Promoting Fruit and Vegetable Consumption In Different Lifestyle Groups: Recommendations for Program Development Based on Behavioral Research and Consumer Media Data

ABSTRACT

Fruit and vegetable consumption affects the etiology of cardiovascular disease as well as many different types of cancers. Still, Americans' consumption of fruit and vegetables is low. This article builds on initial research that assessed the validity of using a consumer-based psychographic audience segmentation in tandem with the theory of planned behavior to explain differences among individuals' consumption of fruit and vegetables. In this article, we integrate the findings from our initial analyses with media and purchase data from each audience segment. We then propose distinct, tailored program suggestions for reinventing social marketing programs focused on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in each segment. Finally, we discuss the implications of utilizing a consumer-based psychographic audience segmentation versus a more traditional readiness-to-change social marketing segmentation. Differences between these two segmentation strategies, such as the ability to access media usage and purchase data, are highlighted and discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Fruit and vegetable consumption
• health marketing campaigns
• psychographic audience segmentation
• public health

Funding for this research was provided by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (5R03CA117470-02). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health. We would like to acknowledge the individuals at SRIC-BI that made this research possible by providing access to the VALS^™ classification process. Specifically, Cheri Anderson provided valuable information and insight about the VALS^™ segmentation, which aided our research design and development.

Notes

Health prevention behavior exists on a continuum: primary prevention activities are those activities that are undertaken to prevent the onset of a specific health condition; secondary prevention activities are those that are undertaken to identify and treat individuals with risk factors for specific health conditions, but who have not yet been clinically diagnosed with the condition; and tertiary prevention activities are those that are undertaken to help individuals manage an established disease, which emphasizes attempts to restore physical functioning and minimize effects of the disease (U.S. Preventative Services Task Forces' Guide to Clinical Preventive Services 2nd edition, 1996, (pp. xli).

Multi-group structural equation modeling requires group sizes in the range of N = 200 or more (Boomsma, 1982; MacCallum, Widaman, Zhang, & Hong, 1999). In our initial analyses, three groups (the Striver, Experiencer, and Survivor groups) did not meet the minimum sample size requirements.