1

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 1
Needs Assessment 2
Research Design 3
Focusing on Major Influences (Path Modelling) 6
Overview of All Segments 6
Prioritising Segments 9
Related Reports from this Study 10
Executive Summary: Others Oriented 10
Executive Summary: Support Seekers 15
Appendix I – ACNielsen Quality Assurance 18
Appendix II – Margins of Error 19
Appendix III – References 20
2 Obstacles to Action

Acknowledgements
SPARC, the Cancer Society of New Zealand and the
ACNielsen research team are indebted to Dr Ed Maibach,
formerly Porter Novelli International and now National
Cancer Institute, USA, for allowing the use of the
intellectual framework and questionnaire that provided
the basis for this study.
A large, multi-disciplinary team of people and organisations
throughout New Zealand worked closely together on this project.
The research project was contracted to ACNielsen (Antoinette
Hastings, Judy Oakden, Jane Young and Hugh Butcher) in
collaboration with Dr Charles Sullivan of Capital Research.
Professor Rob Lawson, from the Marketing Department at
the University of Otago, undertook the path modelling.
The research team worked closely throughout the course of
the study with the SPARC team; Deb Hurdle, Grant McLean
and Christine Parry and the Reference Group. We wish to
thank them for their exceptional contribution over many
months to a project demanding real partnership.
The Reference Group members are thanked for their valued
input: Sally Logan-Milne (Milanz) for conceiving the key
conceptual basis for Obstacles to Action in collaboration
with her colleague Dr Ed Maibach, Dr Kate Scott (Wellington
School of Medicine) for expert advice from a health research
perspective, and Carolyn Watts (Cancer Society of New Zealand)
for co-ordinating the Cancer Society’s input and support.
Additional input to the Reference Group in the later
stages of the project came from Rhonda Pritchard (clinical
psychologist), Nick Farland (McBean Associates), Dennis
Carroll and Jason Wells (Young & Rubicam Advertising),
and Glen McGahan (Nativeworks).
The assistance of Dr Harriette Carr (Ministry of Health), Dr
Tony Reeder (Otago University), Dr Deanne Weber (Porter
Novelli, Washington), Colleen Doyle (American Cancer
Society) and Glenda Hughes (Collingwood Promotions) is
also acknowledged.
And most importantly a huge thank you to those New
Zealanders (over 8,000 of you) who took the time to tell us
about your experiences and perspectives of physical activity
and nutrition. You have provided us with valuable insights
that will help SPARC and the Cancer Society to support
physical activity and healthy eating in New Zealand now and
into the future.
 3

Needs Assessment
Background Objectives
SPARC is the main government agency responsible for SPARC’s underlying campaign objective is to increase
promoting physical activity in New Zealand. the percentage of the population who:

Awareness of the importance of physical activity is already • Do at least 30 minutes a day on five or more days per week
high. The Push Play media campaign has been successful (i.e. are regularly physically active), or
by international standards in raising awareness of the
• Undertake a total minimum of 2.5 hours per week
“30 minutes a day” message. A four-year evaluation has
moderate intensity physical activity.
demonstrated that awareness of this message increased
significantly in the adult population, rising from 13% to 52% It is intended that the campaign that develops from this
from 1999 to 2002 (Bauman et al., 2003). There were also research project will target segments of the following groups
significant increases in intention to do more (thought, talked as defined through SPARC Facts results (SPARC, 2003):
about doing more).
• The 30% of the population who are active 2.5 hours per
Separately reported in the Sport and Physical Activity Survey week but not 30 minutes per day for the minimum of five
(SPARC, 2003), 84% of adults agreed that 30 minutes a day days (i.e. not regularly active)
of physical activity is enough to benefit health. Prevalence
• The 20% of the population who are insufficiently active (do
data from the Sport and Physical Activity Surveys shows that
some activity, but less than 2.5 hours of physical activity per
the proportion of adults who are physically active1 increased
week—note that this excludes the 10% who do no activity)
from 67% to 70% between 1997 and 2001 (a 3% increase
= 150,000 more active). However, this means 30% of adults And/Or
(900,000 adults) are still insufficiently active as measured by • The 15% of the population who either talked about getting
the 2.5 hour threshold. In addition, when SPARC measures more active as a result of the Push Play programme (4%)
the proportion of adults who are active at the higher or thought about getting more active (11%), but did not
threshold of regular activity (30 minutes a day five times do so. Note that this 15% may include active people who
per week), only 40% are regularly active meaning that the thought about getting more active.
majority (60%) of adults are insufficiently active.
On stepping back from the data, it was clear that SPARC
had a lot of information about physical activity behaviour in
terms of what activity levels are and who is, or is not active,
and about awareness (knowledge of messages). However, an
important piece of the puzzle was missing – the “why” and
“why not” behind physical activity behaviour.
The current study is the first time SPARC has analysed
a comprehensive range of determinants based on a
combination of behaviour, demographic and psychological
variables, rather than just asking a group about barriers and
motivation that are not clearly linked to behaviour.

