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This blog makes public early results of a new survey of 1,500 Americans conducted by Artemis Strategy Group using our proprietary Motivation ResearchTM approach that draws out a full range of personal emotional connections associated with important aspects of our lives. The survey focuses on two areas: Health and Financial Services. In this series of blogs we focus on the health-related findings.
“Healthfulness.” This survey reveals the extent to which Americans have connected multiple healthy activities to create a more holistic lifestyle of healthfulness. This pattern of behavior is driven not just by a desire to avoid illness, but by the more complete desire to lead an active, enjoyable and rewarding life. This evolution of approaches to personal health could be characterized as “healthfulness.”
Context is key. This examination of Americans’ approaches to health involves several steps to get to the underlying forces that motivate actions. The first step is to establish the context of consideration. We do this by inquiring about where people put their time and energy. The findings from this first part of the inquiry reveal an America that is attentive to, if not obsessed by, personal health.
- The vast majority of Americans are doing at least one important thing to become and remain healthful
Over seven in ten Americans (71 percent in this survey) report engaging in at least one major activity to improve their health during the past year. Important activities include monitoring diet and nutritional intake, monitoring and increasing exercise or physical activity, undertaking and maintaining a serious behavior modification such as quitting smoking or reducing alcohol consumption, and/or engaging in activities to promote emotional balance and mental health.
- A growing number of Americans engage in multiple actions in concert with each other to become and remain healthful
More than 50 percent of respondents in our survey regularly engage in more than one important activity. The most popular combination is improving diet and nutrition while also increasing physical activity. More impressive, almost one in five (17 percent) of respondents engage in all four important health behaviors suggesting a growing group of healthful lifestyle devotees.
Motivations. What does it mean that Americans consciously engage in behaviors to improve their health? The next step in this analysis examines the specific activities and the emotional underpinnings, or motivations that drive those actions. Our next blog will dig deeper into the patterns of linkages between specific health-related actions and the emotional outcomes that people seek.
Look for our “Healthful Is the New Healthy” e-book in coming months, and also for an invitation to our August 2014 webinar during which we’ll review the health-related results of our MAPTM program.
The Artemis Strategy Group Motivations Assessment Program (MAPTM) is an initiative based on proprietary primary research to develop insights and practical tools to help marketing leaders in public and private roles develop communications that persuade their audiences to act.
