I agree with the other girls that the last few weeks have been especially educational, not only with information but also with experience. In regards to our group's project, I was surprised by how much energy, creativity, flexibility, and (ultimately) time was required to produce an original health message for our target audience. Of course, if we had a budget to work with, the process may have been a little easier and certainly would have produced a better quality product in the end, but it is clearly a challenging task. I wonder just what end product we could have developed if we had a budget or equipment/software to produce the quality video message we had envisioned. Had things been different, I would have liked to have been able to add our designed logos (i.e., "1N2-which-1RU?", "Ask...") to the actual video messages. I would like to hear feedback from our classmates about the effectiveness of the logos specifically, but I don't the connection between the logos and the video messages was made.
One of the biggest lessons I learned from the experience of Project #2 was the results of testing our messages. Although our hypotheses were pretty accurate, the comments and suggestions made by our target audience "testors" provided perspectives we hadn't considered during the development and production of the messages. I recognize as a Caucasian female that I repeatedly fail to highlight cultural relevance - I am actually quite embarassed by this realization about myself. :( In my opinion, this was the most important comment made by one of our testors. It helped to keep it in perspective for me.
On the other hand, the reason I agreed to serve as the person giving the testimonial was mainly because my own personal experience related closely to that of the target audience. My story required only minor tweaking and tailoring to better fit the specific segment that "got a ring on it." It made sense for me to give the testimony, regardless of my race, because the experience HAD actually happened to me. Maybe it was too scripted? Maybe it didn't come across as genuine-enough? I don't know - but doesn't the audience prefer a TRUE story vs. one that is totally fabricated? It's interesting to think how a viewer can feel a disconnect with the individual in the testimony based on one factor of difference over a feeling of connection due to several factors of similarity. It's a very fascinating, and yet, a very real phenomenon that I cannot ignore.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The final blog Post ...
The fourth module provided a quick overview of methods and channels which can be used to disseminate/ introduce a campaign. The two main ones we covered in class were letters to the editor, policy/community support in agenda setting, and the modes (T.V., radio, etc) that can be used. The top three key insights for this module were the marketing concepts that can be applied to public health, agenda setting, and media channels/ advocacy.
Last week I mentioned that I really enjoyed the reading by Grier & Bryant (2005). They explained in a very thorough way the meshing of public relations and public health. More specifically social marketing and it's possible use for public health interventions. This article made me think back to campaigns that had used branding. Such as the truth campaign, VERB, etc. all these campaigns adopted public relations concepts when developing their interventions/ programs.
Our two speakers highlighted agenda setting channels. Our first speaker discussed how we can use media to get our message across. The second speaker discussed agenda setting at a local and global level. I really enjoyed this lecture because agenda setting and community involvement, government, etc. were presented. This presentation put into perspective the role of different entities I could see how the ecological model could be used when discussing this.
Finally, the group presentations from this past week provided examples of the channels we could use to promote campaigns promoting a specific behavior change. I found it interesting that all of the groups had at least one video as their channel. I found the bone marrow and their twitter page and video to be a really good combination of channels. The red bull group and their use of ads was also very good. I felt like that was their ads were good but it might be a good idea to develop a video because a lot of Redbull's advertising of the product is through t.v. commercials. The drunk driving testimonial was really well produced and i also liked the bone marrow's video and the way they used it to empower/ encourage people to want to help those in need of bone marrow. I am excited to see the edits we will all do after we receive feedback. I can't believe that we are going to start the last module this week. The semester has gone by so quickly.
end of module insights
Tonight I am going to try to keep this short and sweet. My top three key insights for this module were:
1) medical and public health experts and organizational communication leadership ought to be prepared to provide informative and interesting messages for the media to disseminate. it's particularly important to be sure that the framing is appropriate and mutually beneficial for the cause and the journalist. sometimes it makes most sense to produce your own media (e.g., letters to the editor).
2) public health could benefit from the full range of marketing (4Ps). Beyond the communication aspect, it seems to me a good bit of this would require policy changes, both at the government (local/state/national) and/or non-government organization (workplace as well as consumer market).
3) producing quality communications material is difficult! this insight comes mostly from the group project presentations. developing good communications requires knowing the target audience as well as a ton of creativity. it also helps to have a skill-set such as video production. the twitter account seemed like the easiest for the non-creative to be able to adapt and implement for a health communication campaign.
-Melissa
1) medical and public health experts and organizational communication leadership ought to be prepared to provide informative and interesting messages for the media to disseminate. it's particularly important to be sure that the framing is appropriate and mutually beneficial for the cause and the journalist. sometimes it makes most sense to produce your own media (e.g., letters to the editor).
