Avoiding a Knowledge Gap in a Multiethnic Statewide Social Marketing Campaign: Is Cultural Tailoring Sufficient?

Abstract

In 2007, the State of Hawaii, Healthy Hawaii Initiative conducted a statewide social-marketing campaign promoting increased physical activity and nutrition. The campaign included substantial formative research to develop messages tailored for Hawaii's multiethnic Asian and Pacific Islander populations. The authors conducted a statewide random digital dialing telephone survey to assess the campaign's comparative reach among individuals with different ethnicities and different levels of education and income. This analysis suggests that the intervention was successful in reaching its target ethnic audiences. However, a knowledge gap related to the campaign appeared among individuals with incomes less than 130% of the poverty level and those with less than a high school education. These results varied significantly by message and the communication channel used. Recall of supermarket-based messages was significantly higher among individuals below 130% of the poverty level and those between 18 and 35 years of age, 2 groups that showed consistently lower recall of messages in other channels. Results suggest that cultural tailoring for ethnic audiences, although important, is insufficient for reaching low-income populations, and that broad-based social marketing campaigns should consider addressing socioeconomic status-related channel preferences in formative research and campaign design.

Effects of Find Thirty every day®

“…Of particular interest is the differential impact on awareness achieved by this campaign; specifically, we found higher awareness in women and in the low-SES group. Higher awareness of physical activity campaign messages by women have been reported in studies in Australia (Brown, Mummery, Eakin, & Schofield, 2006), Europe, (De Cocker, De Bourdeaudhuij, Brown, & Cardon, 2007), and the United States (Buchthal et al, 2011; Craig, Bauman, Gauvin, Robertson, & Murumets, 2009) and in low income, ethnic groups in the United States (Buchthal et al, 2011). This is a positive finding for mass reach campaigns, consistent with the literature (Buchthal et al, 2011; Craig et al, 2009; Spence et al, 2009; Vallone, Allen, & Xiao, 2009).…”

Eating for the better: a social marketing review (2000–2012)

“…Significant decreases in energy, carbohydrate and fat HEALTHY study Siega-Riz et al (22,(77)(78)(79) | Significant difference between intervention and control for two of sixteen dietary measures (fruit and water intake). No significant difference between groups for combined prevalence of overweight and obesity Healthy Hawaii Buchthal et al (80)(81)(82) | Increase in fruit and vegetable consumption for adults, decrease for students. Significant changes in subjective norms Go for 2 & 5…”

The Healthy Hawai‘i Initiative: insights from two decades of building a culture of health in a multicultural state

“…The media campaigns reached a significant portion of the population, were described as "a starting point for work with communities," and as one aspect of a multi-pronged approach to shift norms and behaviors. However, despite a culturally-tailored approach, they did not reach low-income audiences as effectively as middle/upper income groups [41]. Particularly among low-income groups, key informants described cost and peer influences as the crucial to dietary changes.…”