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Communication Strategy
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Communication Strategy
Obesity is a major health concern that continues to plague our country. Although we see multiple
populations being affected by obesity, children seem to be at the greatest risk. As of 2013, 17%
of all children and adolescents in America aged 2-19 years of age are considered obese. This is
triple the rate from just one generation ago (CDC, August 2013). Although we see many health
concerns resulting from obesity, one major issue is that children who are obese not only have a
greater risk of being obese as an adult but their obesity will be more severe during adulthood
(CDC, 2012). If we can target this population and influence them to make healthy lifelong
changes at a young age we will prevent from a series of diseases in the future. Overall, obesity
rates would drop significantly in the future among both the young and old populations.
Therefore, the target population we will be focusing on is children aged 2-19 years of age.
One thing we know about this population is that they are making poor choices
nutritionally that are greatly impacting their chances for obesity. For example, data reveals that
most American youths do not meet the daily recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake.
They also do not eat the minimum recommended amounts of whole grains, but in turn eat more
than the recommended maximum daily intake of sodium. Empty calories make up 40% of daily
calories for the average child and adolescent aged 2-19years. Half of these calories come from
soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk. Another disturbing fact is
that adolescents drink more soda per day than milk. Males aged 12 to 19 drinks on average 22
ounces of soda per day while females consume 14 ounces of soda per day (CDC, February,
2013). Many children aged 2-19 are not consuming a well-balanced diet which in turn is leading
to health concerns like obesity. Therefore, this population should increase their consumption of
fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while decreasing their consumption of sugar. If we can
Communication Strategy
increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables while decreasing the consumption of sugar, we
will see great improvements in obesity rates.
In order to effectively make the necessary resources (healthy foods) available to children
aged 2-19 we must get secondary target audiences involved. Our secondary target audiences will
be parents/legal guardians and educational institutions. If we do not target parents/legal
guardians as well as educational institutions, it will be extremely challenging for our primary
target population to have access to the necessary resources. The secondary audiences will play a
huge role in influencing children aged 2-19. They will largely determine whether or not the
necessary resources will be made available to the primary audience.
There are many barriers that stand between children aged 2-19 and eating foods high in
nutrition and low in empty calories. Many lower class families are faced with much different
environmental challenges than the upper classes; therefore, we will need to adjust our program
according to these different challenges and environmental factors. For example, lower class
children and families may have fewer resources available to them. They may be surrounded by
fast food restaurants and convenient stores while the nearest grocery store is thirty minutes away.
The resources we need to make available to them are going to be much different from the upper
class family who may have easy access to healthy options. Also, the lower class populations
have much less money when compared to the upper class; therefore we will need to place extra
emphasis on how to make healthy foods more affordable to these populations. The working
middle-class may have a variety of issues that need to be emphasized like making healthy foods
more available and accessible, but also finding ways to make healthy foods more convenient and
easy to prepare for people who have limited time. Convenience is very attractive to nearly all
American’s. Many Americans are working hard and have limited time on their hands for cooking
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and shopping, which in turn leads to purchasing fast food or prepackaged foods that are high in
calories, low in nutrition but easy and quick to prepare. If healthy means a lot of time and
energy, populations who are busy and short on time as well as many others who are attracted to
convenience will be turned off by the thought of eating healthy. Also, children aged 2-19 are
being surrounded by unhealthy options in their schools while limited healthy options are made
available. Choosing healthy foods while at school will be challenging when limited healthy
options are available and while a multitude of unhealthy options surround them. One major
barrier to healthy eating is influencing advertisements. Children are spending a large portion of
their time watching television and playing video games. This activity only worsens childhood
obesity. Not only does it prevent the child from being physically active, it also exposes them to a
vast variety of influencing advertisements of unhealthy foods. Children are very susceptible to
these advertisements and are influenced by what they watch. Decreasing the amount of time
children spend in front of the television as well as increasing the amount of health
advertisements will effectively impact this target population.
Many children and teens aged 2-19, our primary target audience, are consuming food that
they are receiving from home (provided by parents/legal guardians) as well as their schools.
Many children, especially the pre-teens, have very little say in what they eat. They will eat what
their parents serve them or provide for them in their house. Also, when at school, they will
generally have two options; consume the food that the school is serving, or bring a cold lunch
that comes from the food parents/legal guardians are purchasing. Due to this fact, one major
barrier for children in consuming healthy foods, is that the food is not available to them.
Merely identifying health as a core value among society will not be enough as we desire
children aged 2-19 to eat more healthily. Research has revealed that although health can be
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considered of value to the individual, health is not the only thing that the individual is seeking.
Different aspects such as personal freedom, independence, autonomy, and control are of great
value to the society (Resnick, Siegel, 2013). Arguably, health is not what people value most.