1
“Active” adults were those taking part in at least 2.5 hours of sport/leisure-time physical activity in the seven days before the interview.
4 Obstacles to Action
Research Design
Methodology Overview
Full details of the methodology are described in the
separate Technical Report, available via the SPARC
website www.sparc.org.nz.
Questionnaire Development
The starting point for the SPARC questionnaire was the
questionnaire used in the American Cancer Society study.
The questionnaire has over 300 questions within these
major sections: Attitudes and opinions, Your health, Health
behaviour, Physical activity, Nutrition, Getting health and
physical activity information, and About yourself. Changes
were made by adapting the American questionnaire to suit
the New Zealand audience.
The questionnaire was pre-tested with 22 respondents and
the feedback from the pre-testing was incorporated into a
final draft version for piloting. One hundred respondents
were recruited in Auckland and Rotorua to pilot the survey
independently. Around half the pilot questionnaires were
received in time to improve the final questionnaire; 67 were
returned in total.
Sampling
The random selection of 14,000 households was drawn
from the electoral roll. Those of Màori descent identified
in the electoral roll and addresses of those aged under 25
years were oversampled to try to counter the typically lower
response from these groups.
Mailout (29 May – 31 July 2003)
The mailout process involved a number of contacts with the
selected households:
• A prenotification letter was sent out prior to the main
questionnaire to inform the household of the pending
survey
• The questionnaire was then sent with a token incentive
(pen) and a freepost envelope to send the completed
questionnaire back
• Approximately a week later, a ‘thank you’ postcard was
sent to all households to thank those who had completed
the survey and to remind those who had not yet completed
and returned their questionnaire
• A replacement questionnaire was sent three weeks later for
those who had not returned the questionnaire
• Three weeks later again, a final replacement questionnaire
was couriered to households that had not yet returned
a questionnaire.
Response Rate
The final response rate of completed, usable questionnaires
is 61%. Details are provided in the separate Technical Report.
The Technical Report also includes comparisons of the
changing composition of responses (e.g. ethnicity) over the
two-month survey period. The comparisons of response rates
over the two-month period are unusually enlightening because
of the large sample size.
Weighting
The final results are weighted by age, gender, and ethnicity
to the New Zealand population. Details are contained in the
separate Technical Report.
Analysis
The segmentation process was an iterative mixture of
judgement and statistical analysis. Key processes included:
selecting the Target Group; preliminary clustering and
prioritising key variables to drive clustering; and splitting the
Target Group into the final segments (details of clustering
analysis are in the separate Technical Report).
The Target Group is a “middle” group including around 45%
of respondents. It excludes those already regularly active for at
least six months (45% of respondents) and those determinedly
inactive (only active zero or one days and not even thinking
about becoming regularly active; 9% of respondents).
The analysis process is summarised overleaf.
Extra analysis to help identify main influences on behaviour
was completed (using “path modelling”). In particular, this
was done to check the relevance to New Zealand of two
possibilities suggested by the American Cancer Society
research (Porter Novelli, 2002): that “intrinsic” types of
motivation might be more important than “extrinsic” types;
and that improvements in physical activity behaviour may
tend to come at the expense of improvements with respect to
diet (or vice versa).
Margins of Error
The margin of error is around 2.3% for results about the
full Target Group, and 5% to 7% for the six segments (of
different sizes) into which it is split. Details are in Appendix II.
5

Path Modelling and

Factor Analysis
RESEARCH DESIGN
6 Obstacles to Action

Conceptual Overview The first major Personal Factor is perceived benefits.

