The subtitle of the latest Yankelovich Monitor briefing is “Health: More than Talk Required” and I’ve been chewing on it all day. (See the extended excerpt below.)
I live in New York City where restaurant chains are required by law to list the calories of an item on the order board. I was ambivalent about the legislation before it was enacted. I wondered about the cost impact for smaller businesses and the public’s ability to control themselves whether or not they were faced with the awful truth.
Having lived under it a bit, I do use it to help me make better choices. Not always, of course, but in general I think it helps me police my salty-fried-food urge and has made a positive impact on my behavior.
The folks at Yankelovich believe this is the shape of things to come – improved consumer behavior, when it comes to health care anyways, will need to be mandated in order to be realized.
In our study findings, five of the top six challenges to healthcare in America focus on cost—driven partly by personal experience and partly by the media’s constant conversation. Whatever the reason, healthcare costs are a driving force in healthcare in America. An additional driving force is the notion of overall, or holistic, wellness—including the mental, emotional, spiritual and social dimensions of health. When asked to rate the importance of specific elements to maintaining health, factors within these dimensions ranked higher than diet/nutrition and exercise. And while an emphasis on holistic health and wellness has well-documented benefits, it may also be having unintended consequences.
In some cases, a focus on holistic health may be masking the need to attend to direct physical health issues. It may even mask the impact that physical disease has on overall health. For example, more consumers with high blood pressure cite “having a sense of purpose in life” as being highly important to maintaining good health than cite “eating a well-balanced diet” or “exercising regularly.” So while Americans are very focused on the rising costs of healthcare, again, there is a disconnect between their concerns and their actions. Engaging in the behaviors that rank relatively lower on the list of things that are important to maintaining good health are the same behaviors that could make a significant impact in reigning in the costs of healthcare—both personally and collectively.
Yankelovich’s Implications
Lead or be led. Our research clearly points to the fact that attitudinal shifts alone will not produce sufficient shifts in health outcomes, nor will a focus on mental, emotional, spiritual and/or social well-being lead to positive physical health outcomes in the absence of truly healthy lifestyles. These facts are certainly not lost on policy makers in the public and private sectors who are trying to make doing the “right thing” the default for consumers. Changes in legislation, taxation, rewards and adverse consequences are all manifesting themselves in the marketplace in an attempt to drive consumer behavior change. What kind of catalysts for change can your brand offer to motivate consumers to make better health choices?Be part of the solution. With the push to improve healthcare outcomes in America, will your brand be viewed as part of the solution or part of the problem? How can your brand help individuals develop a campaign for their own personal health reform? For example: Think beyond recommending food diaries and exercise logs—give consumers the tools they need create customizable, even interactive, worksheets and “diary” pages; create benchmarks linked to specific goals that are accompanied by rewards and recognition (maybe even penalties); or bring consumers together based on their healthcare mindset rather than the actual state of their health. Whatever your path, marketers who engage consumers in their personal health journey also become a partner in sustainable change.
Collaborate! Moving past the remaining barriers to personal accountability will require multi-stakeholder collaboration. Whether you are an employer, marketer or healthcare provider, deliver consistent messages—in concert with any partners you might be working with (think health insurance companies along with employers)—across a variety of media. Provide products that are equal to the message. Create social interaction through virtual communities to help translate accurate information into meaningful action.
Sources: Yankelovich 2007 Multinational Preventive Health and Wellness Study and Yankelovich 2009 Health & Wellness Segmentation Study
Born Curious 
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