Instead, individuals value freedom, independence autonomy and control over their lives which
comes with being healthy. Health is a fundamental desire and is needed but when we evaluate
what the individual is truly seeking and what appeals to them most, we must realize that health is
not necessarily what we should be marketing (Resnick, Siegel, 2013). According to Resnick and
Siegel, adolescents seek to display their independence through a symbol which for example
could be a cigarette or adult beverages. Since adolescents seek independence and freedom. We
must find a way to show how eating junk foods that have high calories and little nutritional value
hinders their independence and freedom. Obesity, does not allow one to be healthy and to have
those core values. Therefore it will be important for our marketing campaign to show children
and adolescents how eating foods with high caloric value and little nutrition prevent from having
that freedom, and independence. Showing how eating healthy foods with high nutritional value
prevents childhood obesity which in turn allows for freedom and independence, will motivate
children and adolescents and give them a greater desire to eat healthily. Through eating healthy
children will be of healthy weight and therefore be able to physically perform daily activities
such as participating in athletics, leisure activities, recess, PE class etc. They also will be less
likely to be discriminated against and will struggle less with bullying. All of these benefits will
greatly influence the target population. Therefore, the benefit to the audience of engaging in the
action will be increased freedom and independence.
The family as a unit is a core value that parents have and due to this, marketers must stay
connected with both kids and parents showing how their product nurtures, educates, elicits their
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kids’ creativity, and reinforces growth (Mininni, 2012). Therefore we will need to effectively
outreach to parents through showing that their product also values the family. Our core-value for
parents, which in turn determines what benefits we will be focusing on communicating, is the
family unit and showing how our product encourages family values.
As we look at educational institutions and decide how we should market to them we
should realize what their underlying values are. A school’s value will to be a successful
institution that meets the standards of the state in order to keep running successfully. We will
have to market to the school’s how providing high caloric foods with low nutritional value while
also limiting their physical activity will only hinder the student academically and reflect in their
performance as a school. By giving students healthier foods and providing them with more
physical activity the school will greatly benefit because their students will be more alert
academically, better behaved, and have better attendance. If a student is unhealthy, they will miss
a lot of school and be distracted. Showing school’s how they will be negatively impacted by
providing students with unhealthy foods, and how they can benefit by providing them with
healthy foods will help motivate them to make changes that benefit both them and the student.
Research and studies prove that obesity not only has negative consequences on their
health; it also has negative consequences socially and economically which will demonstrate how
their freedom and independence can be taken away through eating unhealthily. One study in
particular examined people who had been overweight since adolescence and compared them to
those who were not overweight as high school graduates. The study examined to the two groups
for two decades and found that people who were overweight once graduating high school were
more likely to not go on to college and receive any additional education. They were also more
likely to receive welfare or unemployment compensation and not be married. People who were
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chronically overweight were 50% more likely to be unemployed, on welfare and single
(Neighmond, 2010). Further research has shown that people who are obese are 26 times more
likely to report discrimination than those who are of normal weight. Overweight children are
much more likely to report teasing or bullying. This discrimination and bullying leads to feelings
of inferiority, lack of self-esteem and other emotional problems. These findings help explain why
children who are obese tend to lack education and go unemployed. Although, obesity has
become much more common over the years, discrimination has continued to be on the rise,
increasing 66% over the past decade (Neighmond, 2010). Marketing the benefits through facts
and research tends to not grab the attention of the audience. In order to have a compelling and
powerful communication strategy, we will have to use emotional appeal. We can do this by
sharing personal and real stories from students, children of all ages, and families who have been
negatively impacted by obesity. Stories that people can relate to and can associate with will help
draw the listener in. Also, being able to put a face to the name will be more effective than a
message that shares facts and data.
One of the best openings for reaching the target audiences will be through mass media.
One study shows how commercial food marketing has significantly changed and influenced food
choice behavior. Commercial food marketing plays a huge role on our target audiences’ diet. In
the study they found that factors such as nutritional evidence, trend awareness, vertical
endorsement, simple naturalness, and common values are all extremely important when it comes
to communicating or marketing health to the public with regard to food (N.A., 2012). We will
want to implement these factors into our mass media campaigns. The fast food industry is among
the leaders in reaching youth and ethnic minorities through their marketing efforts. Children who
have been exposed to more advertisements are seen to request higher fat, high calorie snacks
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rather than healthy ones. In this particular study, 155 children as well as their parents were
analyzed. The children were split up into two different groups, those who were below the 50th
percentile of obesity and those who were above. The children who were above the 50th percentile
showed higher recognition of fast food logos than those who were below the 50th percentile.
Also, of these 155 children about 87% of them recognized the McDonalds’ and Burger King
logos (Arredondo, et al., 2009). Fast food industries are successfully targeting children and in the
process are influencing their diets. With the high rates of commercial food marketing, we see
families being greatly influenced by advertisements on TV, billboards, social networking
systems etc.. Therefore, we should examine the different channels that fast food marketers are
using such as billboards, television, internet, and social networking systems and begin utilizing
them as well. These will be our main channels and openings for reaching the target audiences.
