Abstract
Policy interventions such as public health mass media campaigns disseminate messages in order to improve health-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors at the population level. Only more recently have campaigns that promote health-related behaviors adopted branding, a well-established marketing strategy, to influence how consumers think and feel about a message. This study examines whether positive brand equity for the national truth® campaign is associated with lower likelihood of cigarette use over time using the nationally representative Truth Longitudinal Cohort of youth and young adults, aged 15-21. Logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between brand equity and the likelihood of reporting past 30-day smoking over a 12-month period. Respondents who reported positive brand equity were significantly less likely to report past 30-day smoking 12 months later (OR = 0.66, p < 0.05), controlling for covariates known to influence tobacco use behavior. Findings also translate the effect size difference to a population estimate of more than 300,000 youth and young adults having been prevented from current smoking over the course of a year. Building brand equity is a strategic process for health promotion campaigns, not only to improve message recall and salience but also to influence behavioral outcomes.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 1517 |
Journal | International journal of environmental research and public health |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 7 2017 |
Keywords
- Brand equity
- Branding
- Health behavior
- Health promotion campaign
- Smoking
- Tobacco
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pollution
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis