Here are 3 marketing strategies that I operate to make Philadelphia healthier

In Philadelphia The main causes of death Or heart disease, cancer and unintentional overdose of the drug. While some of these deaths are caused by things outside our control – like genetics – there are many largely to prevent.

Deaths that can be prevented are the result of a number of decisions. Regardless of whether a person decides to smoke, eat a lot of fried dishes or be a sofa potato, and their decisions – sometimes unconsciously – can affect their health.

I am Health Communication Expert AND Public health researcher on Temple University in northern Philadelphia. At the end of the eighties I started working in public health at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and earlier I worked in marketing and public relations. I spent my career thinking about how health decisions are like many decisions that consumers make every day around which products buy.

One of the key differences in health decisions is the associated risk. There is no high risk in trying a up-to-date brand of petals, but there is a risk that riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

Many people have the attitude “will not happen to me” when making decisions that are associated with risk. This element “risk perception“It guided my interest in health decisions and the way commercial marketing techniques – the same companies using products to sell – to encourage people to vaccinate, gain colonoscopy or treat medical condition.

Breaking demographic data in psychography

One strategy I operate Segmentation analysis.

Analysis of segmentation is a process of looking at groups of people who may look as if they were all similar on the surface – such as black women from northern Philadelphia – and then pierce them into smaller groups based on differences in their attitudes, beliefs or behavior.

Looking at these “Psychography“Instead of demographic data, such as age or sex, public health communication researchers can better understand how to communicate effectively.

For example, I conducted a study in 2021 Transgender women living in Philadelphia and San Francisco Bay Area felt for other members of the Trans community. We wanted to check whether the information about preparation or Prevention before exposureDrugs used to prevent HIV infection would have to be different depending on how they felt.

We found that the participants who were more involved in the Trans community had not only knowledge about PreP, but also more likely that the benefits of using it compared to those who were less involved.

This indicates that the strategies of reaching people who are not connected may, for example, require providing more basic information about what preparation is and how it works.

Mathematical models and 3D maps

Another powerful marketing tool I operate is the process known as perceptive mapping and modeling of vector messages.

By using uncomplicated answers at the survey, we can mathematically model how people think about a health decision and present it on a three -dimensional map.

Like someone may think about the relationship between where cities or countries are in relation to each other – for example, in a place where Philadelphia is in relation to Modern York or Chicago – we can take answers from the survey and transform them at a distance. We ask people for permission or disagreeing with statements about the benefits or barriers in the decision and introduced their answers to the computer program to create a map.

We can then model vector messages, which shows how to move the group towards the desired decision.

Return to high school physics when you got to know about the amount of strength or pushing and pulling, needed to move one object towards the other. Modeling vector messages helps us determine which beliefs should be pressed or pulled so that the group strives for a specific decision, and helps us create the most convincing news for this group.

When we operate vector modeling along with segmentation analysis, we can also compare how sending messages may be similar or different for different groups.

For example, I used segmentation analysis, and then perceptual mapping and vector message modeling to understand how Medical distrust may affect the decision To be vaccinated for Covid-19 among the Philadelfian group who have not yet been vaccinated.

Then our team analyzed perceptual maps and modeling of vector messages according to the levels of distrust. Vectors have shown that people with a high level of medical distrust would be more willing to respond to messages that concerned concerns about the mystification of Pandemia or fear that the minorities would not receive the same treatment as others.

This allowed us to think about how to create news around these problems in public media campaigns or other communication strategies that encourage vaccination.

Decision tools

I used these methods to create and test a number of different communication strategies to influence health decisions.

For example, I developed online tools used in hospitals and clinics in Philadelphia to encourage patients with methadone with hepatitis C To receive antiviral treatment In case of infection, patients with black cancer take part in a clinical trial Or To get genetic testsand patients with low reading and writing ability and a higher risk of colorectal cancer colonoscopy.

My colleagues and I also developed posters, brochures and posts in social media, which encourage the low income and Philadelphians vaccines in Kensington to get the Boster Covid-19 booster shots; Educational slides for adults in Philadelphia with a low life content on dirty bombs And how a radioactive weapon can be used in a terrorist attack; and a comic for women trance to women Learn about the benefits of preparing.

Difficulty people to make better decisions about their health can be a battle uphill. We all have reasons not to do things that are good for us. For example, what have you eaten for lunch today? Was it vigorous? If not, why did you eat it?

My task is to determine what makes people do what they do, and then aid them make decisions that maintain their health.

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