Amanda Fox
Social Marketing Program-Promotional Strategies
MPH 588
Promotional Strategies for Obesity
There are several steps to look at when developing a public health marketing plan. One of these steps is the incorporation of promotional strategies. Promotional strategies are defined as, " t he element of a firm's decision-making concerned with choosing the most appropriate mix of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and publicity for communication with its target market" (Marketing-Dictionary, 2013). Promotional strategies are a key component in developing a public health marketing plan. According to Resnick and Siegel (2013), "mostpossibly all-efforts to change individual health behaviors, implement public health policies, or increase support for public health as an institution include promotional materials and activities"
(pg. 241). The materials and activities used to communicate the specific health message should reinforce each other and help build relationships with the target audience. Promotional strategies should provide the maximum progress towards achieving objectives for the resources invested
(Resnick & Siegel, 2013). In order to implement promotional strategies within a marketing plan, the use of promotional venues is needed. There are multiple promotional venues public health officials can use; mass media, meetings and conferences, special events, print materials, websites, social media, etc. One or all of these venues could be used to create promotional strategies for a marketing plan.
There are several aspects to look at before implementing promotional strategies within the marketing plan. Officials must first establish an identity. "A consistent identity helps build recognition and relationships between target audiences and products, services, social change

efforts, or public health institutions" (Resnick & Siegel, 2013, pg. 241). Branding can also be used to develop identity. Another component is setting standards. There are specific standards a health official must incorporate in order to convey a common identity between the materials and activities. Some of these standards include; campaign or program names giving details on where and how they will be used, basic colors that will be used on all materials, a few typefaces, formats, and layout elements, and music (Resnick & Seigel, 2013). These standards keep the product unique and competitive. After setting standards, the component of planning development time comes into play. Planners oftentimes are unrealistic about the time frame to create their promotional strategy. In order to create a successful strategy, planners must take into consideration eleven steps for a productive timeline. These steps include; determine types and quantities of materials based on audiences, messages, desired reach and frequency, and time campaign is expected to last, develop initial concepts for each material, prepare prototypes, pretest prototypes and submit for peer/professional review, revise designs to incorporate pretest recommendations, obtain commitments from groups participating in promotional efforts, prepare approval package, obtain final preproduction approval, produce rough cuts of audio and video and obtain approvals, make final edits and obtain final approval, and oversee production of the quantities required (Resnick & Siegel, 2013). After creating a successful time frame/time line of the strategy, public health officials must assess proposed materials and activities.
There are many promotional strategies that can be used in order to reduce and prevent obesity. When it comes to the population in Denver, Colorado, the promotional venues to be used will be; mass media, advertising, and special events. Mass media is the first promotional venue this marketing program will be using. The mass media is a great way to get health information out to a large number of people, and there are numerous ways to use the mass media.

One of the most important aspects of using the mass media includes framing public discussion of an issue in terms of core values (Resnick & Siegel, 2013). "They can also be used to increase knowledge, promote specific behaviors, provide sources of tangible goods or direct service delivery, and repeat and reinforce the messages target audience members receive in other forums" (Resnick & Siegel, 2013, pg. 244). The mass media includes; newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and the Internet. All of these media channels impact how the public thinks.
For the obesity program, the use of television and Internet will be used when creating a promotional strategy.
An important aspect to look at when using the Internet and television as channels for the promotional strategy is the way the coverage is framed on the issue. According to Resnick and
Siegel (2013), "different framing results not only in different interpretations of data but in the ranking of social problems and in the solutions proposed for problems we care about. Simple labels for social problems can have powerful impacts on the debate about solutions" (pg. 245).
Within the obesity program, it is important to frame this issue in terms of public policy. Health officials must portray this issue as a strong core value of the American people. It is important for the media to set the public's agenda by covering how important reducing obesity is. They must display this as a critical core value of the American people, and inform them of the short and long-term effects of obesity. They must frame it in a way to make people notice how important it is to try and reduce obesity and prevent the multiple chronic illness that occur. With health, the issue needs to be framed in a prominent way. With the obesity epidemic, and the people in
Denver, a good frame of the issue would be to create a study framing fast food and comparing the nutrient density of whole foods. It would be a good comparison to allow people to see the nutrition content in the fast, convenient foods, and compare them to the whole foods. Also,

