Health communication campaigns smear integrated approaches to deliver messages designed to influence health behaviors of target audiences. The effectiveness of health communication campaigns meets specific criteria. The promotion of socially responsible products, behaviors, and ideas through the application of commercial marketing theories, has been successful when promoting nutrition related campaigns. The evidence of social marketing is that consumers measure the perceived benefits of alternative behaviors against the costs in terms of economic resources, time, and energy or psycho-social value. The challenge is to develop a product or campaign that will make customers change their perception of thinking to start living a better healthy life.
“Grow Your Kids with Fruits and Vegetables They Learn from Watching You” was a campaign from the 2012 Michigan Fitness Foundation. The campaign was designed to strictly promote a better healthy lifestyle among families. Their principal target were adults. The posters were implemented on bus signs and billboards. Personally, I think this was a great idea because as we ride the bus, most of us are attracted to read the signs posted on the bus. The campaign focused on three different segments to reach the community of 12 urban counties around Michigan. Promoting fruits and vegetables, physical activity, and family meals were the main goals. They wanted to inspire their residents to make a healthy lifestyle change.
The foundation wanted people that saw the sign to think about the benefits of increasing fruits and vegetables intakes. By this way, they are creating an awareness to make a behavior change. Most likely, individuals will associate the ad at the moment they are buying groceries at the food market, leading them to make a better choice on what they are buying the next time they will do groceries. Consideration has to be given to what consumers must exchange if they adopt a new behavior to improve nutrition.
I can think of many pros by developing a health campaign to the community. Changing people’s behavior, promoting a healthy lifestyle, decrease of chronic diseases, less visits to the doctor, and enjoying life with their loved ones are some of the pros a healthy promotion campaign need to be able to be called successful. It is sad, but sometimes we need to be reminded of these things that we forget to care about.
Some cons could be that if the campaign is promoting a higher intake of fruits and vegetables, seasonality may apply in cost-benefit considerations. For example, the purchase and/or gathering of nutritious fruits and vegetables is affordable for most of the year. At times of the year when these items are not available, however, the purchase of small quantities of high-nutrient foods, can be highly cost beneficial. Another con could be the quantity of wording, the quality, and the intended meaning could be misunderstood. If there is a poor quality, people are not going to care to read it. If there is a lot of words on it, people are most likely to feel too lazy to read it. That is why it is very important that the intended message be precise.
For behavioral change to occur, the product or service must be available and easily accessible and messages must reach the intended audience. Nutrient-rich foods must be present in the marketplace. Instead of relying exclusively on health centers, communication programs can benefit by promoting nutrition through local markets and communities where decisions about food are made.