of the ad on their future intentions to comply with the road safety behavior advocated in the ad. Just under 1000 appropriately screened motor vehicle drivers license holders were recruited via street intercept methods and randomly allocated to one of the twelve ad exposure conditions. The results showed that while the two best performing ads were highly dramatic TAC ads showing graphic crash scenes, these were also the most expensive ads to produce, and, being 60 and 90 s, the most expensive to air. In several cases, 30 s low cost talking heads testimonials performed equally as well as their far more expensive counterparts. We conclude that big production budgets may not be necessary to create effective road safety advertising.

Social Marketing of Anti-Drug Messages: Keeping the Parental Distribution Channel Open

Fiona Perman et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:48:13 PST

Social marketing campaigns targeting parents of young people encourage parents to act as a social marketing distribution channel, providing messages about drug use to their children. For parents to be effective distribution channels they must be seen as a credible source of information on drug issues. Eight focus groups were conducted with male and female groups (18-24 years old) in four user levels: non-user, light-user, regular users, ex-user. Non-users reported open communication with parents and saw them as having high source credibility. However, users did not appear to have open communication channels with their parents, and source credibility was low. This paper suggests that reduced communication between users and their parents is, in part, a consequence of the child’s decision to use marijuana, and that asking parents to act as a distribution channel for prohibitive messages could be damaging family connectedness where marijuana use does occur. Damaging family connectedness increases young people’s exposure to a range of harmful behaviours (Resnick, et al., 1997). Given the failure of drug policies to dissuade the majority of young people from trying marijuana, this paper recommends that social marketing strategies focus on reinforcing family connectedness, regardless of drug use behaviour.

Why Do Children Change Their Minds About Smoking? Child Development Theory Applied To Social Marketing Practice.

Calvin Wang et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:43:46 PST

Anti-smoking efforts generally provide information on the health consequences of smoking to ‘inoculate’ children against tobacco use. These strategies appeal to children’s cognitive processes but do not recognise that children of different ages are at varying stages of cognitive development or that children go through stages in their conceptions of illness. These stages could determine how behavioural health consequences are understood. We are attempting to understand why children abandon previously held negative attitudes toward smoking by exploring their cognitive stages of development. This study presents data from individual interviews with 73 children from Perth schools aged 10 and 15 years on smokingrelated illness concepts. Our findings clearly indicate that children of 10 years (concrete logical stage) conceptualise the consequences of smoking differently from 15 year olds (formal logical stage). Results suggest that social marketers should design anti-smoking messages for children that are stage-appropriate.

Marketing Anti-Smoking Messages to " Hard-Core ", Older Smokers: Differences in Male and Female Attitudes

Debora Brown et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:41:33 PST

This study focused on gender differences in 40-50 year old smokers’ attitudes towards threats in anti-smoking messages. This age group of smokers has received relatively little attention in the social marketing/threat appeal literature to date, partly because their ‘hard core’ attitudes are perceived as difficult to change by social marketing and medical practitioners. We conducted four focus groups with male and female, 40 to 50 year old regular smokers. Significant gender differences were articulated in attitudinal response to threats in antismoking messages. Men in this study revealed anxiety, shame and a sense of helplessness about their smoking behaviour. Women in this study exhibited inhibitory fear, anger and resentment, and were more likely to express cognitive rationalisations for smoking. The implications for social marketing practitioners and researchers are that market segmentation on the basis of gender is advisable when designing anti-smoking campaigns targeted at older smokers

Marketing the Anti-Drug Message: Source Credibility Varies by Use/Non-Use of Marijuana

F. Perman et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:38:20 PST

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of marijuana use on the acceptance of social marketing, anti-drug messages in the young adult age group. Eight focus groups were conducted with male and female groups (18-24 years old) in four user levels: non-user, light-user, regular users, ex-user. As predicted, non-users accepted the messages although they believed that social marketing had not influenced their decisions to reject marijuana use. For many in the user categories, source credibility was only seen to exist when the source itself had personal marijuana-use experience. Government sourced social marketing messages, school-based and parental sources were perceived to be biased and out of touch. The exception was medical professionals and medical websites, which some believed would provide confidential, factual and trustworthy information. Present strategies to prevent marijuana use may be ineffectual in creating behaviour change for the user groups, and have limited value as a preventative influence. This research offers support to an increased role for medical practitioners and promotion of independent web-sites that provide balanced, factual information and harm minimisation advice.

