Professor Svetlana Bogomolova

This research describes and evaluates the co-creation of a programme called “A Healthy Choice”. Underpinned by design thinking, this study aims to improve the healthfulness of food choices in supermarkets among consumers to promote their well-being.
The research features two studies. Study 1 included five co-design workshops with consumers and staff (n = 32) to develop a consumer-centred programme. The findings supported the design and implementation of a programme evaluated in Study 2 (an… Show more

This research describes and evaluates the co-creation of a programme called “A Healthy Choice”. Underpinned by design thinking, this study aims to improve the healthfulness of food choices in supermarkets among consumers to promote their well-being.
The research features two studies. Study 1 included five co-design workshops with consumers and staff (n = 32) to develop a consumer-centred programme. The findings supported the design and implementation of a programme evaluated in Study 2 (an ecological trial). The programme modified a supermarket environment to increase the prominence of healthier products (shelf-talkers and no discount), ran positive food experiences (cooking and label reading workshops) and was supported by a community-wide information campaign in social and local print media.
A total of 15 new strategies were developed by consumers and staff to support health and well-being in supermarkets. Feasibility discussions and staff voting contributed to the development and storewide implementation of the programme. Evaluation showed that the programme was effective in increasing consumer knowledge of healthier food choices (measured via public survey). Sales analysis showed mixed results; sales increased for promoted products in some categories, but there was no effect in others.
The key contribution of this work to supermarket intervention literature is the recommendation to change the paradigm of engagement between the key stakeholders who are typically involved in supermarket programs. Using the co-design frameworks, the authors offer an example of stakeholders working together in close partnership to co-design and collaboratively implement a programme that promotes healthier choices. Show less

This research offers a novel perspective on encouraging healthier food choices through a community-wide approach. Using five co-design workshops with consumers and supermarket staff, and the abductive synthesis of qualitative data, this study uncovered the role of community in encouraging greater food well-being and allied behaviours. The results reveal rather critical consumer views on past paternalistic health promotion campaigns and offer alternative strategies for designing more balanced… Show more

This research offers a novel perspective on encouraging healthier food choices through a community-wide approach. Using five co-design workshops with consumers and supermarket staff, and the abductive synthesis of qualitative data, this study uncovered the role of community in encouraging greater food well-being and allied behaviours. The results reveal rather critical consumer views on past paternalistic health promotion campaigns and offer alternative strategies for designing more balanced and holistic programs. Such a holistic approach can ensure more sustained programs, as they aim to achieve broader social, mental and physical health, and economic benefits, not just nutrition outcomes. The research offers practical recommendations on modifying retail marketing space, and the broader community setting, to create an environment where consumers find it easier, convenient, more socially desirable and pleasurable to make healthier choices. Show less

Purpose – Increasing and maintaining the population’s consumption of healthful food may hinder the global obesity pandemic. The purpose of this research is to empirically test whether it is possible for healthful sub-brands to achieve higher consumer behavioural loyalty than their less healthful counterparts.
Design/methodology/approach – The study analysed three years of consumer panel data detailing all purchases from five consumer goods categories for 15,000 UK households. The analysis… Show more

Purpose – Increasing and maintaining the population’s consumption of healthful food may hinder the global obesity pandemic. The purpose of this research is to empirically test whether it is possible for healthful sub-brands to achieve higher consumer behavioural loyalty than their less healthful counterparts.
Design/methodology/approach – The study analysed three years of consumer panel data detailing all purchases from five consumer goods categories for 15,000 UK households. The analysis uses best-practice techniques for measuring behavioural loyalty: double jeopardy, polarisation index, duplication of purchase and user profile comparisons. Each sub-brand’s healthfulness was objectively coded.
Findings – Despite the level of healthfulness, all sub-brands: (1) have predictable repeat purchase patterns, (2) share customers as expected, and (3) have similar user profiles as each other. The size of the customer base, not nutrition content, is, by far, the biggest determinant of loyalty levels.
Managerial implications – Sub-brands do not have extraordinarily loyal or disloyal customers because of their healthfulness. Marketers need to focus on growing sub-brands by increasing their customer base, which will then naturally grow consumer loyalty towards them.
Research implications – Consumers do not show higher levels of loyalty to healthful sub-brands, or groups of healthful sub-brands. Nor do they buy less healthful sub-brands less often (as a ‘treat’). There are also no sub-groups of (health conscious) consumers who would only purchase healthful options.
Originality/value – This research brings novel evidence-based knowledge to an emerging cross-disciplinary area of health marketing. This is the first study comparing behavioural loyalty and user profiles towards objectively defined healthful/less healthful sub-brands. Show less

