Preventing Childhood Obesity - Evidence Policy and Practice.pdf

Chapter 15
competitive analysis each needs to be informed by up -
to - date intelligence about the people with whom we
want to do business — or at least deal with — and the
world that they and we inhabit. Research can also guide
progress and help map the route to the final goal.
Thus marketing research acts as a navigational aid,
to guide progress and aid decision making. It can and
should transcend ad hoc interventions. Coca - Cola did
not build its brand by conducting a randomized
control trial, but gradually honed it by consistently
delivering consumer satisfaction and developing its
understanding of its customers and stakeholders.
Public health should adopt a similarly long - term and
flexible approach to research.
Lesson Ten: research is a navigational aid that will
help us to understand our customers and stakeholder.
Translation into p ractice
Marketing has a great deal to offer the fight against
childhood obesity, and the lessons learned from
tobacco control need to be applied to obesity. The first
priority is to reduce the pressure of commercial marketing
of HFSS foods and beverages on children. This
should be matched with well - informed social marketing
interventions at all levels of the interlocking
obesogenic system to encourage healthy behaviors.
These activities should be coherent, research led and
strategic; Box 15.2 presents a planning tool for ensuring
that they are.
The diagram illustrates three key characteristics of
marketing planning. The first reflects what might be
called its gestalt. Seen as a whole, the plan becomes
more than the sum of its parts. It provides a progressive
process of learning about the market and its particular
exchanges. This learning takes place within
particular initiatives. For example, a systematically
produced and carefully researched healthy eating initiative
for school children will enable social marketers
to improve their understanding of school children and
their desires, and thereby to enhance the initiative.
There are parallels here with building brand equity in
a commercial context. Continuously refining and
improving the product offered in response to target
audience feedback can establish and deepen the relationship
between parties. Deeper understanding
enables marketers to reflect more closely the values
and aspirations of their target population.
Box 15.2 A s ocial m arketing p lan
Who:
Situation analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Segmentation and
targeting
What: Objectives
How:
Formulating the
offer
• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place
Implementation
Monitoring and evaluation
Second, the learning process also takes place between
initiatives. The social marketer will be able to use
the lessons learned from one initiative as a basis
for future projects. For example, consumer insights
on children ’ s responses to a school - based intervention
can inform family - focused in - store campaigns
and may contribute to policy research on children ’ s
unique vulnerabilities and motivations. Internally,
consistent objectives and messaging of multiple interlocking
initiatives have the potential to greatly
strengthen policy impact. Thus the process is not just
progressive but cyclical; hence the return arrows in
Box 15.2 .
Third, the situation and stakeholder analyses at the
outset of the planning process ensure that the full
extent of the task is realized. Voluntary behavior
change requires resolve and motivation, not just at an
individual level, but also at community and political
level. The Wanless Report noted that substantial population
level change required healthy choices to be
easy, convenient, “low cost ” choices. 38 To achieve this,
a multi - agency, trans - disciplinary analysis of major
population - level barriers and drivers can be used to
map critical factors. Chapter 28 provides a detailed
account of the application of social marketing to
childhood obesity.
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Adapted from Hastings and Elliott. 37
126