Unintended Consequences of Arousing Fear in Social Marketing

Nadine Henley et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:35:24 PST

The intention of social marketers, by definition, is to contribute to social good. However, an unintended consequence of the frequent use of fear-arousal in social marketing may be the creation of a sense of helplessness both in the target market and in unintended markets. Arousing fear may be counterproductive when attempting to persuade some people to abandon anxiety-soothing, addictive behaviours, such as smoking, drug and alcohol use (Firestone 1994) and may lead to counterproductive, fatalistic thinking and maladaptive responses (Job 1988; Rippetoe & Rogers 1987). The possibility that fear arousal creates helplessness is an important issue for marketing in the next millennium. Helplessness has been shown to be a major factor in depression (Seligman 1975) and depression is acknowledged by the World Health Organisation as one of the world’s primary health problems. The paper presents the case for appealing to positive motivations and emotions as a way to minimise the negative impact of using threat appeals in social marketing. A methodology for systematically testing the relative effectiveness of positive vs negative appeals is described.

Gender Differences in Tourism Destination: Implications for Tourism Marketers

Marie Ryan et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:46:43 PST

This paper examines the criteria that males and females use to make tourism destination choices and whether such differences result in different destination preferences. Males and females may apply different criteria to make tourism destination choices. Respondents were asked to rank eight popular WA holiday destinations, using twelve attributes. Comparisons between males and females were conducted using t-tests, perceptual mapping and external preference analysis. Females rated each attribute consistently more important than males and, overall, consistently high. This finding is interpreted with reference to Meyers- Levy’s (1986) selectivity hypothesis and related to other research in the marketing context on information processing. It is recommended that marketers recognise that there are gender differences in information processing when designing tourism destination marketing campaigns.

Young People's Response To Death Threat Appeals: Do They Really Feel Immortal?

Nadine Henley et al. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:42:44 PST

Threat appeals are used frequently in health promotion, with threats of (premature) death common in some areas, e.g. "quit smoking or you’ll die". There is a common notion that young people feel they are immortal. Accordingly, we investigated whether young people would respond less to threats of death than to non-death threats and whether younger people would respond less to death threats than older people. This study was conducted with smokers in two age groups (16–25 and 40–50 years). Each respondent was exposed to one message about the threat of emphysema, either a death or non-death message. Younger smokers did not respond more to non-death threats than death threats and expressed a higher level of response to all threats than older smokers. It would appear that death threats are effective with young people and so we conclude that they do not feel immortal. An additional finding was that older females responded significantly more to non-death threats than older males. Death threats may not be effective with older females and a segmentation approach may be advisable when targeting older people using death threats in health promotion campaigns.

Marketing Physical Activity to Older People: Attitudes towards " Incidental Activity. "

Joan Jackson et al. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:59:38 PST

The National Physical Activity Guidelines (NPAG) were launched in 1999 to encourage increased physical activity in the general population as a way of improving health and reducing preventable disease in Australia. One of the guidelines, ‘Be active every day in as many ways as you can’ encourages an increase in incidental activity, such as parking further away from the shops, getting up to turn the channel on the TV, etc. Older people are an important sub-group of the overall target market because being active into old age can mean extended independence and quality of life. We investigated older people’s attitudes to the incidental activity recommendation. Eight focus groups were conducted with male and female, ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ older people in two age groups. We found that older people generally thought of physical activity as something extra to do, but were receptive to the idea that many of their current activities could be classed as incidental physical activity. More positive attitudes towards physical activity were expressed by participants and less guilt. We suggest that shopping malls can provide an ideal venue for marketing the incidental activity recommendation to older people.

Targeting Seniors for Social Marketing Communications: Recommendations for Falls Prevention Messages

Nadine Henley et al. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:53:29 PST

The marketing implications of ageing populations around the world have received growing research attention in recent years. The opportunities presented by the emerging shifts in age distribution have ensured that the physical and psychological changes that occur with ageing have been examined in terms of demand forecasts for a variety of goods and services. The social marketing implications of this demographic trend, however, remain largely unexplored. We consider the characteristics of older people in terms of the needs of this audience for falls prevention information. In Australia in 1998, around 1,000 deaths and nearly 50,000 hospitalisations were caused by falls, and this health burden is expected to increase as life expectancy increases. There are many reports of clinical and occupational therapy programs designed to reduce the number of falls and the risk of injury from falls but, as yet, the value of social marketing in this context has not been reported in the literature. We consider some of the social marketing implications in raising awareness of falls without raising unnecessary fear of falling (itself a risk factor for falls), and the appropriate execution elements when targeting seniors. We use the Stay On Your Feet WA campaign as a case study.

