Tag Archives: awareness

New Research Suggests The Color Pink is Bad for Breast Cancer

Gender Cue ResearchA new research area around gender cues and its impact on awareness and fundraising efforts is just getting off the ground according to Dr. Stefano Puntoni, an Associate Professor of Marketing Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, in an interview conducted by Harvard Business Review.

“[Gender que research] is quite new…Over the past 10 years, researchers have put more effort into thinking about consumer welfare. What can we we do as researchers to help consumers make better decisions?” Dr. Puntoni said. “How can we effect change in areas like overeating and disease prevention? This is part of that. We could go more general with gender cue research, but breast cancer is such an important disease that I want to study this more on its own.”

Dr. Puntoni is talking about the findings from 10 different experiments over the past three years that suggest gender cues (such as the color pink) may be counter-productive to campaigns against women’s diseases, such as breast cancer awareness and fundraising efforts. The main insight from the research found that when women saw branding that included gender cues (like the color pink), the branding and ads were less effective. Why? Possibly because the subconscious goes into a state of denial, causing women to:

  • Think they are less likely be at risk
  • Say they are less likely to donate in reaction to a breast or ovarian cancer advertisement

The infographic below created by One to One Global highlights more of the Dr. Puntoni’s research:

Gender Cue Research

Komen Responds

A spokeswomen for Susan G. Komen responded to the research in Ad Age saying that: “The research is food for thought but pink has worked well over the years,” she said. “I would say that in our experience for over 30 years now we’ve been pretty successful using pink. We’ve raised over $2 billion for research and community programs to help people with breast cancer. I don’t want to necessarily discount [the research]. It’s something to look at and consider, but our historic experience has been that we’re doing okay with the pink.”

The AdAge article continues:

Susan G. Komen, who died of breast cancer in 1980, also wore a lot of pink, the spokeswoman said, forming a strong association for her sister Nancy G. Brinker, who later founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “It’s not just a random color we selected,” she said. “It actually reflects the connection between the two sisters and the promise that was made.”

Though some have seen success with the color pink specifically, the research around gender cues is “something to consider” for breast cancer and beyond. Just like there’s cause fatigue, perhaps there’s been so much success—that younger generations of women don’t see the risk or the need to donate.

What do you think?

Citation:
Puntoni, S., Sweldens, S. & Tavassoli, N.T. (2011). Gender Identity Salience and Perceived Vulnerability to Breast Cancer. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(June), 413-424.
flickr credit: ILRI

Quote of the Week: Why the Web Was Won

Have you ever been in a meeting and someone tells you: We aren’t in the behavior change business, we just want to raise awareness? You are not alone. Put take heart, there are those who know better. Especially in the times of the Web, behavior change–and micro-choices that lead to a great action–are even more possible.

In a post titled Designing for Networks, Mike Arauz captures the potential of the Web–beyond its ability to be a distribution channel, beyond its ability to influence and beyond its use in achieving awareness:

If you only use the Internet in order to raise awareness, and perhaps to influence perception, then you are missing out on what the Web was made for: to enable large networks of people to come together for effective purposes through sharing, cooperating, and organizing collective action.

It might have been okay to work towards just “awareness” in the past, but with today’s technology, we can achieve more. I believe that the Web increases our ability to measure, evaluate and influence behavior change. The thing is: Behavior change is no longer on the same playing field. Just like journalism is evolving and the media, the way we influence behavior change and achieve behavior change has evolved. We, as practitioners, must evolve with it. I recently came across another quote that embodies this belief from one of the TurningPoint Collaborative’s PDFs, The Basics of Social Marketing:

The process of heightening awareness, shifting attitudes, and strengthening knowledge is valuable if, and only if, it leads to action.

Why do we want someone to know to exercise, eat right, and get their vaccines? Because we want them to act on that knowledge to prevent disease. Why do we want teens to know that drinking impairs their ability to drive? Because we don’t want them to drink and drive and hurt themselves or others.

Your Challenge

This week, think about why the Web was won. Sure–it can house knowledge and be a database of information–but it is more and can be more for you, your organization and your cause. Think about your bottom line–What is it you want to accomplish? Solve? Create? End? Start? Because at some level it involves behavior, especially if you are working in a Web environment. Do you want people to click on a certain link, read a certain story, donate to your causes—these are all online behaviors.