Perceived benefits include views on likely health benefits of
The following diagram below summarises the physical activity (which are naturally affected by knowledge)
major components (behaviour, personal factors, as well as other possible outcomes such as looking better,
environmental factors) and fundamental having more energy, feeling more relaxed, and having fun.
interrelationships between them that underlie
the differences between segments and that can Motivations are of two main types: intrinsic (e.g. I enjoy
be influenced to change levels of physical activity physical activity) and extrinsic (e.g. my family wants me to).
(following Maibach 1995 and Bandura 1998). In addition, people’s confidence about their ability to do a
particular physical activity or regular amounts of physical
activity (“self-efficacy”) has been found to be important in
changing behaviour. If people are not confident that they
can achieve an improved level of physical activity, why should
they start trying? Confidence about making improvements
can be changed by improving skills and strategies, and by
setting appropriate goals.
Environmental Factors are mainly discussed in these
reports as perceived barriers. These include not only barriers
relating to the physical environment but also social barriers
such as discouragement from others.
Note also all the two-way influences between behaviour,
Social personal factors, and environmental factors. It may be
Perceived benefits
e.g. health, enjoyment e.g. encouragement obvious to think of improving physical activity behaviour by
Motivations Physical changing personal factors (e.g. beliefs about health effects)
e.g. facilities, footpaths or environmental factors (e.g. improving facilities). However,
Confidence/Self efficacy
Institutional one should not overlook the effects in the other direction
Skills & strategies, goals e.g. schools, clubs
(e.g. effects of behaviour on perceived benefits). For example,
someone who goes for a long walk for the first time after
lengthy inactivity may be reminded of how good it feels to
be active.
 7

Focusing on Major Influences (Path Modelling)

Path Modelling
Given the very large number of factors and questions
involved in the study, it is helpful to have some guidance
as to which factors might have the greatest influence on
physical activity behaviour. To do this, we followed the
American Cancer Society example (Porter Novelli, 2002)
of using path modelling (a type of regression analysis).
Consistent with the American Cancer Society results, we find
that self-efficacy (confidence about being able to do specified
levels of physical activity) has a strong relationship with levels
of physical activity. We also find intrinsic types of motivation
(e.g. enjoying physical activity) are significantly related
to differences in physical activity levels whereas extrinsic
motivations (e.g. doing physical activity to get approval from
others) are not.
These results suggest that increasing self-efficacy and intrinsic
motivation are likely to be useful campaign approaches.
Intrinsic motivation is particularly related to differences in
health expectancies and other perceived benefits, and hence
these might be targeted to increase intrinsic motivation. Self-
efficacy is particularly related to several perceived barriers,
and hence work on reducing these barriers might help to
increase self-efficacy.
Further details are contained in the separate Technical Report.

Overview of All Segments

Identifying SPARC’s Target Group
IDENTIFYING THE TARGET GROUPS
We divided the total sample into three broad groups,
based on their current level of physical activity and
intentions:
Inactive Group is “active” (30 minutes moderate activity or
15 minutes vigorous activity) either zero or one day during
the previous week, and has no stated intention of becoming
regularly active in the next six months.
Active Group is “regularly active” (i.e. active five or more
days a week) already, and has been for more than six months.
Target Group is the remainder “in the middle”. That is, they
are not already regularly active (unless for less than the past
six months), but they do have some intention of becoming
regularly active in the next six months or they were active for
two or more days during the previous week.
8 Obstacles to Action

The Target Group is split into six segments as follows:

SEGMENT 1: OTHERS ORIENTED SEGMENT 5: SUPPORT SEEKERS

(6% of adults, ≈170,000) (6% of adults, ≈180,000)
• Discouraged by others – 97% rate this an influence (3+ • 99% say they do not get enough encouragement (other
on a 7-point scale; no other segment has more than 13% segments 23%–44%)
discouraged by others)
• Less physically active
• Strongest extrinsic motivation (e.g. because my family
• Have more health problems, 27% obese, 22% depression
wants me to, because I want others to approve of me)
or mood disorder, 11% anxiety disorder
• High in Asian and Pacific peoples
• Know that their inactivity is bad for their health, but
• 27% obese becoming active is not a priority for many
• Put off by environmental barriers e.g. cost, facilities no SEGMENT 6: ALMOST THERE
easy to get to, no one to do physical activity with
(9% of adults, ≈270,000)
SEGMENT 2: OK FOR NOW
• Strongest intrinsic motivation (e.g. 50% strongly agree I
(10% of adults, ≈290,000) enjoy physical activity, I care about keeping in shape)
• Higher than average health (57% rate health very good/ • Strongest believers that physical activity will deliver
excellent), and they are less often overweight or smokers benefits, and rate the importance of these benefits highly
(17% smoke), male
• Most confident that they can be physically active five days
• Few worries, low stress, low time pressure per week (average rating of 8.3 where 10 means extremely
confident)
• Few barriers
• Barriers generally less of a problem
• But see few benefits from physical activity (don’t need to
change – think they are OK as they are)
SEGMENT 3: OTHER PRIORITIES
(6% of adults, ≈170,000)
• Lowest belief in benefits, least motivation
• Only 16% rate health very good/excellent, 30% smoke
• Lack commitment e.g. more would rather be doing
something else with free time
• Youngest segment (27% aged 16–24 years)

SEGMENT 4: BUSY & STRESSED

(9% of adults, ≈270,000)
• Perceive a lack of time as a barrier to activity – 62% lack of
time due to work, and 45% lack of time due to family
• Two thirds female
• Most stressed
• Moderate belief in benefits
• 26% obese

OVERVIEW OF ALL SEGMENTS
Prioritising Segments
The Process of Elimination
The process of selecting the two priority segments
(from the six segments generated) involved the wider
project team, including input from an independent
advertising consultant and an applied psychologist.
SEGMENTS INITIALLY SCREENED OUT
Other Priorities is not an early priority Target Group because
their motivations and (non) beliefs in the benefits of physical
activity indicate that they would be very difficult to change.
Another group, OK For Now is also not a priority, because
they perceive that they are reasonably healthy and they
appear to be so (e.g. less overweight, fewer smokers, fewer
health problems reported). So they are a lower priority in
terms of health risks. They have very few barriers but see few
benefits in physical activity. Thus, this group might also be a
difficult group to change.
Almost There is the group most similar to the Active Group.
That is, they believe in all the benefits, they are motivated, have
high self-efficacy, have few barriers, and are doing some physical
activity but not the recommended 30 minutes a day, five days a
week. This group, although ripe for the picking, is almost there.
It is considered that a specialist campaign is not a priority.
9
POTENTIAL SEGMENTS
This leaves three segments: Others Oriented, Busy & Stressed
and Support Seekers, which have the highest proportions of
obesity (27%, 26% and 27% respectively).
Others Oriented is the first obvious segment to target. They
are motivated extrinsically, more discouraged by others and
have a lot of barriers, particularly environmental barriers.
Of particular interest, this segment also has the highest
proportion of Pacific and Asian ethnicities.
The key distinguishing characteristic of Support Seekers is
that they say they do not get enough encouragement (99%).
Support Seekers are also more likely to have health problems
and are less physically active.
The possibility of combining Others Oriented and Support
Seekers was briefly discussed, as these two segments are
similar on many of the other attributes. However, on closer
investigation, these two segments differ enough to warrant/
require quite different campaigns. Thus, Support Seekers are
the second segment to profile and target.
Detailed reports have been completed for these two priority
segments and the Executive Summaries are also included in
this Overview Report.
Although Busy & Stressed rate perceived lack of time (due
to family and due to work) highest and appear the most
stressed, they have a lower immediate priority and will be a
target in a following year.
10 Obstacles to Action

Related Reports from this Study

The following reports complement this Overview Report:
• Profiling Others Oriented Report
• Profiling Support Seekers Report
• Technical Report
These can be downloaded from our website
www.sparc.org.nz. In addition, analysis and reporting
focusing on nutrition and eating habits rather than physical
activity is in progress for the Cancer Society of New Zealand.

Executive Summary: Others Oriented

Introduction to this Segment
Others Oriented make up around 6% of the total adult
population (approximately 170,000) and the following
description is based on 398 respondents. This segment
has several distinctive features:
• Nearly all (97%) report some influence of discouragement
from others (rating 3 or more on a 7-point scale 2 ), and
38% are clearly influenced (a rating of 5 or more)
• More perceived barriers to physical activity than for
other segments
• One in three are Asian or Pacific peoples
• A comparatively high proportion of the segment are people
who are obese or overweight

Demographic Differences
The Others Oriented segment contains a higher FIG.1 ETHNICITY
proportion of Asian and Pacific peoples than all
other segments (Fig.1). Hence both the activities and
communication methods of any initiatives directed at
this segment need to be culturally appropriate to these
ethnic groups.

2
Where 1 = Doesn’t influence me at all and 7 = Influences me a lot
 11

Sensitivity to Others
A defining issue for this segment is that nearly all
(97%) report some influence of discouragement from
others (Fig.2).
However, Others Oriented are not much more likely to report
a lack of encouragement. In a separate question about overall
encouragement 3, 42% of Others Oriented rated the overall
amount of encouragement they get as about right (compared
with 39% of the Target Group) (Fig.3).
Significantly more people in Others Oriented (13%) rate
the overall amount of encouragement they get as more
than about right than in the Target Group overall (7%).
This suggests that, rather than simply receiving more
discouragement and less encouragement, this segment
is more sensitive to support from others (whether
discouragement or encouragement).
FIG.2 INFLUENCE OF DISCOURAGEMENT
FROM OTHERS
FIG.3 AMOUNT OF ENCOURAGEMENT OVERALL
FIG.4 WHEN I AM PHYSICALLY ACTIVE,
IT IS BECAUSE
A third set of questions on ‘extrinsic’ motivations (e.g.
wanting to be approved of by others) confirms Others
Oriented’s greater sensitivity to others relative to the Target
Group overall, as the above chart shows (Fig.4).
Perceived Barriers
Others Oriented have many perceived barriers to
physical activity. (These were rated on a 7-point scale
where 1 means doesn’t influence me at all and 7 means
influences me a lot.) The perceived barriers can be loosely
combined into three groups: commitment barriers,
community barriers and physical barriers. Figure 5
overleaf shows that Others Oriented rate many of these
barriers more highly (as an influence keeping them from
being physically active) than any other segment.
Three in ten Others Oriented find physical activity
uncomfortable. Arthritis and other health problems are more
commonly a clear barrier (34%) for this segment. Also, almost
three in ten do not like to feel out of breath, don’t like other
people seeing them active, and think physical activity takes
too much effort. These are especially issues for the obese in
this segment. Few will choose to walk 1.5km (in favourable
conditions) quite often or almost always (31% compared with
62% of the Active Group).

3
Two separate questions were included in the questionnaire – Discouragement: The following is a list of possible things that keep some
people from being physically active. For each one, please indicate how much each influences your own activity level. (1=Doesn’t influence me
at all, 7=Influences me a lot.) Encouragement: Overall, would you say the amount of encouragement you get is... (1=Not enough, 4=About
right, 7=Too much.)
12 Obstacles to Action
FIG.5 PERCEIVED BARRIERS AND EXCUSES
Others Oriented appear to have more limited options for
increasing physical activity, because they are:
• lacking others to exercise with,and have a heightened
sensitivity to others (which is apparent by the influence of
discouragement from others)
• lacking knowledge – half rate “I don’t know how to be
physically active” as an influence (rating 3 or more on a
7-point scale) compared with only one in five for the Target
Group overall
• likely to believe their environment is threatening. They are
more likely to identify things in their neighbourhood that
put them off being physically active. Specifically, around
a third say that they are put off being physically active by
dog nuisance, traffic that is too heavy, and not enough
street lighting
• financially constrained
• consider facilities are hard to get to. This could be because of
lack of awareness (e.g. language barriers) or access problems.
Perceived Benefits and Motivations
Others Oriented believe in the importance of health
benefits and other benefits of physical activity, and also
that many of these benefits are likely to result from
physical activity. These rating levels are similar to the
Target Group overall and even to the Active Group.
Their level of intrinsic motivation (e.g. enjoying physical
activity) is also similar to that for the Target Group overall.
Tangible rewards/interventions: Others Oriented report that
they would be more physically active for tangible rewards.
In particular, the following tangible rewards are most
attractive to Others Oriented and received the highest
ratings of all segments:
• If they could get a free or low-cost gym membership, three
in five claim they are likely to be more active
• Between a quarter and a third claim they are likely to be
more active if:
−they thought it would get their children more active
−they could get a free pamphlet on how to be
physically active
−they could call a toll free number to get advice from
an expert
−they could get someone to watch their children.

