An Abstract: Healthy Food Promotion with an App?

Abstract

Connected devices can be used in a social marketing perspective to mix virtual entertainment and real commitment to a behavioral change, such as a healthier diet for a better life. Whereas the literature on healthy diet programs based on the use of connected device(s) include numerous surveys, our review showed a low use of theoretical frameworks in previous studies. Furthermore nearly all studies reported a decrease in program usage throughout the intervention period. As a conclusion, behavioral changes have been observed in a certain amount of studies but small and on short periods, conclusions remaining rather unclear. Moreover most studies concentrated on extrinsic factors and hardly took into account intrinsic factors such as participants’ motivations and barriers to engaging themselves in a long-term healthy diet program. Following a transformative agenda (Mick et al. 2012), we intend to consider our target as experts on their needs and wants toward a healthier diet and the potential help of connected devices. We conducted a qualitative research in Parisian region (France) with four focus groups (27 participants). We targeted both men and women having tried to lose weight in the last 5 years; the sample diversity ensures the representation of other important criteria, such as educational level and the familiarity with connected devices. During the focus groups, we used a probing approach (Mattelmäki 2008) for co-exploring which device and which design could better help the participants to lose weight in a long term, considering them as collaborative stakeholders. Data analysis used softwares (NVivo 11 and Alceste) for a text analysis and a content analysis. Results highlight motivation as the major factor compared to the type of devices used (website, app, or connected devices such as Fitbit or HAPIfork) and the type of messages. They suggest that self-determination (Ryan and Deci 2000) is a major factor to participants’ motivations and compliance to digital tailored prompt messages. Clearly, a friendly app is their favorite tool. They consider it as their best ally to follow a diet program. Our results indicate this importance of maintaining motivation in a long term by satisfying the needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. All the participants point out the need for being nudged, not judged. Nevertheless, less educated and less familiar to IT participants are the most reluctant to digital devices.