Also, by working with and through educational institutions we can quickly and
effectively reach a large portion of the population being targeted. Having wellness coordinators
that work one-on-one with a school in designing/implementing a nutrition program that will
match their students’ needs will help distribute information to educational institutions and
therefore students and parents. Within the educational institutions we can also implement peerteachers in which student leaders will help lead and educate their peers in the area of nutrition.
Wellness coordinators will also be working with the school cafeteria on how to provide healthy
yet affordable options to their students.
Through our communications we will convey a symbol of a healthy, active child who is
happy, free to complete daily activities, and independent in making decisions, as well as capable
to excel in life. Being physically active and eating healthy foods will be displayed to children as
fun, cool, and socially desirable behavior. Being physically inactive or living a sedentary
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lifestyle will be displayed as dull and boring for the audience. This image will display that
children are able to live out their dreams and aspirations which will appeal to parents. Our goal
will also be to show a child who has a healthy, active lifestyle as having social and functional
benefits greater than those who eat unhealthily. of competing choices such as eating a high-fat
diet and being inactive.
In order to properly address this issue, we must first take a look at a well-constructed
health behavior theory that allows us to better understand behavior change. The Precaution
Adoption Process Model (PAPM) is a stage-based theory that explains that people go through a
series of stages before ultimately achieving behavior change. PAPM consists of seven stages,
which are: 1) unaware of the issue, 2) unengaged by the issue, 3) deciding about acting, 4)
decided not to act, 5) deciding to act, 6) acting, and 7) maintenance. These stages represent the
different patterns of behaviors, beliefs, and experiences that people go through while trying to
enforce behavior change. This model allows public health professionals to recognize when
people are unaware of an issue, or if they are unengaged by it. Also, it allows professionals to
understand that these two groups face different barriers then those who decide not to act. By
pinpointing these different barriers within each group, we can more effectively design a program
that is effective (DiClemente, Salazar, Crosby, 2013). We will base this program around the
PAPM so that we can effectively evaluate the participants’ behaviors, beliefs, and experiences
that they are going through as they try to enforce behavior change. Also, it will allow us to
understand what barriers each participant is facing; depending on what stage they are currently
residing in (DiClemente, Salazar, Crosby, 2013).
Due to the fact that people make decisions for emotional reasons but also want rational
justifications for those decisions, we will develop a message that targets emotional appeal and
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shows how the benefits from participating in the target behavior outweigh the potential
drawbacks. Also, positive appeals have been considered to be more effective than negative
appeals. Therefore, our campaign will emphasize positive behavior change and the rewards
and/or benefits that will result from that positive behavior change. Resnick and Siegel explain
how our research has continued to show how advertisements that arouse positive emotions result
in more positive feelings towards the behavior change or product; which in turn shows a greater
intent to act in accordance with the message (Resnick, Siegel, 2013). Therefore, our message will
show the positive behaviors of eating healthy and in turn benefiting the children socially,
emotionally, economically, academically, and physically. These appeals will directly impact
children, their parents, and academic institutions. Through the use of positive appeals we will
instill a positive reaction that increases the likelihood of the target population to comply with the
message. Mass media will share stories of real life situations of children who were once obese
but experienced the positive results of getting back to a healthy weight through a healthy diet and
thus reaped the benefits. This will not only have a positive appeal but it will also trigger an
emotional appeal. Generally, our society tends to be attracted to stories of high emotion and
drama. We tend to live off of emotion and can more easily connect with the story when we can
put a face to the name. Focusing on learning what the core values are of the target population and
then finding a way to effectively appeal to those values will allow us to be successful in our
marketing campaign. Using emotional appeal will grab the audience’s attention and help to
distribute important information.
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References
Arredondo, E., Castaneda, D., Elder, J. P., Slymen, D., & Dozier, D. (2009). Brand Name Logo
Recognition of Fast Food and Healthy Food among Children. Journal Of Community
Health, 34(1), 73-78. doi:10.1007/s10900-008-9119-3
DiClemente, R.J., Salazar, L.F., & Crosby, R.A. (2013). Health behavior theory for public
health. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Lessons for public health campaigns from analysing commercial food marketing success factors:
a case study. (2012). BMC Public Health, 12(1), 139-149. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12139.
Mininni, T. (2012). Marketing to Kids While Partnering With Parents. Retrieved October 5, 2013
from http://www.designforceinc.com/marketing-to-kids.
Neighmond, P. (2010). Impact Of Childhood Obesity Goes Beyond Health. Retrieved September
7, 2013 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128804121.
Resnick, E.A. and Siegel, M. (2013). Marketing public health: Strategies to promote social
change. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning