Glen Nowak

Privacy Concerns and Consumer Willingness to Provide Personal Information

The authors examine potential relationships among categories of personal information, beliefs about direct marketing, situational characteristics, specific privacy concerns, and consumers’ direct marketing shopping habits. Furthermore, the authors offer an assessment of the trade-offs consumers are willing to make when they exchange personal information for shopping benefits. The findings indicate that public policy and self-regulatory efforts to alleviate consumer privacy concerns should provide consumers with more control over the initial gathering and subsequent dissemination of personal information. Such efforts must also consider the type of information sought, because consumer concern and willingness to provide marketers with personal data vary dramatically by information type.

Immunization Attitudes and Beliefs Among Parents: Beyond a Dichotomous Perspective.

OBJECTIVE To better understand differences among parents in their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding childhood immunizations and health-related issues. METHODS Forty-four survey variables assessing attitudes and beliefs about immunizations and health were analyzed. The K-means clusters technique was used to identify homogeneous groups of parents based upon their responses to the questions. RESULTS Five clusters were identified: Immunization Advocates (33.0%), Go Along to Get Alongs (26.4%), Health Advocates (24.8%), Fencesitters (13.2%), and Worrieds (2.6%). CONCLUSIONS Although only a small percentage of parents are seriously concerned, other parents who are generally supportive of immunizations for their child are also affected by immunization safety issues.

Youth Performing Arts Entertainment-Education for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion: Practice and Research

Entertainment-education approaches to health promotion and disease prevention are a popular method for many interventions that target adolescents and young adults. This article documents how this approach is used to educate and influence young people about HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and other health issues in the United States. A review of the literature is followed by a two-phase descriptive study of American youth performing arts entertainment-education programs. First, a quantitative survey was conducted among youth performing arts participants who were attending a national conference on the subject. This was followed by a qualitative survey among adult and youth conference attendees from established HIV/AIDS prevention youth performing arts programs. These two approaches provided detailed insight into the characteristics, approaches, and frameworks used to create, implement, and evaluate these entertainment-education efforts. Nine domains that define the effects and effectiveness of youth HIV prevention entertainment-education interventions are identified and described, including those related to performances, intervention management, and audiences. Given the importance of evaluation for the success and effectiveness of intervention programs, these domains are used to construct a framework for entertainment-education research and evaluation efforts.

Promoting influenza vaccination: Insights from a qualitative meta-analysis of 14 years of influenza-related communications research by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

INTRODUCTION A primary mission of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) is promoting immunization against seasonal influenza. As with most education efforts, CDCs influenza-related communications are often informed by formative research. METHODS A qualitative meta-analysis of 29 unpublished, primarily qualitative CDC-sponsored studies related to flu and flu vaccination knowledge, attitudes and beliefs (KABs). The studies, undertaken between 2000 and 2013, involved focus groups, in-depth interviews, message testing and surveys. Some involved health care professionals, while others involved members of the public, including sub-populations at risk for severe illness. FINDINGS The themes that emerged suggested progress in terms of KABs related to influenza and influenza vaccination, but also the persistence of many barriers to vaccine acceptance. With respect to the public, recurring themes included limited understanding of influenza and immunization recommendations, indications of greater sub-group recognition of the value of flu vaccination, continued resistance to vaccination among many, and overestimation of the effectiveness of non-vaccine measures. Seven cognitive facilitators of vaccination were identified in the studies along with six cognitive barriers. For health care providers, the analysis suggests greater knowledge and more favorable beliefs, but many misperceptions persist and are similar to those held by the public. KABs often differed by type or category of health care provider. CONCLUSIONS The themes identified in this qualitative analysis illustrate the difficulty in changing KABs related to influenza and influenza vaccine, particularly on the scope and scale needed to greatly improve uptake. Even with an influenza pandemic and more vaccine options available, public and some health care provider perceptions and beliefs are difficult and slow to change. This meta-analysis does, however, provide important insights from previously unpublished information that can help those who are promoting influenza vaccination to health care providers, the general public and specific populations within the general population.

Addressing vaccine hesitancy: The potential value of commercial and social marketing principles and practices.

Many countries and communities are dealing with groups and growing numbers of individuals who are delaying or refusing recommended vaccinations for themselves or their children. This has created a need for immunization programs to find approaches and strategies to address vaccine hesitancy. An important source of useful approaches and strategies is found in the frameworks, practices, and principles used by commercial and social marketers, many of which have been used by immunization programs. This review examines how social and commercial marketing principles and practices can be used to help address vaccine hesitancy. It provides an introduction to key marketing and social marketing concepts, identifies some of the major challenges to applying commercial and social marketing approaches to immunization programs, illustrates how immunization advocates and programs can use marketing and social marketing approaches to address vaccine hesitancy, and identifies some of the lessons that commercial and non-immunization sectors have learned that may have relevance for immunization. While the use of commercial and social marketing practices and principles does not guarantee success, the evidence, lessons learned, and applications to date indicate that they have considerable value in fostering vaccine acceptance.

