While 800,000 to 900,000 Americans are currently living with HIV infection, up to 275,000 do not know they are infected. Benefits of new HIV treatments, the fact that most HIV-infected people reduce their risk behavior when they learn they are infected, and early research suggesting antiretroviral drugs can lower transmission of the virus make it important for all people infected with HIV to know their HIV status , enter into treatment, and utilize prevention services designed to encourage adoption and maintenance of HIV risk reduction behavior. To motivate those at greatest risk to learn their HIV status CDC developed the KNOW NOW media campaign to promote voluntary HIV testing. Most public health communication campaigns use only demographics, such as age and/or race as the segmentation variables that determine which specific audience segments will be targeted. We hypothesized that by segmenting the population by marketing clusters, determined by zip codes and census tracts, and analyzing data from consumer marketing data bases, more insight could be gained, resulting in a greater degree of accuracy in targeting specific populations. This presentation will provide an overview of the KNOW NOW! communications project and describe its implications for health communications and social marketing.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session , participants will be able to (1) Describe the problems associated with not knowing ones HIV status (2) Discuss different ways of targeting audiences and (3) Recognize the value of incorporating marketing techniques into health communications.
Keywords: Audience Segmentation, Communication
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.