The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Media Campaign designed VERB™ as an aspirational brand to increase physical activity among children aged 9–13 years. In the current study, we explore the influence of the VERB™ brand in the campaign using a brand equity framework. Brand equity responses were collected from 1,007 children from a national cross-sectional telephone survey. Findings indicated that high VERB brand equity was associated with increased positive attitudes toward physical activity and participation in free-time physical activity. The relationship between brand equity and free-time physical activity was partially mediated through attitudes. Brand personality and leadership/popularity constructs were found to be strong predictors in determining physical activity attitudes and behaviors, respectively. As the use of a branding strategy increases in public health, brand equity offers social marketers a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of their efforts.
The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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