Development and Piloting of the Enhanced Integrated Behavioral Model to Frame a Social Marketing Campaigns for Teens

Background Teenagers are at high-risk of obesity and related co-morbidities, and yet, are notoriously challenging to engage for behavior change. Focus This work offers an innovative integrated theoretical model, the Enhanced Integrated Behavioral Model (EIBM), drawing from communication, persuasion, and behavior-change theories to inform social marketing. Research Question Can the EIBM prove effective to reach and engage teens in both behavior- and social norms-change? Program Design/Approach We used EIBM to pilot a social marketing campaign aimed at increasing water consumption among teens and their networks. Importance to Field Social marketing is an approach, not a theory. Behavior change models usually provide only limited instruction on messaging. Communication theories can lack practical application guidance. By combining both, we propose a theoretical framework to maximize social marketing campaigns. Methods We piloted a two-tiered social media driven social marketing campaign for high school students to promote increased water consumption and decreased sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in rural New Mexico to change their behaviors and engage them as change agents. Results Our campaign guided students through various stages of attitude, empowerment, and behavior change, for themselves and their families and friends, supporting our model’s utility for social marketing campaign design and implementation. Recommendations for Research Further testing of EIBM for social marketing.