2) public health could benefit from the full range of marketing (4Ps). Beyond the communication aspect, it seems to me a good bit of this would require policy changes, both at the government (local/state/national) and/or non-government organization (workplace as well as consumer market).
3) producing quality communications material is difficult! this insight comes mostly from the group project presentations. developing good communications requires knowing the target audience as well as a ton of creativity. it also helps to have a skill-set such as video production. the twitter account seemed like the easiest for the non-creative to be able to adapt and implement for a health communication campaign.
-Melissa
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Module 4 Summary
Hello all,
I learned a lot from module 4. I would like to summarize the main points I learned from each groups presentation first.
substance abuse: I found it ironic that hey also adapted the Master Card commercial idea as well as created a testimonial. I like their video a lot. It looked well thought out and professional. The video was attention grabbing. I thought the first ad seemed to be a little too simple and used to many slides with costs on them. I would suggest trying to making the video as though it was on a family members life to see if that increased "buy in".
"drop the bull" - energy drinks: I thought the re-segmented group findings were interesting since they varied so much from the original group tested. I thought "drop the bull" was very cleaver and catchy. I was actually a big fan of the picture of the tired student which included the negative side effects of energy drinks. I found it interesting to see it made more people want to drink red bull. They could try to create a series of pictures from high to low energy to illustrate the crash of energy. I would suggest adding stats to make this easier to know how much is too much? Or, what is considered high volume consumption vs low volume consumption.
bone marrow donation: great video. I liked the use of "YOU can" statements. If made it feel approachable and easy to be a part of changing someones life without monetary requests. I would suggest using more images or picture of real people in the video. The twitter account may benefit from having the target audience clearly listed on the home page. After watching their video I want to sign up with the registry.
physical activity: Sam's story was a great way to begin the presentation. I was immediately tuned in. I liked their video. It was very fun and appealing. I would suggest adding a few more funny kid pictures like kids hula hooping or skipping rather than the majority playing sports. I thought it was funny to hear that the kids thought the logo could be a gang symbol or negative message. I think it would be difficult to create an effective message for kids. I think they did a great job addressing the issues the kids brought up.
I also liked the use of presentors for this module. Both guest lecturers lead interesting discussions. I really enjoyed Asher's discussion on public health policy. I liked that he emphasised community envolvement as well as the importance of utilizing research for large scale policy changes. I think over all this was one of my favorite modules. It showed a great variety of what avenues are available for health communications.
In closing, I think all groups have created great products thus far. I look forward to all of the final refined products. It is fun to see each group improve after each step. Good job everyone!
Cody
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Week 13 - Global
Guest Lecturer Asher had a very interesting presentation and I really enjoyed the Global perspective he presented to us. I had an idea of how policy worked at the local/ state level but I definitely found the global level interesting. I am interested in working for an organization like WHO, PAHO in the future so learning where they would fit in the global policy model was very informative. I took notes but I would definitely find it helpful if he could upload his slides on blackboard, just a thought.
The readings for this week were interesting and very informative. One particular thing that resonated as I read was from the Grier & Bryant (2005) reading. They discuss how there are not many social marketing courses or even a division within public health departments and that is the case with our School of public health. I believe this course is the only course that touches upon social marketing in detail which is interesting because we will be health promotion specialists and should be able to apply social marketing concepts to our specific campaigns. This course has definitely introduced me to different strategies and ways to approach different health behavior change issues but it might be good to offer other courses maybe even one's in which what we learn in 663 is taken to a whole other level. I feel that students who know that this particular area is what they might be doing in the future would benefit from having more advance courses in public health communication or hey maybe starting to develop a division that makes this their focus. Although, being trained in social marketing will also be beneficial for those of us that will be developing interventions. It will help us create interventions/ campaigns with more chances of being successful. As Grier & Bryant put forth the first step is to enhance the knowledge of public health professionals when it comes to the key elements of social marketing and its application.
News and Media
The Wallington, Blake, Taylor-Clark, & Viswanath (2009) article seemed to relate more closely to the guest lecture from Week 11 than to Week 12. Both the article and the lecture revealed how to systematically utilize the news media as a resource and effective channel through which to communicate pertinent health messages to the public. One of the main benefits of this channel of communication is that a large portion of the population can receive the message through a brief, simple, but directed point of exposure. The lecturer discussed how the organization has to be deliberate in how they utlize the time provided to maximize the impact of the message by 1) scripting the message, 2) considering the best org. representative to act as the spokesperson for the news interview, and highlighting and packaging the message content as "newsworthy" for the reporting journalist to present. The lecturer noted that the manner in which the message is packaged and prepared for public can seem somewhat "deceptive." On the other hand, the concept is similar to the idea of how researcher present the results from study data to visually demonstrate significance. For example, one may consider whether it is more effective to communicate that "Group A is two times as likely as Group B to develop Disease X" or "Group B is half as likely as Group A to develop Disease X." Even the visual graphs and figures selected to present the numerical data found in reserach studies are chosen based on how they most effectively communicate the significant results of the study. The purpose of the message has little impact if its not heard. Therefore, in the end, the packaging of the message is very important. Just like a product marketing, the "packaging" draws attention to the message or product and suggests its relative quality to the public. Without attention, the purpose of the message will be lost and will have fallen on deaf ears.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
News & Media Advocacy
Asherlev Santos was a great guest lecturer! I enjoyed getting a taste of the global perspective. Issues advocacy can be incredibly complicated given the glut of players involved. I was aware of the restriction on lobbying for nonprofit orgs, but didn't realize there was a "loophole" that allows advocating for your issue so long as not for or against a specific piece of legislation. Policy change should work alongside other public health efforts and interventions.
