Since the target audience already wants to be healthier, the objective and measure focus will be on behavior, actually eating a healthy meal. One of the drawbacks of the Michigan Steps Up! campaign is that, to my knowledge, data was not collected on eating or exercising behaviors prior to the campaign. Of course, from secondary data (that 61% obese or overweight statistic) we can assert that eating and exercising behaviors needed to be changed, but surveying Michiganders on their current habits could have better directed the communications objective.
If this campaign's communication objective had been top of mind awareness, then they failed miserably. I suppose I can't say that with certainty, but at least very few of my classmates recognize this 5-year campaign. Nor did it encompass the consumption culture. It could have incorporated its materials to better fit healthy eating into the busy lives held by its target audience. While it offered snacking tips and recipes, it didn't do much for the single mother who works full time and has two kids. Nor did it do much for the middle-aged man who drives an hour to work every day and when he comes home, is faced with household and family duties.
Fortunately, this campaign neither chose to use an information communications objective. It's been tried and tested, telling people that fast food is bad for their health does nothing to encourage them to make healthy meals. Nothing.
This campaign may or may not have been successful with an image communications objective. The FE doesn't have awareness or information working for it, but MDCH has great credibility.
Regardless, I believe the Michigan Steps Up! campaign went for a behavioral communications objective. It's a call to action to eat healthier. Although I couldn't find a copy of the Michigan Steps Up! ad, I believe the campaign might have been based off the larger HHS SmallSteps campaign. Here's one of their ads.
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I understand why you are focusing on behavioral, but my concern would be that it will be difficult for ads to get people to change behavior unless they were really memorable or became viral (the one shown in class for example). Michigan Steps Up should try for a top of mind awareness campaign to try to remind people about the program or do the basic awareness if they think the knowledge of the program is so low that a majority of people dont know about the program.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy the the ad for the stepup.gov program, that could be a good template for the Mi Steps Up whether you go with behavioral or top of mind.
Thanks Jose. It's so true that this campaign did not succeed in either its reach or being memorable.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the goal of the communications plan? I personally hate top of mind awareness because "just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come." Does Smokey the Bear really prevent people from dropping their cigarettes in the woods, or do people just recognize him when they see a billboard?
You may be right though. I'm going to go back and think about this.
It looks like since you're doing acquisition/stimulate demand, you either have an information or behavioral communication obj. But you are totally right that giving information doesn't help change behaviors. So your communications should have cues to action to prompt healthy eating/resist fast food.
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