How does value evolve over time? A netnographic study of health behaviour maintenance in social marketing

The long-term continuation of physical and mental health behaviours (e.g. exercise, nutrition, and mindfulness) is a central goal in social marketing. However, it is common for individuals to perceive more costs than benefits to maintaining health behaviours (Lee & Kotler, 2016). This often results in behavioural relapses or abandonment (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983). The creation of value for social marketing target audiences has been demonstrated to lead to positive outcomes such as satisfaction, and intentions to continue with the desired behaviour (Zainuddin et al., 2013). While there is an expanding body of value research in social marketing (e.g. Chell & Mortimer, 2014; Mulcahy et al., 2015; Zainuddin et al., 2013), much of this research has focussed on understanding value at a single time point, using cross-sectional research approaches. Value is a dynamic construct, influenced by temporal circumstances (Sánchez-Fernández & Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007), and would therefore benefit from longitudinal approaches. Previous studies have argued consumers' perceptions of value change at different stages of consumption processes (e.g. Russell-Bennett et al., 2009; Woodruff & Flint, 2001), yet there remains a lack of longitudinal empirical evidence for how value experiences evolve during the maintenance of health behaviours in social marketing. This represents a gap in knowledge as behaviour maintenance is a long-term, ongoing process (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983). This gap leads to the research question for this study: RQ: How do value experiences evolve during health behaviour maintenance? Publication Details Dent, K. , Zainuddin, N. & Tam, L. (2016). How does value evolve over time? A netnographic study of health behaviour maintenance in social marketing. 2016 International Social Marketing Conference: Societal Wellbeing This conference paper is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/buspapers/1143 How does value evolve over time? A netnographic study of health behaviour maintenance in social marketing Kendall Dent, Dr Nadia Zainuddin & Professor Leona Tam 1 Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Business University of Wollongong Northfields Ave NSW 2522, Australia kdent@uow.edu.au, 2 Lecturer in Marketing, Faculty of Business University of Wollongong Northfields Ave NSW 2522, Australia nadiaz@uow.edu.au 3 Professor in Marketing, Faculty of Business University of Wollongong Northfields Ave NSW 2522, Australia ltam@uow.edu.au Author biographies 1 Kendall Dent is a Ph.D. Candidate in Social Marketing at the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Her Ph.D. research explores consumer-to-consumer value creation in social marketing, with a focus on interactive technology. She received her Class I Honours degree from the University of Wollongong for her dissertation: “Behaviour maintenance in social marketing: A netnographic investigation of value creation and value destruction”. She is an invited contributor to the Australian Association of Social Marketing, and has worked for EY Sweeney, one of Australia’s leading marketing research agencies, on projects spanning health, government, education, and social research. 2 Nadia Zainuddin is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Her Ph.D. was awarded by the Queensland University of Technology, where she investigated consumer value in preventative health services. Her research interests are primarily in health, wellness, and well-being services, and value creation. She has published in marketing journals such as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, and Journal of Social Marketing. 3 Leona Tam is a Professor in Marketing at the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. She has a Ph.D. in marketing from Texas A&M University, an MPhil degree and a bachelor's degree in marketing from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her main research interests are in motivational consumer psychology and social consumer behaviour. She is currently working on projects about habit versus loyalty, temporal effects, and repeated behaviour in personal health and finance contexts. She also studies group decision-making. She has published in a number of marketing and management journals.