Marketing the Anti-Smoking Message to Immigrant Adolescents: Are Cultural Values Risk or Protective Factors?

Raguragavan Ganeshasundaram et al. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:35:30 PST

One of the keys to successful social marketing is segmentation, the process of identifying appropriate subgroups so that a marketing mix can be designed to match their specific needs. This paper reports an investigation into smoking intentions amongst Sri Lankan immigrant adolescents living in Western Australia. Four focus group discussions were conducted to explore how cultural values are expressed in this group’s beliefs and attitudes towards smoking and non-smoking and how these values may influence their smoking-related behaviour. We investigated what smoking means to Sri Lankan teenagers and the protective or risk factors that may influence their decision to smoke or not smoke. Most of the participants had never tried a cigarette. Females and males attached similar values to smoking, arising from their perceived social norms and cultural contexts. These values appeared to protect them against smoking uptake. However, differences were found between male and female adolescents’ perception about the reasons their peers smoke. Males saw peers’ smoking as a way to be cool and popular. Females saw peers’ smoking as a way to solve stress and other personal problems. Both should be considered as risk factors for smoking uptake in this subgroup. It would not be cost effective to design a separate marketing strategy for Sri Lankan adolescents in Australia as this market segment would be too small. However, these preliminary findings form the basis of more extensive work looking at immigrant adolescents in Australia and could lead eventually to the development of social marketing messages that are specifically tailored for this previously neglected segment.

Marketing Bullying Prevention: A Case For Segmenting By Unmet Needs

D. Brown et al. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:23:22 PST

This paper reports an action research finding that was identified through the process evaluation of a social marketing anti-bullying intervention, the Mandurah Bullying Prevention Project (MBPP): early consideration of market segmentation by ‘unmet needs’ is advisable when designing social marketing campaigns that focus on highly sensitive issues, such as bullying. The MBPP campaign was designed to appeal directly to parents of young children. Early parenting strategies were recommended that can help to create a home environment in which children are less likely to adopt bullying behaviour, and more likely to be able to cope with experiences of bullying in later life. We anticipated that parents of older children might take out the message that they were to blame if their child was bullying others, or severely affected by being bullied. Pretesting showed that the message content was not likely to evoke this response from the target audience. The campaign ran in two phases. Ongoing monitoring of Phase 1 indicated that the response was positive and there was raised salience and discussion in the community about bullying prevention and the negative long term consequences of bullying. Additional feedback indicated that the campaign may have exacerbated frustration in a group of parents whose children were currently suffering from bullying in the local high schools. These parents perceived that school and community solutions for bullying were inadequate and their complaints were being ignored. The MBPP researchers responded to the unmet needs of this unintended target market with a number of timely strategies that successfully averted potential damage to the main objectives of the campaign.

Identifying appropriate motivations to encourage people to adopt healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviours

Nadine Henley et al. — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:06:32 PDT

Many social marketing campaigns use threat (or fear) appeals to promote healthy behaviours, for example, ‘Quit smoking. You’ll soon stop dying for a cigarette’, ‘Slip! Slop! Slap! Don’t die in the sun this summer’, and ‘Speed kills’. These messages appeal to the negative motivation of problem avoidance and use fear arousal to persuade. This study explored people’s motivations for adopting healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviours. Overall, it appeared that four motivations (two negative and two positive) were particularly salient: a) Problem removal: managing illness and injury; b) Problem avoidance: avoiding illness, injury, premature death, harm to unborn baby; c) Self approval: feeling better about self; and d) Sensory gratification: mood elevation. The results suggest that, while problem avoidance is an appropriate motivation it is not the only one. Social marketing practitioners could use a range of other motivations that may be equally effective. In the same way that consumers assess marketing messages relating to goods and services, consumers of social marketing messages can choose to pay attention to the sorts of messages that work for them, and decide to disregard others that may be less helpful.

