Jeanette Renaud

Systematic Review of Public Health Branding

Brands build relationships between consumers and products, services, or lifestyles by providing beneficial exchanges and adding value to their objects. Brands can be measured through associations that consumers hold for products and services. Public health brands are the associations that individuals hold for health behaviors, or lifestyles that embody multiple health behaviors. We systematically reviewed the literature on public health brands; developed a methodology for describing branded health messages and campaigns; and examined specific branding strategies across a range of topic areas, campaigns, and global settings. We searched the literature for published studies on public health branding available through all relevant, major online publication databases. Public health branding was operationalized as any manuscripts in the health, social science, and business literature on branding or brands in health promotion marketing. We developed formalized decision rules and applied them in identifying articles for review. We initially identified 154 articles and reviewed a final set of 37, 10 from Africa, Australia, and Europe. Branded health campaigns spanned most of the major domains of public health and numerous communication strategies and evaluation methodologies. Most studies provided clear information on planning, development, and evaluation of the branding effort, while some provided minimal information. Branded health messages typically are theory based, and there is a body of evidence on their behavior change effectiveness, especially in nutrition, tobacco control, and HIV/AIDS. More rigorous research is needed, however, on how branded health messages impact specific populations and behaviors.

The influence of social environment and social image on adolescent smoking.

This purpose of this article is to explore differences by gender and school grade in patterns of association among social influences and tobacco use. Data from the 1999 (N = 15,038) and 2000 (N = 35,828) National Youth Tobacco Survey (American Legacy Foundation, 1999, 2000), a nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional survey, were used in the analysis. The authors compared effects on adolescent smoking. Direct paths from social environment to current smoking increased from middle school to high school. Indirect paths with social image mediating this relationship revealed a smaller increase. The pattern was constant across subsamples. Social image of smokers mediated the influence of social environment on adolescent smoking. Social image had a greater effect on smoking among middle school boys and high school girls.

Wanting to Be Better but Thinking You Can't: Implicit Theories of Personality Moderate the Impact of Self-Discrepancies on Self-Esteem

Two studies examined the role of implicit theories of personality in the relation between actual – ideal self-discrepancies and self-esteem. Replicating previous work, we found that those with greater actual – ideal self-discrepancies reported lower self-esteem. Moreover, we hypothesized that this outcome would be especially stronger for those possessing an entity theory of personality (i.e., believing that personality is relatively fixed and unchangeable) than for those possessing an incremental theory of personality (i.e., believing that personality is relatively flexible and malleable). Both studies supported this prediction, using either a nomothetic measure of actual – ideal self-discrepancy (Study 1) or an idiographic measure of actual – ideal self-discrepancy (Study 2). In other words, the relation between self-discrepancy and self-evaluation was stronger for entity theorists than for incremental theorists. Implications of these findings for topics ranging from emotional regulation to educational settings are discussed.

Prevention Effects of an Anti-Tobacco Brand on Adolescent Smoking Initiation:

Health marketing mass media campaigns have been shown to be effective in changing health behavior and behavioral mediators. Tobacco countermarketing mass media campaigns have been effective in reducing smoking initiation and progression to established smoking. Targeted message strategies used by countermarketing campaigns influence specific attitudes and beliefs about smoking. Such strategies have been used to build public health brands modeled on commercial branding strategies, and previous research has shown that adolescent affiliation with anti-tobacco brands is associated with reduced smoking uptake. The current study was a prospective test to determine whether brand equity can serve as a protective factor to prevent youth from initiating smoking. This article reports on a longitudinal study of exposure to the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundations stand campaign and affiliation with the stand brand. Youth aged 11–17 were surveyed at baseline and their exposure to brand affiliation as measured by a validated multidimensional brand equity scale, smoking behavior, and other attitudinal, behavioral and sociodemographic characteristics were measured. Youth with higher brand equity in the stand campaign exhibited lower levels of smoking initiation at the first 8-month follow-up. Somewhat reduced, but significant, prevention effects were also observed at a second 20-month follow-up. The brand leadership/popularity subscale had the strongest prevention effect. Descriptive social norms embodied in the individual items within this subscale may be the most important targets for social marketers employing a branding strategy. These results may be applicable to health behavior change communications aimed at other risk behaviors.

News Media Coverage, Body Mass Index, and Public Attitudes about Obesity

This study investigated change in and effects of exposure to news media coverage of the obesity epidemic. Investigators compared self-reported news media exposure between two Research Triangle Institute obesity surveys and examined interactions between exposure and body mass index (BMI) on beliefs about the causes of obesity and support for childhood obesity prevention. We found that higher exposure and BMI were each individually and in combination associated with beliefs about the causes of obesity and support for prevention. For instance, those with higher BMI and exposure were more likely to believe that societal factors cause obesity. This research has implications for media advocacy, social marketing, and policies to promote obesity prevention.

How Accurate Are Americans’ Perceptions of Their Own Weight?

As obesity/overweight has increased in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009), studies have found that Americans’ perceptions of their own weight often are not aligned with their actual body mass index (BMI; Brener et al., 2004; Christakis, 2003; Johnson-Taylor et al., 2008). Taylor, Funk, and Craighill (2006) found that half of Americans whose BMI indicated they were overweight perceived their weight to be just about right. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence the accuracy of weight self-perceptions and whether accuracy influences health behaviors. Using data from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey, the authors compared respondents’ weight self-perceptions to their actual BMI to determine the accuracy of their weight self-perceptions. About 28%of respondents were obese, 35%were overweight, 35%were of normal weight, and 2%were underweight. About three quarters of the samples self-perceptions of weight were aligned with their BMI. About 10%of the sample had a BMI that indicated they were overweight, but they perceived themselves to be of normal weight; about 10%were of normal weight but perceived themselves to be overweight; and about 5%of respondents were of normal weight but thought they were underweight. Gender, race, and education were associated with the accuracy of respondents’ weight perceptions. Results suggest that asking patients about their weight self-perceptions could be useful in clinical settings and that weight perception accuracy could be used to segment audiences and tailor messages.

Clinical management of smoking cessation: patient factors affecting a reward-based approach.

Although the majority of current smokers indicate they would like to quit, only about half of smokers make a quit attempt each year. Of those who attempt to quit, only about 5% are successful. Many effective products and programs are available to assist in smoking cessation; however those interested in quitting often do not make use of these resources. To increase use of cessation products in order to improve successful cessation rates, the Consumer Demand Roundtable has argued that smokers need to be viewed as consumers of cessation products rather than as patients needing treatment. With this consumer-based approach in mind, the current review examines how participant characteristics, perceptions, and behavior influence, and are influenced by, contingency management (CM) paradigms in various settings. Findings suggest that participant factors associated with success in these programs include demographic characteristics (eg, gender, marital status), self-efficacy, motivation to quit, and impulsivity. Overall, participants perceive incentives for successful cessation as motivating. However, such programs may involve greater withdrawal symptoms (eg, craving for cigarettes) initially, but these symptoms tend to decrease at a greater rate over time compared with nonincentive group participants. CM programs have also been shown to be successful across a number of settings (eg, communities, schools), including settings in which smokers are often considered difficult to treat (eg, substance abuse treatment centers). Overall, CM programs are perceived positively by participants and can increase rates of successful cessation. Furthermore, CM interventions have the flexibility to adapt to individual preferences and needs, leading to greater participation and likelihood of successful cessation. Thus, CM provides an important framework for addressing the need for consumer-focused smoking cessation interventions.