Two studies provide estimates of the upper range of incidence of first-time (brand and UPC) purchases, claimed reasons for these new purchases, and consumer profiles of first-time brand buyers. Study 1 analyzes three years of transaction data from 10,000 loyalty card members; Study 2 reports on 510 mall-intercept interviews in two different stores. Despite the vast range of items available in modern supermarkets, new brand purchasing is not particularly common: new brands constitute about 5% of… Show more

Two studies provide estimates of the upper range of incidence of first-time (brand and UPC) purchases, claimed reasons for these new purchases, and consumer profiles of first-time brand buyers. Study 1 analyzes three years of transaction data from 10,000 loyalty card members; Study 2 reports on 510 mall-intercept interviews in two different stores. Despite the vast range of items available in modern supermarkets, new brand purchasing is not particularly common: new brands constitute about 5% of items in a basket and are purchased on about 1/3 of shopping trips. The majority of these new-to- consumer purchases have been prompted by in-store stimuli (noticing new brands, price promotions and stock-outs). Interestingly, demographic characteristics between first-time and existing buyers did not differ. Providing further evidence to the habitual nature of grocery shopping, the results indicate limited opportunities to expand/change consumer repertoires suggesting the need for ongoing marketing activities for FMCGs. Show less

This research confirms empirical patterns about in-store behaviors based on a large number of shops and store visits, specifically 654,000 transactions in 40 supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience and specialty stores in the USA, UK, China, and Australia. Integrating new data with past findings highlights that: (i) many shopping trips are short; (ii) shoppers typically only cover a small proportion of the store on any trip, and (iii) the heterogeneity of key behavioral measures (store… Show more

This research confirms empirical patterns about in-store behaviors based on a large number of shops and store visits, specifically 654,000 transactions in 40 supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience and specialty stores in the USA, UK, China, and Australia. Integrating new data with past findings highlights that: (i) many shopping trips are short; (ii) shoppers typically only cover a small proportion of the store on any trip, and (iii) the heterogeneity of key behavioral measures (store coverage, number of items bought, and trip length) is generalizable across countries, most store formats, and store size. These patterns can help retailers and manufacturers benchmark and predict behavior and provide a base for further theoretical developments. Show less

Consumer price promotions account for more than half of many manufacturers'​ marketing budgets, and require a significant time investment to manage. Amidst the considerable research on price promotions, little academic attention has been paid to how manufacturers and retailers make price-promotion decisions. Based on in-depth interviews with a broad range of managers, this study investigates factors that influence price-promotion decisions in durable and consumer goods industries. Findings… Show more

Consumer price promotions account for more than half of many manufacturers'​ marketing budgets, and require a significant time investment to manage. Amidst the considerable research on price promotions, little academic attention has been paid to how manufacturers and retailers make price-promotion decisions. Based on in-depth interviews with a broad range of managers, this study investigates factors that influence price-promotion decisions in durable and consumer goods industries. Findings suggest that (1) intuition and untested assumptions are the main inputs into these decisions; (2) practitioners lack solid empirical evidence to guide their actions, and their beliefs are often in stark contrast with academic knowledge about the effectiveness of price promotions; and (3) price promotions are typically not evaluated against the objectives according to which they were justified, impeding appropriate feedback for future decisions. Research priorities are outlined to advance evidence-based decision-making in this area. Show less

Global value chains have grown to represent the major source of modern food and grocery items. Yet there is an increasing preference among consumers toward locally sourced and supplied foods among perceptions of health, economic and community benefits. Typically purchased in farmers' markets and specialty outlets, local foods are becoming more widely available in supermarkets; who are now interested in how they might introduce or increase that product range. We collect actual purchase data from… Show more

