Comparing short- and long-term breastfeeding models

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is, as the health benefits of breastfeeding for mother and child have already been fully ascertained, to highlight the differences on why short- and long-term breastfeeding mothers adopt their respective behaviours. Based on these findings, a model for long-term breastfeeding is put forward here. The aim is to identify the specific variables and processes that create confidence during the early days in breastfeeding mothers so that social marketing campaigns can be deployed more effectively to sustain this behaviour over time. Design/methodology/approach – The validity and reliability of the scales used were tested using Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Differences in cognition, attitudes and behaviour with respect to breastfeeding between the short- and long-term breastfeeding mothers were analysed with ANOVA and multi-group structural equation modelling. An independent self-administered questionnaire was given to 311 breastfeeding mothers in 2008. The surveys were carried out at the Maternity Hospital together with five other medical centres on the island of Gran Canaria (5 per cent error and 95 per cent reliability). This can be considered to be a fair representation of trends in breastfeeding in Spain, as most births take place in similar state hospitals. Findings – As expected, short- and long-term breastfeeding mothers differed over the key variables. While attitudes toward, and knowledge of, breastfeeding produce the adoption of breastfeeding, long-term commitment seems to relate more to general knowledge on health and other intangibles. Practical implications – In light of these results, specific marketing efforts should be designed to achieve the continuation of breastfeeding. Interventions that focus on attitudes toward, and knowledge of, breastfeeding may prove ineffective. Originality/value – As many worldwide research projects suggest, the extremely large percentage of mothers who discontinue breastfeeding before the infant reaches six months of age represent a greater challenge than the relatively low percentage of mothers who choose not to breastfeed from the beginning. This paper focuses on long-term commitment and outlines a possible model to promote the same.

The importance of customer trust for social marketing interventions: a case of energy-efficiency consumption

“…This view was echoed by Mulcahy et al (2015) who demonstrate that attitudinal loyalty can be an important piece in maintaining moderate drinking behaviour. Thus, this study puts emphasis on the attitudinal dimension of customer loyalty, which is more relevant to social marketing programmes aiming to address long-term complex behaviours that require continuity, consistency and commitment in adopting the desired behaviour (Marques and Domegan, 2011;Díaz Meneses and Rodríguez, 2015). Empirical evidence from the marketing literature points to the fact that trusting customers are loyal to a product, service or brand (Watson et al, 2015;Brown et al, 2018;Ndubisi, 2007).…”

“…Although social marketing is not confined to applying commercial marketing principles (French and Russell-Bennett, 2015), its core tenets emulate those of commercial marketing (Butler et al, 2016;Gordon et al, 2018;Lee and Kotler, 2016;Mulcahy et al, 2015). However, since inception, social marketing has largely embraced the transactional paradigm of the commercial marketing toolbox and been slow to adopt its relational thinking (Hastings, 2003;Marques and Domegan, 2011;Díaz Meneses and Rodríguez, 2015). This overlooking of relationship marketing (RM) components can be explained by the fact that social marketing programmes are dominated by publicly funded short-term programmes (Donovan et al, 2015) that do not always allow for long-term relationship building with the targeted audience (Hastings, 2003).…”

“…This overlooking of relationship marketing (RM) components can be explained by the fact that social marketing programmes are dominated by publicly funded short-term programmes (Donovan et al, 2015) that do not always allow for long-term relationship building with the targeted audience (Hastings, 2003). Therefore, there have been repeated calls (Hastings, 2003;Marques and Domegan, 2011;Brennan et al, 2016;Díaz Meneses and Rodríguez, 2015;Wood, 2016) for social marketers to embrace RM as a strategic paradigm for sustained behaviour changes. RM is a growing school of thought that incorporates all the processes of identifying, developing, maintaining and terminating relational exchanges with the purpose of enhancing performance (Marques and Domegan, 2011;Ndubisi, 2007).…”

“…While social marketing has been successful in changing a myriad of behaviours, maintaining a long-term behavioural change has often been a challenge (Brennan et al, 2016;Díaz Meneses and Rodríguez, 2015). The behavioural change advocated by social marketing programmes should not be merely a short-term venture but a long-term one that requires time to occur (Brennan et al, 2016;Dessart and Van Bavel, 2017).…”

Evaluate development! Develop evaluation! Answering the call for a reflexive turn in social marketing

“…Evaluation is not a new concept to social marketing as multiple studies acknowledge evaluation through forms such as message evaluation (Anghelcev and Sar, 2014), school-based programme evaluations (Page and Sharp, 2012), community-based programme evaluations (Lynes et al , 2014; Schuster et al , 2016) and evaluating attitudes towards breast feeding (Meneses and Rodríguez, 2015). Also assessed are evaluation in social marketing and evaluations of past interventions and theories (Stead and McDermott, 2011; Manikam and Russell-Bennett, 2016).…”