Social Media and the Virality of Risk: The Risk Amplification through Media Spread (RAMS) Model

Abstract Social media have transformed traditional configurations of how risk signals related to an infectious disease outbreak (IDO) are transmitted from public health authorities to the general public. However, our understanding of how social media might influence risk perceptions during these situations, and the influence of such processes on ensuing societal responses remains limited. This paper draws on key ideas from the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), Socially Mediated Crisis Communication (SMCC) model and a case study of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) social media management of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic to propose a new conceptual model. The Risk Amplification through Media Spread (RAMS) model brings clarity to the new complexities in media management of IDOs by delineating the processes of message diffusion and risk amplification through communication channels that are often highly integrated due to social media. The model offers recommendations for communication priorities during different stages of an IDO. The paper concludes with a discussion of the RAMS model from theoretical and applied perspectives, and sets the direction for future conceptual refinement and empirical testing.

The application of "integrated marketing communications" to social marketing and health communication: Organizational challenges and implications

Influencing consumer behavior is a difficult and often resource-intensive undertaking, with success usually requiring identifying, describing, and understanding target audiences; solid product and/or service positioning relative to competitors; and significant media and communication resources. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a new way of organizing and managing persuasive communication tools and functions which involves realigning communications to consider the flow of information from an organization from the viewpoint of end consumers. Although the application of IMC to social marketing remains relatively unexplored, the IMC literature and recent efforts by the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control suggest that integrated communication approaches have much to offer social marketing and health communication efforts. IMC, IMC and social marketing, and implications of IMC for public and private sector social marketing programs are discussed.

Exploring The Impact Of The US Measles Outbreak On Parental Awareness Of And Support For Vaccination

Despite consensus among health officials that childhood immunizations are a safe and effective means of protecting people from disease, some parents remain hesitant about vaccinating their children. This hesitancy has been linked to a lack of confidence in recommended vaccinations as well as a desire to delay or further space out scheduled vaccinations but also outright refusal of vaccines. Using two national surveys of parents of children ages five and younger, collected immediately prior to and in the weeks following the 2014-15 US measles outbreak, this study examined the awareness of this vaccine-preventable disease outbreak among parents and whether awareness of the outbreak affected their beliefs about childhood vaccination, confidence, and intentions. The study found that while most parents were aware of the outbreak, many were not, and the level of familiarity mattered, particularly on measures of confidence in vaccines and support for mandates requiring childhood vaccination. Increases in vaccine-related concerns were found as well, indicating that disease outbreaks foster not just awareness of vaccines and their potential to prevent disease but a range of parental responses.

Rapid Application of an Integrated Social Marketing Framework: Lessons Learned from the 2000–2001 U.S. Influenza Vaccine Delay

Rapid application of an integrated social marketing framework: Lessons learned from the 2000––2001 U.S. influenza vaccine delay Glen Nowak a , Alan Janssen b & Curtis Allen b a Associate Director for Communications with the National Immunization Program (NIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA b Health Communications Specialist with the National Immunization Program, Atlanta, GA

Motivating Influenza Vaccination Among Young Adults: The Effects of Public Service Advertising Message Framing and Text Versus Image Support

A common challenge facing public health practitioners and social marketers is how best to frame and present benefit–risk information in campaigns that aim to change perceptions and increase acceptance of health recommendations, such as vaccinations. Given that public service advertisements and brand promises are often core components of social marketing and health communication efforts, this study examined whether, and how, framing and the use of text or image support to convey influenza vaccination brand promises affected college-attending young adults’ beliefs and intentions regarding influenza vaccination. PSAs that varied with respect to gain or loss frame and type of support provided (i.e., image vs. text-supported) were used as the stimulus material. The findings indicated two pairings performed equally well with respect to the outcome measures used. A gain-framed image-supported PSA and a loss-framed text-supported PSA were both associated with the highest levels of positive affect toward the PSA, positive attitude toward flu vaccination, flu vaccination confidence, and flu vaccination intention. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of assessing both the framing used in social marketing or health communication materials and the approach used to support the framing. It is likely that the effectiveness of framing is affected by the visuals and text used to reinforce the brand promise conveyed by the framing, irrespective of whether it is positive or negative.