Nancy R. Lee

Encouraging African-American Women to “Take Charge. Take the Test”: The Audience Segmentation Process for CDC'S HIV Testing Social Marketing Campaign*:

HIV=AIDS remains a formidable public health problem in the United States: in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that more than 1 The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 16 CASE STUDIES SMQ / VOL. XII / NO. 3 / FALL 2006 D ow nl oa de d by [ FH I 36 0] , [ M r M ic ha el W ill ia m s] a t 1 1: 47 1 6 Se pt em be r 20 11 million persons were living with HIV=AIDS, and approximately 40,000 persons become infected with HIV each year. Although new infections among the general population are remaining stable, a new at-risk population is emerging – African American women. This population now accounts for 67% of new AIDS cases among all women. This challenge, along with limited public funding and the need to show a meaningful and measurable impact, led program managers at CDC to employ a social marketing model for an HIV=AIDS testing campaign. As prior efforts at CDC have shown, this approach offers a sound strategy for influencing voluntary behaviors. It also influenced a decision to focus resources on select cities for the first year, enabling a rigorous evaluation effort that would inform subsequent campaign rollouts in other cities across the nation. IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL MARKETING For this campaign, CDC focused on a specific behavior to help decrease the spread of HIV: increasing timely HIV testing among populations at highest risk for HIV infection. Of an estimated 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 persons living with HIV, approximately 24–27% are unaware of their serostatus. In 2003, as many as two-thirds of new cases arose from persons unaware of their infection, who then transmitted the disease to partners unaware of their personal risk. Focusing on HIV testing led to a thorough market segmentation process, which in turn revealed a clear target audience choice for the first years of the campaign. The clearly defined target audience then guided formative research that provided a rich, cohesive understanding of audience barriers and motivators related to HIV testing. This research influenced campaign strategies and provided a collective focus for the limited resources.

How and Why Segmentation Improves ROI

The advantages to selecting and appealing to a priority target audience segment are similar to the advantages of knowing what kind of fish you want to catch when you head out on a fishing trip. (1) First, you’ll know what bait to use. Knowledge about the segment’s unique demographics, psychographics, geographics, related behaviours, stage of change, barriers to overcome, and benefits to promise will inspire a unique offer, one where product, price and place strategies are “custom” designed to appeal to the segment you want to attract. (2) Second, you’ll know what kind of hook will help “seal the deal”. Knowledge about what appeals most to your target audience about your offer will help craft persuasive messages, choose credible messengers, and develop engaging creative elements. (3) Third, you’ll know where to go to find them. Knowledge about the unique media channels that the target audience uses will help you select those channels most likely to reach the greatest numbers, with the least amount of expenditures. (4) Fourth, you’ll know when they are typically looking for food. Knowledge about unique openings for the segment will inspire the frequency and timing of media placement and selection of the most effective decision points, or situations, when the target audience is most likely to be tempted by your offer and persuaded by promotional messages. In the end, by tailoring the 4Ps for an attractive market segment, not only will you “catch more of the fish you want most”, you will accomplish this with less time and money, therefore increasing your return on investment (ROI). This chapter will describe each of the four unique advantages in more detail and will then outline the steps involved in calculating a ROI for your efforts. A hypothetical example using diabetes prevention will be used to illustrate the application of the 4Ps. In addition, a brief case story for each of the 4Ps will illustrate how strategies can (and should) be targeted to the unique profile of a target audience. It should be acknowledged that the 4P model used in this chapter is based on the traditional commercial marketing “labels” for the major tools in the marketer’s toolbox—ones available to the marketer to influence a target audience to buy their product. Labels, descriptions and the number of tools that social marketers use to influence target audience behaviours can vary (Peattie and Peattie 2003; Tapp and Spotswood 2013).

Corporate social marketing

Corporate Social Marketing: Supporting a behavior change campaign intended to improve public health, safety, the environment or community well-being Cause Promotion: Providing funds, in kind contributions or other resources to increase awareness and concern about a social cause Cause-Related Marketing: Linking contributions to a cause based on product sales or other consumer actions Corporate Philanthropy: Making a direct contribution to a charity or cause, typically in the form of cash grants, donations, and/or in-kind services Workforce Volunteering: Supporting employees, retail partners and/or franchise members to volunteer at community organizations and causes Socially Responsible Business Practices: Conducting discretionary business practices to support social causes

Books ReviewsCoreilJ., BryantC. A., & HendersonJ. N. (2001). Social and Behavioral Foundations of Public Health. Thousand Oaks, Ca: SAGE.AndreasenA. R.(ED.) (2001). ETHICS IN SOCIAL MARKETING.Washington, DC: GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Book reviews Claudia Fishman Parvanta a b & Nancy Lee c d e a Director of Health Communication, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA b Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology and Public Health, Emory University c President of Social Marketing Services, Inc., Seattle, WA E-mail: nancyrlee@msn.com d Adjunct faculty member at the University of Puget Sound e Adjunct faculty member at the Seattle University