showing people the impact within the body of fast foods as opposed to whole, nutrient dense foods. To make the study even more interesting, it is important to make the numbers and data found within the study more interesting and fun for the target audience to grab attention, which therefore would grab the attention of reporters because people would be a lot more interested in the topic.
After framing the issue, it is important to build relationships with the media. According to Resnick & Siegel (2013), "the first step in effectively using the mass media is building relationships with reporters, editors, and producers who determine what stories get covered" (pg.
248). It is important for planners to make themselves look important and reliable, especially on sources of information, in order to create a credible relationship between the reporter and the planner. When it comes to relationships between reporters and planners, it is important for planners to understand specific parameters within which reporters work. The parameters go as follows; planners must be ready, planners must be sensitive to deadlines, planners must be available, and planners must be aware of the "rides" of talking to reporters (Resnick & Siegel,
2013). Planners also must understand the goals of producers, journalists, and editors in order to create coverage on the health topic they are wanting to get out to the public. It is important for planners to look at a broad audience, and tell a story that is novel, timely, relevant, and compelling (Resnick & Siegel, 2013).
Once relationships with reports have been met, stories and information is then passed to the promotional venue. With obesity, the use of television will be used to promote healthier eating and exercise habits within the population of Denver, Colorado. "Television provides a number of openings to reach audiences with social change messages: news programs, talk shows, and entertainment programming" (Resnick & Siegel, 2013, pg. 254). The use of news

programs would be used within the health marketing program. News programs are a little more difficult to use because there is an intense competition for high ratings. This means that producers will mainly select stories that will give shocking or intriguing stories. The story must be short, visually striking, and simple. With obesity, a good news story would be how good nutrient dense foods make someone feel. A short story could be using someone who was obese, showing them change their diet, and then showing the final results of them running in a race, with an ideal body mass index (BMI). The "Jerrod" Subway commercials give a great incentive for news casters to present health related information on their shows. They can also get into statistics on chronic diseases, and showing people older in age, in control of their lives with a lot of energy due to eating healthy and exercise. The message must be visually appealing as well, grabbing the attention of a wide audience. Another news story could show sick children as opposed to healthy children and give statistics of doctors visits throughout the year. This would grab the attention of parents, because most parents cannot afford staying home with sick children and missing work. It could also grab the attention of kids, if they see other children having fun playing games and being active.
The Internet is another channel within the health strategy that will be used in the promotional efforts to decrease obesity. The Internet is a great media source to use with a large target audience. The Internet offers many opportunities for targeting specific audiences.
Planners create websites on the Internet to portray specific health related materials. "Websites can play a number of roles in public health, depending on how efforts to bring change are structured" (Resnick & Siegel, 2013, pg. 268). Websites can be numerous things including; a communication medium, a distribution channel, or a customer service interface (Resnick &
Siegel, 2013). What planners should focus on is creating a website page that reflects and

reinforces the institution's position on the issue as well as their communication strategy. The
Internet provides many beneficial aspects to health planners when creating a marketing strategy.
Planners can create websites that give short and simple to detailed information on complex health behaviors. Also, the information on the Internet can be updated on a daily basis, which makes the information current and relevant. Websites can also include audio, video, and print making the Internet known as a communication medium. Websites can determine what information an individual can access, the order of the information the individual can access at a time, and the time-frame they can access it. This allows health officials a lot of power with what they can present on websites.
Within the obesity marketing program, websites can be extremely beneficial. Websites can actually model specific health behaviors. They can give visuals and stories that will help motivate and encourage people to make healthier decisions. They can also give scientific information on specific statistics, for example the risk factors associated with being obese and the risk percent of getting certain chronic diseases. Websites can also give specific nutrition and exercise information that can be beneficial to the audience in order to educate them on certain foods to incorporate and how much exercise is needed per day to lose weight. Timeliness is also a huge advantage with the Internet. Someone can log in online and get certain information in a matter of seconds. They can also search numerous other health related topics and find all the information they need in one sitting. "As a distribution channel or customer service medium, websites allow people to identify the product, service, or information they want and obtain it at a time and place convenient for them" (Resnick & Siegel, 2013, pg. 268). Websites are something health officials should really utilize because of the massive distribution of information to large

numbers of people. The Internet is also very fast and convenient which makes it more beneficial to the customer.
Another component to the promotional strategy for obesity is advertising. The use of advertising is very beneficial to health planners. According to Resnick and Siegel (2013),
"compared with editorial placement efforts, advertising allows total control over message content and can include very effective emotional appeals" (pg. 257). Advertisements are simple messages that require little context or explanation. There are specific characteristics of effective advertising. These characteristics include; novelty in message, media, target, segment, and product, in which studies have found caused increase in sales, and emotional appeals because people like to feel good over being argued with or seeing endorsements. Also, planners must take into consideration the basic principles of advertising including; messages that are consistent, goal should be to sell not entertain, focus on the benefit of the audience, messages that involve threat appeals or scare tactics, depending on the audience this is being used with, humor but used carefully, and carefully using celebrity spokespeople (Resnick & Siegel, 2013). Advertisements can be similar to the messages the media portrays but the planner has full control over what is put out.
As aforementioned, when it comes to health, people want to be in control and see the results. Commercial advertisements for Subway were great examples of what health officials could do to create an advertisement with obesity. Within this program, television and Internet advertisements will be used. With television, these are short messages showing the improved health of people who eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. It would show how in control the individual felt, as well as the great energy they had. With children and exercise, it would show a healthy child active and a sick child in bed, then promoting activity on a daily