PS: Do you like these challenges? Are these helpful? I want to help you in being effective. And, I know I like prompts–do you?

Questions to Prevent Awareness Fever

They know about us, who cares if they don’t buy? Would any company ever say this?? Hey, we spent $5M, and made $1M–but at least more people know about us–look at all the awareness we got. No, they would not. Better phrased, they would not be satisfied with that answer. They’d want more information. They’d look at the whole product cycle–from development, to placement, to price, to promotion and beyond.

So, why, fellow health marketing and do-gooders do we settle with “awareness-building?” To be frank, every time I’m in a meeting and I hear the word awareness, my skin crawls. Awareness is great–but there’s a time and place for it. I’m aware of Ritz crackers, but I buy Wheat Thins. I’m aware of Powerade, but I buy Gatorade. There are times I might know about your cause–but I won’t donate. Other times I might know you need help, but I won’t volunteer. I know exercise is healthy, yet I’m still sitting here typing this blog post. There is a reason to these behaviors and decisions. There are motivations, barriers, incentives, costs, and more.

If our friends in the private sector won’t settle, we shouldn’t either. Thus, in the comments, let’s suggest questions to ask when awareness fever strikes our next meeting. Ready, Set, Go.

Questions to Prevent Awareness Fever

  1. How do we turn awareness into action? submitted by Holly Grande
  2. How do we measure awareness? submitted by Holly Grande
  3. What does awareness mean for the campaign? submitted by Holly Grande
  4. So, what do we want people to do with all that awareness? submitted by Mike Newton-Ward
  5. Why do you want to increase awareness in the first place? submitted by Steve Radick
  6. Why does the general public need to know what your division/branch/organization is doing? submitted by Steve Radick
  7. Why should people care? submitted by Steve Radick
  8. When did awareness change anything? submitted by Craig Lefebvre
  9. How can we move people towards action? submitted Fard Johnmar
  10. What are you really offering people that’s new in exchange for the change you want in their routine? submitted by Peter Mitchell
  11. How are you so sure people don’t know this already? submitted by Peter Mitchell
  12. Are people seeking out this kind of information? submitted by Peter Mitchell
  13. Wouldn’t it be better to offer people something they already want? submitted by Peter Mitchell
  14. who is already aware, and what they need in order to move them along to the next stage on the path to taking action? submitted by Nedra Weinreich
  15. Is awareness given, but no action taken? submitted by Christiane Lellig
  16. Is awareness of the sender’s problem necessary for audience to take an intended action? submitted by Christiane Lellig
  17. Once we raise awareness in the room, what ACTIONS are the people in the room going to take in their lives? If we can’t answer the question, START OVER with a new plan. submitted by Mike Domitrz
  18. Your turn. Yes, you–the person nodding their head who’s frustrated with this very same thing. I know you’re out there. (I’ll update this list below with your questions and give you some link love.)

flickr credit: Leo Reynolds

Four Phases of Online Social Change

red heartYou may agree or disagree with me on this, so I encourage your thoughts as I’m transcribing some of my own observations into the online social change field. These observations boil down to four “phases” of online social change that I think reflect our maturity into using social media tools to meet our organization’s aims:

  1. Awareness Building
  2. Fundraising
  3. Contests and Competitions for Change
  4. Advocacy

In the beginning, I feel many tools were leveraged as awareness-building mechanisms. From the initial launch of Causes to recruiting fans, followers and friends, many tools were initially set out to further awareness-building of an organization.

Then, I felt like the tools and our use of them matured as we discovered ways to leverage the tools into dollars–from Twestival to Tweetsgiving to Goodsearch. Even Causes adapted and identified birthdays as a way to increase micro-donations. You could say that online fundraising in and of itself has seen a phased formation and continues to evolve. See Beth’s Kanter’s recent post: 5 Social Media Fundraising Trends for 2009.

Then, enter the behemoths–contests and competitions like “America’s Giving Challenge,” hosted by the Case Foundation entered in the next rendition. You could say this ties into a more advanced type of fundraising, but I felt like it deserved to be on its own. As, I don’t yet think this area has been “tapped out” and neither do organizations according to Andre Blackman who interviewed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who uses contests and competitions to further public health innovation.

