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Target Audience Barriers, Motivators (Benefits), and Competition 157

• Knowledge objectives:
• To know what a healthy lifestyle is and how to put it into practice.
• To know the health advantages of having a good lifestyle.
• Belief objectives:
• To believe that a balanced diet, regular physical activity, and, in general,
a good lifestyle can aid in preventing diseases and in feeling well.
• To believe that having a healthy lifestyle does not necessarily require a
great effort and can be achieved through simple everyday actions.
Indirectly, the project also had affective objectives aiming to reinforce the trust
of citizens toward the Local Health Unit of Modena and to improve the Unit’s
reputation and reliability.
The goal was that at least 25% of all products that target audiences pur-
chased through the project’s vending machines were healthy (considering that
there were no healthy choices before the campaign, the vending machines were
new, and they offered both traditional and healthy products).

TA R GE T A UD IEN C E B A R R IER S, M O TI V ATO R S ( B ENEF I T S) ,
A N D C O M P E TITI O N

Two focus groups were run with samples of the target audiences in order to ex-
plore their points of view regarding the project and collect important informa-
tion regarding how to develop customer-oriented marketing mix strategies.
These groups were led by a trained psychologist; the first involved school stu-
dents between the ages of 18 and 19, and the second involved university students
and working people. Several subjects were discussed during the focus groups:
how often the target audiences bought certain groups of products and their per-
ception regarding these products, their proposals about how to increase healthy
products consumption (instead of traditional consumption), and how to realize
health communication activities through vending machines.
In addition, several meetings were held with representatives of the Local
Health Unit and of the Buonristoro Vending Group to discuss the characteristics
of the target audiences. Their consumption habits, for example, could be in-
ferred from data regarding the products sold through traditional vending ma-
chines found in locations similar to the project settings.
In synthesis, the following aspects were highlighted:

• Perceived and real barriers related to eating healthy products from
vending machines:
• The cost of fruit snacks, which were often expensive.
• The practical difficulties of consuming healthy foods, like yogurt and
fruit salads, which require, for example, a spoon.