Global value chains have grown to represent the major source of modern food and grocery items. Yet there is an increasing preference among consumers toward locally sourced and supplied foods among perceptions of health, economic and community benefits. Typically purchased in farmers' markets and specialty outlets, local foods are becoming more widely available in supermarkets; who are now interested in how they might introduce or increase that product range. We collect actual purchase data from a regional supermarket chain and analyze the drivers of higher local food proportional outcomes across a sample of consumers. Attempts to link theoretically important drivers of local food purchasing in traditional (e.g. farmers' market) outlets to supermarket settings proved difficult. Results do, however, suggest some means by which parties interested in developing local value chains between regional suppliers and supermarket outlets could be achieved. As such the study is a useful first-step in the development of new value chains to address future potential issues of socioeconomic stratification and inequality as a consequence of global value chain prevalence. Show less

Background: People with serious mental illness (SMI) have a 25–30 year lower life expectancy than the general population due largely to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Mediterranean diet can reduce CVD risk and repeat events by 30–70%. We conducted a pilot feasibility study (HELFIMED) with people who have SMI residing within a Community Rehabilitation Centre in South Australia, aimed at im- proving participants’ diets according to Mediterranean diet principles. Methods: During a 3-month in-… Show more

Background: People with serious mental illness (SMI) have a 25–30 year lower life expectancy than the general population due largely to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Mediterranean diet can reduce CVD risk and repeat events by 30–70%. We conducted a pilot feasibility study (HELFIMED) with people who have SMI residing within a Community Rehabilitation Centre in South Australia, aimed at im- proving participants’ diets according to Mediterranean diet principles. Methods: During a 3-month in- tervention, participants were provided with nutrition education, food hampers, and twice-weekly cooking workshops and guided shopping trips. This report presents the results of a mixed method evaluation of the programme using thorough in-depth interviews with participants and support staff (n 1⁄4 20), contextualized by changes in dietary biomarkers and CVD risk factors. Results: The frame- work thematic analysis revealed evidence of improvements in participants’ knowledge of and intake of the key elements of a Mediterranean-style diet (fruit and vegetables, olive oil, fish, legumes), reduc- tion in poor nutrition habits (soft drinks, energy drinks, take away meals) and development of inde- pendent living skills—culinary skills such as food preparation and cooking based on simple recipes, food shopping and budgeting, healthy meal planning and social interaction. These changes were sup- ported by dietary biomarkers, and were associated with reduced CVD risk factors. Conclusions: A Mediterranean diet-based pilot study achieved positive change in dietary behaviours associated with CVD risk for participants with SMI. This supports a need to include dietary education and cooking skills into rehabilitation programmes for people with SMI. Show less

Observation is a unique method of collecting factual information about consumer behaviours and behaviour change in the real world. The objective and unobtrusive nature of observation makes it perfect for a social marketing enquiry because it overcomes problems common to other techniques, such as memory lapse and social desirability bias in self-reports. Observations can play a part at a formative stage or be the core outcome measure in an evaluation with pre- and post-data collections… Show more

Observation is a unique method of collecting factual information about consumer behaviours and behaviour change in the real world. The objective and unobtrusive nature of observation makes it perfect for a social marketing enquiry because it overcomes problems common to other techniques, such as memory lapse and social desirability bias in self-reports. Observations can play a part at a formative stage or be the core outcome measure in an evaluation with pre- and post-data collections. Observation data can be collected, coded, and analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Both traditions have been successfully used in social marketing studies and other disciplines. This chapter focuses on mechanical observations, which tend to produce quantitative data, offering researchers the ability to develop numerical benchmarks and observe trends in consumer behaviour and changes over time. In mechanical observations, data collection takes advantage of technological innovations in audio, video, biometric, item, and digital signature recording, allowing for even more objective, precise, and potentially less labour intensive and costly observations. These advancements should help to increase popularity of mechanical observation techniques among social marketers. This chapter summarises the main types of mechanical observation techniques and offers illustrations from prior studies in social marketing, commercial marketing, and allied disciplines, including nutrition, human movement, urban design, and transportation. Innovations in mechanical observations across these contexts are a useful source of research techniques for social marketing and cross-disciplinary studies aimed at improving the wellbeing of individual consumers and society as a whole. Show less

On first glance, it seems that supermarkets are offering consumers great deals these days. Many do save us money and majority of consumers manage the task of judging the value of a deal. However, our new research shows confusion among some consumers about how much they’re saving through price promotions.
One in four consumers misjudge the value of the deals offered and the most vulnerable shoppers are most likely to be left out of pocket. Our analysis across 23 product categories in five… Show more

