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Case Study:
The importance and usefulness of segmenting your audience is highlighted in this case study example.
The importance and usefulness of segmenting your audience is highlighted in this case study example.
The Living and Eating for Health segments (LEHS) research resulted in detailed audience profiles based on the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of young people.
The Living and Eating for Health segments (LEHS) research resulted in detailed audience profiles based on the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of young people.
Utilising Segmentation
Utilising Segmentation
Now that you know what segmentation is, let's explore how we used it in the Communicating Health research.
We used qualitative online conversations with young adults (18 to 24 years) to better understand young people’s motivations when it comes to food. Using this data we developed six Living and Eating for Health segments (LEHS) that provided us with different profiles of young people based on their different attitudes, values and beliefs around healthy eating.
The six LEHS segments are:
I’m passionate about healthy eating & health plays a big part in my life. I use social media to follow active lifestyle personalities or get new recipes/exercise ideas. I may even buy superfoods or follow a particular type of diet. I like to think I am super healthy.
I’m health-conscious and being healthy and eating healthy is important to me. Although health means different things to different people, I make conscious lifestyle decisions about eating based on what I believe healthy means. I look for new recipes and healthy eating information on social media.
I aspire to be healthy (but struggle sometimes). Healthy eating is hard work! I’ve tried to improve my diet, but always find things that make it difficult to stick with the changes. Sometimes I notice recipe ideas or healthy eating hacks, and if it seems easy enough, I’ll give it a go.
I try and live a balanced lifestyle, and I think that all foods are okay in moderation. I shouldn’t have to feel guilty about eating a piece of cake now and again. I get all sorts of inspiration from social media like finding out about new restaurants, fun recipes and sometimes healthy eating tips.
I’m contemplating healthy eating but it’s not a priority for me right now. I know the basics about what it means to be healthy, but it doesn’t seem relevant to me right now. I have taken a few steps to be healthier but I am not motivated to make it a high priority because I have too many other things going on in my life.
I’m not bothered about healthy eating. I don’t really see the point and I don’t think about it. I don’t really notice healthy eating tips or recipes and I don’t care what I eat.
To help with your segmenting, here is a downloadable quick reference guide summary of the information on this page.
Check out the infographics below for further detail about each segment.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel, the LEHS are ready for you to use.
If you were considering your own communication to young people, how might you shape your message to someone who fits into the ‘Lifestyle Mavens’ category versus someone who is a ‘Balanced all-Rounder’?
Perhaps also consider which Health Behaviour Theory might help you create better content and connect with your audience more effectively.
The Communicating Health team have also created a video on getting people to approach rather than avoid their health issues and how this applies to the LEHS segments. You can check this out as part of the Social Marketing Lecture Series.
Where to next? - Planning or Health Behaviour Theories or back to Segmenting Your Audience or to helpful resources linked below
Where to next? - Planning or Health Behaviour Theories or back to Segmenting Your Audience or to helpful resources linked below
Links & Resources
Links & Resources
Resource
Resource
This is an example survey we used to segment the research audience into the LEHS. You can use it as a guide or template for making your own survey.
Publications
Publications
Beyond Body Weight: Design and Validation of Psycho-Behavioural Living and Eating for Health Segments (LEHS) Profiles for Social Marketing (by Brennan L, Chin S, Molenaar A, Barklamb AM, Lim MS, Reid M, Truby H, Jenkins EL, McCaffrey TA.) in Nutrients (2020)
A social marketing perspective of young adults' concepts of eating for health: is it a question of morality? (by Brennan, L, Klassen, K, Weng, E, Chin S, Molenaar A, Reid M, Truby H, McCaffrey TA) in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2020).
Nutrition Meets Social Marketing: Targeting Health Promotion Campaigns to Young Adults Using the Living and Eating for Health Segments (by Dix CF, Brennan L, Reid M, McCaffrey TA, Molenaar A, Barklamb A, Chin S, Truby H in Nutrients (2021)
Communicating Health to Young Adults Using Social Media: How, Where, and When? (by Dix CF, Brennan L, McCaffrey TA, Reid M, Molenaar A, Barklamb A, Chin S, Truby H in Nutrients (2022)
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