A case study for a psychographic-behavioral segmentation approach for targeted demand generation in voluntary medical male circumcision

  1. Sema K Sgaier  Is a corresponding author
  2. Maria Eletskaya
  3. Elisabeth Engl
  4. Owen Mugurungi
  5. Bushimbwa Tambatamba
  6. Gertrude Ncube
  7. Sinokuthemba Xaba
  8. Alice Nanga
  9. Svetlana Gogolina
  10. Patrick Odawo
  11. Sehlulekile Gumede-Moyo
  12. Steve Kretschmer
  1. Surgo Foundation, United States
  2. Cello Health Insight, United Kingdom
  3. Surgo Foundation, United Kingdom
  4. Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe
  5. Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health, Zambia
  6. Ipsos Healthcare, United Kingdom
  7. Ahimsa Group LLC, Kenya

Abstract

Public health programs are starting to recognize the need to move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach in demand generation, and instead tailor interventions to the heterogeneity underlying human decision making. Currently, however, there is a lack of methods to enable such targeting. We describe a novel hybrid behavioral-psychographic segmentation approach to segment stakeholders on potential barriers to a target behavior. We then apply the method in a case study of demand generation for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) among 15-29-year-old males in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Canonical correlations and hierarchical clustering techniques were applied on representative samples of men in each country who were differentiated by their underlying reasons for their propensity to get circumcised. We characterized six distinct segments of men in Zimbabwe, and seven segments in Zambia, according to their needs, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors towards VMMC, thus highlighting distinct reasons for a failure to engage in the desired behavior.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Sema K Sgaier

    Surgo Foundation, Seattle, United States
    For correspondence
    semasgaier@surgo-foundation.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8311-2686
  2. Maria Eletskaya

    Cello Health Insight, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Elisabeth Engl

    Surgo Foundation, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Owen Mugurungi

    Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare, Zimbabwe
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Bushimbwa Tambatamba

    Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health, Lusaka, Zambia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Gertrude Ncube

    Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare, Zimbabwe
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Sinokuthemba Xaba

    Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare, Zimbabwe
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Alice Nanga

    Ipsos Healthcare, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Svetlana Gogolina

    Ipsos Healthcare, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Patrick Odawo

    Ahimsa Group LLC, Nairobi, Kenya
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Sehlulekile Gumede-Moyo

    Ipsos Healthcare, London, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Steve Kretschmer

    Surgo Foundation, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Contract #24210)

  • Steve Kretschmer

The funders were involved in the study design, but had no role in data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Ethics

Human subjects: In Zambia, ethical approval was received by ERES CONVERGE IRB, Ref. No. 2014-Aug-008In Zimbabwe, ethical approval was received by MRCZ, Ref. No. MRCZ/A/1884Consent to publish was received by all authors and the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe.Written consent was obtained by all respondents. For those respondents below the age of 18 years (minors), both parental consent and consent from the interviewee were received. Consent forms were signed by both parent/guardian and minor in these cases. No respondents were under the age of 13 years.

Version history

  1. Received: February 14, 2017
  2. Accepted: September 4, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: September 13, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: October 4, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Sgaier et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Sema K Sgaier
  2. Maria Eletskaya
  3. Elisabeth Engl
  4. Owen Mugurungi
  5. Bushimbwa Tambatamba
  6. Gertrude Ncube
  7. Sinokuthemba Xaba
  8. Alice Nanga
  9. Svetlana Gogolina
  10. Patrick Odawo
  11. Sehlulekile Gumede-Moyo
  12. Steve Kretschmer
(2017)
A case study for a psychographic-behavioral segmentation approach for targeted demand generation in voluntary medical male circumcision
eLife 6:e25923.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25923

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25923

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