On first glance, it seems that supermarkets are offering consumers great deals these days. Many do save us money and majority of consumers manage the task of judging the value of a deal. However, our new research shows confusion among some consumers about how much they’re saving through price promotions.
One in four consumers misjudge the value of the deals offered and the most vulnerable shoppers are most likely to be left out of pocket. Our analysis across 23 product categories in five retail chains of the UK and the US shows that between 30 - 50% of supermarket sales in developed countries are bought on some form of deal. With such high prevalence, it is important we all develop the numeracy skills needed to tell a good deal from a bad one. Show less

Abstract
Price promotions dominate the modern grocery retail environment. This paper documents the prevalence and nature of these price promotions (i.e., deal types and discount depths) in the United States and United Kingdom. The analysis comprises of 23 categories across five retail chains. One of the key findings is that multiple-unit promotions – deal types that have been under-researched – account for approximately half of all price promotion activity. The analysis also identifies an… Show more

Abstract
Price promotions dominate the modern grocery retail environment. This paper documents the prevalence and nature of these price promotions (i.e., deal types and discount depths) in the United States and United Kingdom. The analysis comprises of 23 categories across five retail chains. One of the key findings is that multiple-unit promotions – deal types that have been under-researched – account for approximately half of all price promotion activity. The analysis also identifies an increase in price promotion prevalence since the Global Financial Crisis, predominantly driven by national brand promotions. This research carries important implications for the alignment of academic research with common industry practices.

Keywords
Price promotions; Deal types; Grocery retail practices Show less

The ability to track shoppers as they move through retail environments using signals emitted by their communication devices kindles the interest of practitioners and researchers. This data collection method is cheap and has the ability to supply big data for shopper insights. However, this non-probabilistic sampling method can possibly under- or over-represent certain groups of the shopper population. This study assesses the validity of the data describing the length of shopping trips and… Show more

The ability to track shoppers as they move through retail environments using signals emitted by their communication devices kindles the interest of practitioners and researchers. This data collection method is cheap and has the ability to supply big data for shopper insights. However, this non-probabilistic sampling method can possibly under- or over-represent certain groups of the shopper population. This study assesses the validity of the data describing the length of shopping trips and representativeness of the sample of shoppers carrying Bluetooth-enabled devices. The authors track unique Bluetooth logs in-store and compare to simultaneously collected data from a manual, systematic sample of 324 shoppers observed and interviewed in the same supermarket. A comparison of the results obtained from the two samples (auto-logging and manual systematic) drawn from the same population indicates automated Bluetooth tracking produces very similar (r=.92, p<.001) trip lengths to that observed manually. Basket size, spend and occupation of Bluetooth trackable shoppers are similar to those with no Bluetooth-enabled devices. These findings present compelling evidence that the Bluetooth auto-logging method holds great potential for retail practice and research. An expected under-representation of the oldest demographic (66 y.o. and over) in the Bluetooth discoverable sample calls for complementary methods of data collection to minimise representation bias in real-time tracking technologies for shopper research. The benefits of using auto-logging data describing shopping trip length for retail practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Keywords
Bluetooth tracking; Shopper behaviour; Sampling; Retailing Show less

Abstract
For many organisations, satisfaction is the corner-stone metric for measuring the value
of service delivery to customers. Ambulance services are no exception. The level of
service that an ambulance team provides has an immense impact on the future wellbeing
and quality of life for the patient and his/her family. Yet, the measure of ambulance
patient satisfaction often encompasses a range of factors beyond the actual evaluation of
the experience. In this study, the… Show more

Abstract
For many organisations, satisfaction is the corner-stone metric for measuring the value
of service delivery to customers. Ambulance services are no exception. The level of
service that an ambulance team provides has an immense impact on the future wellbeing
and quality of life for the patient and his/her family. Yet, the measure of ambulance
patient satisfaction often encompasses a range of factors beyond the actual evaluation of
the experience. In this study, the authors analyse 10 years of ambulance patient
satisfaction survey data from ambulance authorities across Australia and New Zealand.
The results report consistent patterns in responses to satisfaction questions, and identify
factors associated with overall patient satisfaction. These findings allow for greater
insights into the true performance level of such as vital service provision. Show less