The healthy vs the empty self: Protective vs paradoxical behaviours

Nadine Henley — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:06:29 PDT

The paradigm of the self as it is conceptualised in Western society includes an implicit assumption that one of the primary activities of the self is to engage in protective behaviours. This is a basic assumption in mass media promotion of healthy behaviours: 'Quit smoking' to protect yourself from lung cancer; 'Work safe' to protect yourself from injury, etc. Mass media social marketing campaigns inform the general population of the dangers to the self's existence of smoking, drink-driving, unsafe sex, over-eating, under-exercising and so on. These campaigns are based on models such as the Health Belief Model (Janz and Becker), the Fear Drive paradigm (Janis; McGuire), the Parallel Response Model (Leventhal), Thayer's Arousal Model, Roger's Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers & Mewborn; Maddux & Rogers), Ordered Protection Motivation Theory (Tanner, Hunt and Eppright) and the Extended Parallel Process Model (Witte). Fundamental to all these models is the assumption that people are motivated to protect themselves from harm. Information is provided that warns of the severity and likelihood of consequences of unhealthy behaviours. In some cases this information does motivate people to give up harmful behaviours and adopt safer options.

You will die ! Mass media invocations of existential dread

Nadine Henley — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:58:16 PDT

This paper explores the effect on consumers of these mass media invocations of the fear of death, or "death threats'. Verbatim comments are included from six focus groups conducted on fear and health promotion. Groups were delineated by age (16-20 years, 21-29 years and 30-49 years), gender, and socio-economic status (blue collar/white collar)

Impact on mental health in others of those in a position of authority: a perspective of parents, teachers, trainers and supervisors

Robert J. Donovan et al. — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:57:54 PDT

Improved mental health in the population requires a long-term and holistic approach involving multiple sectors of the community not just mental health service providers. People in authority over others, that is, parents, teachers and employers, could provide a leverage point for a universal intervention to promote mental health in those in their care. A telephone survey of 1,000 metropolitan and 500 country male and female respondents was conducted in Western Australia. Four types of ‘authority’ persons were identified (parents, teachers, trainers and supervisors) and asked what they thought they could do, if anything, to ensure that those in their care remained mentally healthy. Responses were coded into dominant themes across the four types of respondents, the most common being: providing stimulation; providing positive reinforcement; good communication; recognising and dealing with problems openly and sympathetically; ensuring physical activity; not overworking and providing adequate rest breaks; goal setting; not disparaging or being overcritical; and encouraging relationships with family and others. The results are discussed in terms of Hawkins and Catalano’s concepts of participation, opportunity and recognition, and Warr’s influences on mental health. The findings can be used to identify areas where salience can be increased through mental health promotion.

Is it " too bloody late " ? Older people ' s attitudes to the National Physical Activity Guidelines

Nadine Henley et al. — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:57:50 PDT

The National Physical Activity Guidelines (NPAGs) are the evidencebased recommendations on physical activity for all Australians. This study examines the attitudes of older people to the NPAGs with the aim of identifying communication objectives for social marketing practitioners when designing messages about physical activity specifically targeted at older people. Eight focus groups were conducted at the Positive Ageing Foundation’s conference rooms in Perth, Western Australia, with between six and eight participants in each. None of the participants had previously seen the NPAGs but some of the content had filtered through in the media. Of most concern was that some participants felt that it was already too late for older people to become more physically active. Participants were receptive to a holistic approach including social interaction and mental stimulation for overall health and well-being, but males in particular were cynical towards the source of social marketing messages. The findings suggest that social marketers targeting older people with physical activity need to address three key communication objectives: 1) the benefits of ‘incidental’ physical activity; 2) that short bouts of moderate-intensity physical activity can be accumulated throughout the day to total the recommended thirty minutes; and 3) it’s never too late to benefit from being more physically active.

Marketing the Anti-Drug Message: Media, Source and Message

Fiona Perman et al. — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:57:49 PDT

This paper investigates the role of media, source and message credibility in the process of preventing/reducing drug use. An original contribution of the study is that this investigation was conducted with a sample segmented by level of marijuana use. The findings raise questions about the effectiveness of traditional mass media campaigns employed by Government agencies to reduce the use of illicit drugs. The following section provides a background to the development of anti-drug campaigns in Australia, and in particular, anti-marijuana campaigns.