The main message I took from the Grier & Bryant (2005) article was that public health professionals have been employing an overly narrow fashion. That is, public health approaches social marketing as a technique for communication campaigns. Social marketing encompasses the full marketing mix of product, price, place, and promotion in development of interventions. These 4 Ps can be translated to public health terminology as follows:
So the idea here becomes to highlight the benefits of your product, reduce costs, and improve accessibility alongside the communication campaign. I liked the example of making fruit cheaper and available where it is not (e.g., corner store for a healthier snack option). When I was in high school I worked at the local convenience store (anyone heard of Wawa?), and our bananas were about 3X more expensive than at the supermarket. People rarely bought them. We can't always expect food costs to remain low... sometimes there are things outside of our control that affect supply and drive up prices. I was very upset when I read this article nearly two years ago because I thought I might be losing bananas which are so crucial for the texture of my daily smoothies... Then I received much worse news and the plight of the banana seemed trivial. Two years later I still have my bananas, but I wonder what the future holds.
It's quite possible that the price of bananas has risen and more Americans are priced out, but I haven't noticed. Although I'm a student, I'm relatively comfortable financially and do not have to pinch pennies to feed myself. This is a privilege I take for granted--many people cannot afford or do not have access to fresh fruit. That sort of leads me to the next reading topic, which was getting health disparities into the media--Wallington et al (2009). It didn't surprise me that one of the difficulties for journalists was that public health stories may require a good bit of background research they may not have time or expertise for given tight deadlines and the need to be a generalist. It has to be a story and it has to be framed appropriately. The focus on getting audience buy-in and affecting change in their beliefs/behaviors surprised me a bit. I imagine you can have a story that isn't personally relevant but still engaging. Disparities can be tricky because they often bring up troubling social inequalities that many would rather write off as personal irresponsibility. Newspapers seemed the best and most willing media to tackle these issues, but this medium likely reaches fewer people in part because of self-selection.
The main message I took from the Grier & Bryant (2005) article was that public health professionals have been employing an overly narrow fashion. That is, public health approaches social marketing as a technique for communication campaigns. Social marketing encompasses the full marketing mix of product, price, place, and promotion in development of interventions. These 4 Ps can be translated to public health terminology as follows:
- product = social proposition
- price = costs
- place = accessibility
- promotion = communication
So the idea here becomes to highlight the benefits of your product, reduce costs, and improve accessibility alongside the communication campaign. I liked the example of making fruit cheaper and available where it is not (e.g., corner store for a healthier snack option). When I was in high school I worked at the local convenience store (anyone heard of Wawa?), and our bananas were about 3X more expensive than at the supermarket. People rarely bought them. We can't always expect food costs to remain low... sometimes there are things outside of our control that affect supply and drive up prices. I was very upset when I read this article nearly two years ago because I thought I might be losing bananas which are so crucial for the texture of my daily smoothies... Then I received much worse news and the plight of the banana seemed trivial. Two years later I still have my bananas, but I wonder what the future holds.
It's quite possible that the price of bananas has risen and more Americans are priced out, but I haven't noticed. Although I'm a student, I'm relatively comfortable financially and do not have to pinch pennies to feed myself. This is a privilege I take for granted--many people cannot afford or do not have access to fresh fruit. That sort of leads me to the next reading topic, which was getting health disparities into the media--Wallington et al (2009). It didn't surprise me that one of the difficulties for journalists was that public health stories may require a good bit of background research they may not have time or expertise for given tight deadlines and the need to be a generalist. It has to be a story and it has to be framed appropriately. The focus on getting audience buy-in and affecting change in their beliefs/behaviors surprised me a bit. I imagine you can have a story that isn't personally relevant but still engaging. Disparities can be tricky because they often bring up troubling social inequalities that many would rather write off as personal irresponsibility. Newspapers seemed the best and most willing media to tackle these issues, but this medium likely reaches fewer people in part because of self-selection.
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