A case study for a psychographic-behavioral segmentation approach for targeted demand generation in voluntary medical male circumcision

Elife. 2017 Sep 13:6:e25923. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25923.

Abstract

Public health programs are starting to recognize the need to move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach in demand generation, and instead tailor interventions to the heterogeneity underlying human decision making. Currently, however, there is a lack of methods to enable such targeting. We describe a novel hybrid behavioral-psychographic segmentation approach to segment stakeholders on potential barriers to a target behavior. We then apply the method in a case study of demand generation for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) among 15-29 year-old males in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Canonical correlations and hierarchical clustering techniques were applied on representative samples of men in each country who were differentiated by their underlying reasons for their propensity to get circumcised. We characterized six distinct segments of men in Zimbabwe, and seven segments in Zambia, according to their needs, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors towards VMMC, thus highlighting distinct reasons for a failure to engage in the desired behavior.

Keywords: demand generation; epidemiology; global health; none; segmentation; voluntary medical male circumcision.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Behavior Therapy / methods*
  • Circumcision, Male / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Patient Acceptance of Health Care*
  • Young Adult
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

Grants and funding

The funders were involved in the study design, but had no role in data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.