Brian Lamb School Health Communication Campaign
Introduction ● Our objective is to conduct comprehensive primary and secondary formative research by interviewing students in the College of Liberal Arts, Professors in the Brian Lamb School of Communication, members of the Brian Lamb School Advisory Board, professionals in health communications to create a report that can be used to create a health communications program at Purdue University. ● Our objective is to increase interest in a health communications program at Purdue University within a focus group by 15% by Tuesday April 18, 2017. ● Our campaign’s mission was to gauge the interest of current and prospective students in studying health communications and develop a health communication program that will meet industry needs.
Research This semester, we focused our research on: ● Health communication undergrad programs at universities in the United States ● Careers in health communication ● Purdue’s current health communication graduate program ● Best practices for conducting a focus group
Analysis S.W.O.T. Key Strengths : Established Brian Lamb School Brand and supportive Advisory Board Key Weaknesses: Don’t necessarily know what our resources will be in terms of conducting research Key Opportunities: Using the Sona Research System to form focus groups and using promotional materials to promote interest in health communication courses among students. Key Threats: Students not having knowledge about health communications and seeing the value in the program
Analysis ● Two objective means two publics: ○ Publics Objective 1 1. Purdue Liberal Arts students 2. Professionals in health communications 3. Purdue Brian Lamb School of Communication Advisory Board 4. Faculty in the Brian Lamb School of Communications 5. Purdue Academic Advisors ○ Publics Objective 2 1. Purdue Liberal Arts students
Interviews with Advisors Purpose: To evaluate student mindsets and discuss the logistics and rationale of a hypothetical health communication program Method: Two of the four advisors were interviewed in person; the other two answered questions via email. Takeaways: ● It needs to appear as a viable career or career complement ● It would need to have many higher-level classes of medically relevant, yet communication based topics
Interviews with Faculty Purpose: To gauge student interest as well as student capabilities and skill sets. Method: Email interview Takeaways ● Need to relate to many different majors ● Students need to see the benefits directly
Interviews with Advisory Board Members Purpose: To acquire input from advisory board members, who are also industry professionals, based on their opinions of adding a health communication program Method: Two of the Brian Lamb School Advisors were interviewed over the phone with pre-determined questions based on their involvement and expertise Takeaways: ● There is a need for health communications professionals in large agencies as well as the traditional places you would think of health communication occuring, and it is a field that has been remarkably stable in its growth
Interviews with Health COM Professionals Purpose: To gauge the value of a health communication program in the professional world. Method: Interviewed two health communication professionals via Takeaways ● Health communication would be an excellent minor or additional program, but not a major ● The field is very diverse and professionals would have loved to have participated in a health communication program but it might too limiting
Focus Groups ● We held four focus groups this semester with each of the following groups: ○ Brian Lamb School of Communication Students ○ Biomedical Engineering Students ○ Health and Human Sciences Students ○ Exploratory Studies Students ● Purpose: To gauge the interest in a health communication program at Purdue among students and perceive what the advantages and disadvantages of such a program may present. ● Method: We used the SONA research participation system to find focus group participants. ● Takeaways: ○ Students will only be interested in a health communications course if it is directly applicable to their future. ○ Students would like to know about the option of a health communication program during their freshman year. ○ Students are looking for hands on courses and internship experiences. ○ Students don’t necessarily know or understand what health communications is or what careers studying health communications will prepare them for.
Report We condensed the key takeaways from each group we talked to into a formal report that contained our recommendations for what we believe a health communication program at Purdue should look like. ● Recommendations: ○ A health communications program at Purdue should either be a series of elective courses or a minor. ○ The question students are asking is essentially, “How will this help me?” When considering branding, this should be the first question we answer. ○ It is important to research all of the ways that a health communications program can be an advantage to students pursuing various career paths and be clear and concise outlining these advantages. ○ Offering hands on classes and internship opportunities will both increase interest in health communications among students and increase their marketability for a future job in the industry. ○ Distinguish how the program will be different from existing majors such as public health and communications
Promotional Materials Purpose: We will target Purdue Brian Lamb students using key messaging based on our research to create a powerpoint presentation and informative flier. ● Flyer: produced by Sammi & Frank ● Powerpoint Presentation: produced by Alondra & Meagan
Flyer Purpose: Creating a flier will provide students in the focus group with a summary of all the information about what a health communications program at Purdue would look like and also help the client advertise studying health communications to students in the future.
Powerpoint Presentation Purpose: A powerpoint presentation will help facilitate the conversation of our focus group and explain the reasons students should consider studying health communications at Purdue.
Evaluation ● We plan to conduct a pre-test and post-test to evaluate if we reach our objective. We will execute a pre-test at the beginning of our focus group by asking students if they are be interested in participating in a health communication program at Purdue. We will then present our promotional materials created from our research report. We will execute a post-test by asking the students a second time at the end of the presentation if they are interested in participating in a health communication program at Purdue. ● Our final focus group which we will use to evaluate our campaign on is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26.
What we learned and advice to future groups ● I learned to always stay on top of the tactics, even if you’re not sure if it’s perfect, focus on improving in the edits - Alondra Magallanes ● Don’t be afraid to ask for help from multiple sources. While some advice may contradict, seeing the viewpoints of why can be just as important. - Frank Vandeputte ● I learned how important research really is in the process of creating communication. We ran a research-driven project this semester that can now largely contribute to successful and targeted campaigns in the future. - Sammi Boram
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