Smokers' Responses to Anti-Smoking Advertisements by Stage of Change

Abstract

Prochaska and DiClemente's stages of change concept has been readily adopted by health promoters and social marketers. These stages have been recommended as a segmentation variable in health promotion and social marketing campaigns, while a recent social marketing text proposes the Prochaska stages as a core element of the social marketing approach.

For any marketing segmentation base to be meaningful, it must be shown that the different segments respond differentially to some aspects of the communication and marketing mixes directed at the segments. Hence the utility of the stages of change approach in social marketing is dependent on evidence that individuals in the various stages of change do respond differentially to elements of the social marketing mix. Given that information is the primary component of many social marketing campaigns, and that this information is often carried in the form of paid advertisements or public service announcements (PSAs), it would be useful to determine whether individuals in the different stages of change respond differentially to the same message, and hence require separate communications.