basis. These messages would only be a maximum of thirty seconds, but could be very efficient, again if proper visuals and colors were used. Visually appealing people, typically grab the attention of many viewers, so they could be used eating fruits and vegetables. Another example is the "Got Milk" commercial. Using something similar to this and creating a saying such as, "If you do not want your health to dive, eat five!" With the exercise component, again advertisements could show a quick picture of a child in bed, and then a child who is active and use the phrase, "Thirty minutes of activity a day keeps the doctor away." Advertisements of fruits and vegetables in the grocery store, giving tips on how to chose as well as recipe tips have been found to increase the consumption of those products. Again, they must be visually appealing and grab the customers attention. A long-term lab study found that when grocery stores implement certain aspects of healthy eating, more of those products are purchased.
According to Glanz, Bader, and Iyer (2012), "findings suggest several strategies for in-store marketing to promote healthful eating by increasing availability, affordability, prominence, and promotion of healthful foods and/or restricting or de-marketing unhealthy foods" (pg. 1). Stores need to use specific advertising strategies to help promote the consumption of whole foods.
Overall, catchiness, simple, and visually appealing grabs the attention of the audience within a short time frame.
The final promotional venue to use would be special events. "Public health initiatives may use special events to generate media coverage or to reach target audience members, either to deliver messages or to help them engage in a particular health behavior (Resnick & Siegel, 2013, pg. 265). There are many ways to implement a special event in a promotional strategy. Some of these events could include; conferences for professional audiences, health screenings, or exhibits in conjunction with events sponsored by partners or intermediaries (Resnick & Siegel, 2013).

There are certain aspects a planner wants to take into consideration before using a special event in their health promotion program; making sure the event is consistent with initiatives position, cost-effective in reaching the target audience, if any other community, regional, or national activities could impact attendance or attention, the specific date, time, location that would get the best turn-out, the specific take-away attendees will gather while at the program, and if all the event details reflect the initiatives positioning and image (Resnick & Siegel, 2013).
With the obesity epidemic, many community events could be put into play in order to help decrease the numbers within the city of Denver. Health screenings are important to provide, especially if people get free blood readings done. People are more prone to go get their blood work done if the screening is free. The health screenings can also do blood pressure and weigh ins. Depending on the results, specific health-related information can be given out. With obesity, the health screenings can really hit on the importance of nutrient dense foods and the impact it has on specific numbers, most importantly for this program, BMI. Another community event to implement would be a conference for the public on how to grow their own nutrient dense foods in their backyards. Also, giving out specific recipes and showing people how to pick out specific nutrient dense foods in the grocery store could be a huge asset to the program.
If people were educated and shown what to do, more may be willing to implement it in their daily routine. For children's exercise, schools could create health fairs for students and the public advertising the importance of physical activity. They could also do monthly activity days that would include parents and the public to educate on the importance of thirty minutes of aerobic activity a day, and how to incorporate this in a fun, time-saving way. Special events are a fun, beneficial way to get health related material out to the public.

Overall, promotional strategies are a key component in the creation of the health marketing program. Promotional strategies are defined as, " t he element of a firm's decisionmaking concerned with choosing the most appropriate mix of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and publicity for communication with its target market" (Marketing-Dictionary,
2013). Promotional strategies are used to reiterate the health behavior change that is trying to be implemented. They are used to help motivate people in the direction the health official is trying to get the public to go in. There are several promotional venues which are part of the promotional strategies. With the obesity epidemic, several promotional venues could be used to help individuals in increasing their fruits, vegetables, and exercise to decrease obesity numbers.
Within this specific health marketing plan, the use of mass media, advertising, and special events would be used to create the most beneficial plan in decreasing obesity within the target audience.

References
Glanz, K., Bader, M., & Iyer, S. (2012). Retail grocery store marketing strategies and obesity: an integrative view.
Retrieved on October 19, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=22516491.
Marketing Dictionary. (2013). Promotional strategies. Retrieved on October 19, 2013, from http://www.marketing-dictionary.com/p.php.
Resnick, E.A. & Siegel, M. (2013). Marketing public health, 3 rd edition.
Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.