importance of mass marketing

3. © 2020 Association for Consumer Research, The Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (JACR). Evaluating Campaigns Where properly controlled experiments are feasible, it is important to evaluate promotional efforts in terms of behavioral change. A Gall-up poll conducted in late 1973 found that few women even claimed to examine their breasts on any regular basis. A television campaign urging Illinois employers to hire the disadvantaged actually reduced employers' stated intentions to do so (Haefner, 1975). Marketers of consumer goods try to make it easy, simple, convenient and even pleasurable to obtain their offerings. John B. McKinlay, "Some Approaches and Problems in the Study of the Use of Services - An Overview," Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 13 (June, 1972), 115-52. Nathan Maccoby, "Communication in Disease Prevention," presentation at the national conference of the Association for Consumer Research, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1975. Yael Steinhart, Tel Aviv University, Israel F. Gerald Kline, Peter V. Miller, and Andrew J. Morrison, "Communication Issues in Different Public Health Areas," in B. However, a number of researchers offer persuasive arguments for examining the cognitive and affective as well as the behavioral influences of promotion (Clarke and Kline, 1974; Kline, Miller and Morrison, 1975; Ray and Ward, 1975). Chicago: Association for Consumer Research, 1975. Haskins (1968) surveyed the literature on the effects of mass communications on drinking while driving and concluded that because most programs either had not been evaluated or had been evaluated inadequately, no one knows whether campaigns on drinking and driving have had any effect. Recent efforts at utilizing the mass media to promote health implicitly or explicitly point to some strategies for improving the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, and these will be reviewed in the following paragraphs. However, a number of researchers offer persuasive arguments for examining the cognitive and affective as well as the behavioral influences of promotion (Clarke and Kline, 1974; Kline, Miller and Morrison, 1975; Ray and Ward, 1975). Thus it appears that although mass media campaigns can make an impact on health behavior, they often do not. Ray and Ward (1975) provide an overview of the issues involved in copy pretesting, and suggest a multifaceted set of copytesting procedures. In part, this may be due to ignorance of the importance of self-examination, lack of knowledge or self-confidence about performing the examination, and uncertainty about possible outcomes if a lump is discovered. And since consumer behavior literature within the public health field is not ordinarily geared to practical marketing planning, it is quite probable that literature reviews will need to be supplemented with primary research. National Safety Congress, 24, (1968), 77-109. 3. James W. Swinehart, "Creative Use of Mass Media to Affect Health Behavior," paper presented at the National Cancer Institute conference on Cancer Control and the Behavioral Sciences, January, 1975a. Extrapolating from Rosenstock's (1966) widely-known health belief model and research by Bauer and Cox (1963), Wortzel (1975) suggests that the health marketer should study target markets in terms of their perceptions with regard to: (1) their susceptibility to a health disease or problem; (2) the seriousness of the disease or problem if it is encountered; (3) the estimated probability that a given course of action will reduce the threat; and (4) the estimated cost of the action. Recently published literature suggests that there is some disillusionment with mass media advertising as a tool for changing health behavior. Television and Human Behavior. The real question, them, is not "Do mass communication campaigns work? Mass media is used to spread the undifferentiated message of the product. Michael L. Ray and Scott Ward, "Experimentation for Pretesting Public Health Programs: The Case of the Anti-Drug Abuse Campaigns," in B. Although such campaigns can make an impact, they often do not. Hal Hershfield, University of California Los Angeles, USA. Harold Mendelsohn, "Some Reasons Why Information Campaigns Can Succeed," Public Opinion Quarterly, 37 (Spring, 1973), 50-61. Self breast examination is an example of a health-related measure which is suffused with emotion and fear. James W. Swinehart, "Developmental and Evaluative Research for a Television Series on Health," presentation at the national conference of the Association for Consumer Research, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1975b. Rose K. Goldsen, Paul Gerhardt, and Vincent Handy, "Patient Delay in Seeking Cancer Treatment: Behavioral Aspects,'' Journal of Chronic Diseases, 16 (1963), 427-36. A controlled experiment designed to evaluate an advertising campaign aimed at increasing seat belt usage showed that the promotional effort had no effect on belt use at all (Robertson et. Jacob Goldenberg, IDC, Kate Kooi, University of Miami, USA There are so many core business functions that stem from a good marketing plan that any SMB would be … The purpose of this paper is to examine the "Consumer Behavior and Public Health" presentations and other selected literature for implications about the potential role of the mass media in promoting public health. Some believe it … The importance of copytesting public service advertising is particularly apparent where that advertising addresses emotional or controversial issues, since there may be a substantial danger of viewer distortion. Second, the statement of promotional goals guides evaluation, permits evaluative plans to be specified in advance, and allows for the collection of baseline date where that is desirable. Lawrence H. Wortzel, "The Behavior of the Health Care Consumer: A Selective Review," in B. Maccoby (1975) has noted that the advertisements and other materials utilized in the Stanford campaign to "unsell" heart disease were extensively pretested. B. Anderson, ed., Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. Information on mass communication may be related to education, weather, sports, products and services, public holidays, festivals, recreation, and entertainment. Still another problem facing the public health marketer is the actual and psychological distance that often stands between the consumer and the product, idea or service (Wiebe, 1951-52; Rosenstock, 1960). Television and Human Behavior. Particularly for the urban people, the need for information is more important than ever. Irwin M. Rosenstock, "Why People Use Health Services," Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 44 (1966), 94-127. For this and other reasons, it typically is difficult to persuade people to engage in activities which relate to health maintenance. Irwin M. Rosenstock, "What Research in Motivation Suggests for Public Health," American Journal of Public Health, 50 (March, 1960), 295-302. WHAT CAN MASS COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS DO? A Gall-up poll conducted in late 1973 found that few women even claimed to examine their breasts on any regular basis. And since consumer behavior literature within the public health field is not ordinarily geared to practical marketing planning, it is quite probable that literature reviews will need to be supplemented with primary research. In 1969, Kotler and Levy published a seminal article, "Broadening the Concept of Marketing," which stimulated widespread interest in applying the principles and concepts of marketing outside of the traditional for-profit business arena. Some core features of mass marketing are: It generally focuses upon a big portion of the audience. Extrapolating from Rosenstock's (1966) widely-known health belief model and research by Bauer and Cox (1963), Wortzel (1975) suggests that the health marketer should study target markets in terms of their perceptions with regard to: (1) their susceptibility to a health disease or problem; (2) the seriousness of the disease or problem if it is encountered; (3) the estimated probability that a given course of action will reduce the threat; and (4) the estimated cost of the action.