Guts and sushi

Spill You Guts Part II
So, this week we were supposed to use our formative research techniques (body language, eye contact, open ended Qs, etc.) with strangers outside the health promotion program in order to get them to talk. We were also supposed to bring up some kind of health message. Each one of the strangers that I used my techniques on this week made me laugh. I learned that one of the easiest ways to get people to start talking about health is to mention that I am a public health grad student working for an obesity prevention research project. Right away each of the strangers went off on how fat America is, and made it quite clear how healthy their families are. One of the strangers I was talking to was a man at the car wash. He had just eaten lunch from the in-n-out next door, had a strawberry milkshake in hand, and was bashing on McDonald's and TV. He then went on in detail to explain both his exercise regimen, and the reason for his red and white, palm tree covered to-go cup. Another woman at the grocery store had me look inside her shopping cart to verify that she was a healthy eater. Ha.

Segmentation by Sushi
As always, lab was fun. Not only did I get a better understanding of segmentation, but I also learned a little more about my classmates. 'Segmentation by Sushi' showed me many different ways of breaking down your population. It also showed me assumptions and stereotypes we make based on how we group our target audience. For example, when we divided into groups based on geographic location of our houses, one student said that the students who lived at the beach were "partiers". A smarter student (Kidding, Saps!) said the beach people were probably very active since most people who live near the beach spend time outdoors riding cruisers, walking, surfing, etc.

Again, another informative and interesting class!