However, where I feel we are still in our infancy is with online advocacy for social change. It’s starting to creep up–just look at LiveEarth’s 2009 campaign “Love, the Climate” where people were encouraged to write love letters to office holders who worked to prevent climate change or the “Be a Voice for Darfur” movement which utilized activist and blogger toolkits to further realize the campaign’s objectives. Even act.ly provided a way for people to create and spread petitions with a call to action via Twitter.

Like I said, I think advocacy is where we have the most potential to further expand. I could be biased based on my government and citizen engagement day-job type of work–but I think there’s more ways we can get involved, as citizens, in decision making and peace keeping in our local, state and Federal governments–even internationally. What about you? Where do you think we have the most room to grow and what do you predict as being phase 5? Perhaps, partnerships and collaborations might be a phase five as we see how online and social media open up new doors of opportunity across organization firewalls. Or, another phase 5 might be storytelling–as more of these functions become interwoven and organizations get better at telling their story.

What do you think?

flickr credit: flatfield

Who Pooped in Your Cereal?

Sometimes, you have bad days. When those bad days hit, those are the days you could use some inspiration. Yesterday, I woke up and was inspired.

This image is taken from Franke James’ book “The Real Poop on Social Change.” In it, James delivers an important message regarding awareness vs. behavior. It’s an excellent read, and it’ll take you less than five minutes. (Warning: The text below is a bit provocative, but I think is presented just right–especially in the context of the whole story. One more reason to read it…)

Hope the image brought a smile to your face as it did to mine. Other points James’ makes that may not bring a smile to your face, but instead, infuse renewed energy to your actions:

  • “Look at global warming. Lots of awareness. But how many are doing something?”
  • “U.S. women have lots of awareness [about breast cancer]. But if they don’t have the money to see a doctor–what good is awareness?”

And then, I came across Sheila at LiveWell360, who I felt was so poignant in her questions that she got me thinking further about individual awareness vs. behavior battles:

  • “Why do we work and work and work so that when we are 65 we can *hopefully* retire and do nothing and/or “whatever we want”… at the sacrifice of our time with our family and living a joyful life now? That seems so backwards.
  • Why do we ask each other how we are doing, and the acceptable response is “not bad.” Tell me what you ARE, not what you are not.
  • Why is it weird to ask someone, “What inspires you?”
  • Why is it considered “wishful thinking” or even sometimes laughed upon to go after your dreams and believe that you can do more than status-quo?
  • Why are we willing to buy premium gas for our car, but not buy premium food for our body?”

What about you? Do any of Sheila’s thoughts speak to you? I mean, just because we pick up doggie-do-do, doesn’t mean you have to feel like doggie-do-do. As you wake up this morning, I hope this post leaves you inspired. It’s a new day–experience it.

[Thank you to LaDonna Coy for her tweet, as she is the one who originally brought Franke James’ illustration to my attention.]

BloggersUnite.org Drives Earth Day Buzz

Can you swallow this math?

According to Copywrite, Ink, there were 88,000 blog posts on Earth Day (April 22) that were added to the already existing 2 million written earlier in the week. What’s even more amazing? …About 10% of all those blog posts, came from bloggers on BloggersUnite.org.

In all transparency, I’m a participating members in both the BloggersUnite and BlogCatalog communities, and we worked on a project together in the past, but dang—they deserve a big pat on the back for accomplishing their exact mission, harnessing the power of the blogosphere.

As mentioned on the BloggersUnite Earth Day event page, Earth Day 2009 was held April 22nd and also marked the beginning The Green Generation Campaign, a two-year campaign that will culminate with the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.

More Green Goodness

  • In honor of Earth Day, Colleague Mike Newton-Ward and fellow social marketer wrote a post on applying a social marketing approach to the environment and other green goodies that I highly recommend checking out. Bonus: He provides a slideshare presentation that outlines this even more! (But like a good blogging friend, I’m going to make you go to his post to access it. It’s worth it.)
  • Looking for ways to take action? Check out EPA’s “Pick 5” campaign to identify five ways you can start today to make a difference for our earth. Twitter tag: #p5e

One More Thought

So I say again, great job Tony, Rich and the whole BloggersUnite team–and count this posting just one more for the record book! And I ask you, the SB reader, how have you seen blogging communities drive awareness, change and/or action? I have some of my own ideas, but I’m more into hearing yours. =)