European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety

Objectives: Improving infant feeding practices to reduce child malnutrition is a challenging complex target because they are deeply ingrained in culture, habit and context. This paper examines whether the use of innovative research methods and creative practices of private sector marketing could result in more aspirational and impactful behavior change interventions.

Methods: An innovative research approach was used to design a behavior change intervention to promote appropriate feeding amongst children 6-24 months in East Java. A creative marketing agency translated the insights into an aspirational concept for the intervention which was pre-tested before finalizing development of the mass-media campaign and community activation interventions. The development process highlighted the need to focus in on few key behaviors to change, and the use of a non-cognitive motive to help drive that change.

Results: The formative research provided important key insights. Mother's choices are driven by lack of confidence, the drive to keep her child happy and quiet to please her environment and to get her child into a daily routine, eating the family pot as soon as possible. The umbrella intervention idea was developed using a similar process as for branded marketing. The overall catchy theme ‘Healthy Gossip' was chosen, using the voices of key influencers (husbands, midwives, mothers-in-law) in popular situations where motives, such as status or affiliation, rather than knowledge will drive behavior change.

Conclusions: The combination of modern BC approaches and the creative skills and processes proprietary to private sector led to aspirational and impactful behavior change interventions for improved infant feeding practices.