From research to practice: Developing a marketing program to promote balance classes for older adults

Background. Community-based balance retraining classes are proven to prevent older adult falls, but uptake is limited. Social marketing -- using marketing principles to motivate the voluntary behavior of target audiences for a societal benefit -- is a promising approach to promote balance class participation. Objective. Develop a research-based social marketing program to promote balance classes to older adults in churches. Methods. A target audience matrix was developed from survey data. Emergent themes and content framed by marketing principles (i.e., program, place, price, promotion) were identified from initial qualitative research and used to create a marketing blueprint. Two creative concepts were developed and tested with church leaders and elderly congregants. The preferred concept was revised and a ‘toolkit' of messages and materials created. The final marketing program was mapped back to research results to assess responsiveness. Results. The marketing program fully addressed three themes--emphasizing increased independence and de-emphasizing exercise and fall prevention, moving older adults out of their “comfort zones,” and relationships that initiate and sustain participation--and to a lesser degree, the fourth theme (gender-based differences in fall prevention approaches). The program also attended to program, place, price, and promotion based on information from qualitative research. The development process and resulting program will be described. Conclusions. The likelihood of successful church-based fall prevention programming for community-dwelling older adults can be increased through application of qualitative findings in intervention planning and delivery. The marketing program is currently being evaluated in the context of a randomized trial.