A different perspective on consumer engagement: exploring the experience of using health apps to support healthier food purchasing

ABSTRACT

Healthy food purchasing behaviour may be facilitated through the use of health apps if used for the necessary time period. However, little is known on the factors that influence the user experience and facilitate or impede their continued use. The purpose of the present research is to explore the lived experience of using a health app to support healthier food purchasing behaviour. Findings identify the presence of behaviour change motivation and anticipated effort levels as drivers of app engagement. It appeared that behavioural, cognitive and emotional dimensions of engagement may influence one another, driven by contextual influences, to simultaneously contribute to the intrinsic experience of engagement. The research makes practical and theoretical contributions to the consumer engagement literature and highlights the need to focus on understanding and capturing the specific engagement context to better understand engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• User experience
• engagement
• healthy eating
• food purchasing
• app
• self-congruence

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the women that participated in this research and the community workers that facilitated recruitment and data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Examples of occupations included in the eligible socio-economic categories – Non-manual: waitress, beautician, administration assistant; Manual skilled: electrician, plasterer, butcher; Semi-skilled: security guard, scaffolder, care assistant; Unskilled: labourer, refuse collector, cleaner.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the HRB Centre for Health & Diet Research, Grant Reference HRC/2014/13, and conducted as part of the SPHeRE Programme, Grant Number SPHeRE/2013/1. The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Jane Flaherty

Sarah Jane Flaherty is a researcher with the Health Research Board Centre for Health & Diet Research in Ireland and is based at University College Cork. Sarah Jane is a public health nutritionist and her research focuses on exploring consumers’ food behaviours and how healthier behaviours may be supported, while also aiming to understand the consumer’s experience of behaviour change. She has previously published in Psychology and Marketing and Public Health Nutrition.

Mary B. McCarthy

Mary McCarthy is Professor of Marketing in the Department of Management and Marketing in the Cork University Business School at University College Cork. She is also a member of the Health Research Board Centre for Health & Diet Research in Ireland. Mary’s research interests lie in the field of consumer food behaviours where she explores the social, cognitive, and economic factors that influence food consumption patterns and specific food choices. Mary has published widely in journals such as Appetite, European Journal of Marketing, Health Communication, and Psychology and Marketing.

Alan M. Collins

Alan Collins is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Food Business and Development in the Cork University Business School at University College Cork. Alan is an interdisciplinary researcher whose main research interest lies in the area of food retailing, the retail supply chain, and related consumer and shopper behaviour. He has published extensively in journals such as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, amongst others.

Fionnuala M. McAuliffe

Fionnuala McAuliffe is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the National Maternity Hospital Dublin, Director of the UCD Perinatal Research Centre, and a member of the Health Research Board Centre for Health and Diet Research, in Ireland. Her research interests centre on nutrition, diabetes and obesity in pregnancy, maternal and fetal medicine. Fionnuala has published over 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and is Principal Investigator in many clinical intervention trials in pregnancy.