Confidence/Self-efficacy
Only one in six Others Oriented are highly confident
(rating 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale) that they can become
physically active five days per week for at least 30 minutes
a day (in the next month). However, 55% are at least
moderately confident (ratings of 6–10 on a 10-point scale)
that they can achieve this target.
Further there is a subgroup of two in five Others Oriented
who are moderately confident they can achieve the target
level 4 of physical activity and also report that they enjoy
physical activity.
Health
Fewer Others Oriented than other groups rate their own
health as excellent or very good (26% compared with 40%
of the Target Group overall). Overall, those in the Others
Oriented segment are the least likely to have visited a doctor
or nurse in the last 12 months. This may be more a reflection
of lower socio-economic status than good health.
Others Oriented contains a relatively high proportion of
people who are obese (27%) or overweight (24%).
Health Information
As a source of health information, over three quarters
of Others Oriented trust their doctor, and around half
trust their doctor’s nurse, dietitian, their local hospital
and well established health organisations (such as the
Heart Foundation, 64%; Cancer Society, 52%; Diabetes
New Zealand, 51%).
In general, women are more trusting of these well-established
health organisations than men. Trust was lower in SPARC
(37%) or Regional Sports Trusts (28%).
Over half of Others Oriented are interested in learning about
how to stay healthy (57%) and health information on physical
activity/exercise (55%). Furthermore, many are also interested in:
• Nutrition/food choices (48%)
• Weight control (46%)
• Improving sleep (45%)
• Stress management (42%)
4
Target level is five days physical activity per week for at least 30 minutes a day.
13
Nutrition
Fruit consumption for Others Oriented is similar to the
levels noted among the Target Group overall. However,
those in the Others Oriented segment have the lowest
consumption of vegetables, with 13% eating none or
one serving a day. Only 43% eat the recommended
three or more servings of vegetables daily (cf. 61% of
the Target Group).
Others Oriented have the highest percentage ratings
on almost all the perceived barriers to eating fruit and
vegetables. They are easily discouraged and are put off by
problems related to availability, cost, and convenience.
Summary Diagram
The diagram overleaf (Fig.6) summarises particularly
distinctive features of the Others Oriented segment,
together with a few important related characteristics.
At the centre of the diagram (labelled as the Core Value)
is Sensitivity to Others. This is the common link between
several of the highly distinctive characteristics of this segment
in the Feelings and Beliefs layer such as: are influenced by
discouragement from others, want approval from others,
perceive pressure from others, and want others to see that
they can do physical activity.
The Feelings and Beliefs layer also highlights some of the large
number of perceived barriers that affect this segment more than
others in the Target Group. In particular, more Others Oriented
admit to not knowing how to be physically active.
The observable Physical layer also highlights some interesting
characteristics of Others Oriented, such as the fact that many
are obese or overweight, and that one in three are Asian or
Pacific peoples.
14 Obstacles to Action

FIG.6 OTHERS ORIENTATED: SUMMARY

 15

Executive Summary: Support Seekers

Key Findings: Support Seekers
FIG.7 AMOUNT OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Support Seekers are about 6% of the adult population.
Report results are based on 529 respondents in this
segment.
A perceived barrier, lack of encouragement, strongly
distinguishes this segment from others: 99% of the segment
feel that they do not get enough encouragement compared
with 39% for the Target Group overall (Fig.7).
More specifically, this segment reports clearly less
encouragement from several of the most common sources for
others: their spouse/partner, their family/whànau /children,
and their close friends. Their doctor/healthcare provider was FIG.8 PERCEIVED BARRIERS AND EXCUSES
the only source of encouragement for whom their ratings
were similar to the Target Group overall.
Consistent with this, more Support Seekers than any other
segment rated interventions such as “Someone agreed to
support me/check on my progress” and “I had someone to
go with” as very likely to increase their physical activity.
Apart from lacking someone to do physical activity with,
other perceived barriers important for this segment include
lack of time and energy, lack of commitment, and cost (Fig.8).
• Three in five rate “lack of energy/too tired” highly as a
constraint keeping them from being physically active (in
contrast to only a third of the Target Group overall). For this
segment, the cause is more often work (57%) rather than
lack of time due to family responsibilities (37%). Three in
five also see themselves as being under a lot of stress lately
(compared with half of the Target Group overall, and only
two in five of those in the Active Group). Perceived Benefits and Motivations
• The major commitment barrier is the difficulty they report
This segment already know that regular physical activity
in sticking to a routine (63%, compared with 43% for the
decreases the risk of heart disease (nine in ten agree),
Target Group overall).
and at a personal level accept that regular physical
• One in five rate “costs too much (clothes, equipment, etc.)” activity will help them to live a healthy life (96% agree).
highly as an influence (cf. one in eight in the Target Despite this, only one in five claim that they get enough
Group overall). physical activity to keep them healthy. Even fewer (one
in ten) claim that they get enough exercise according to
The large number of barriers partly explain why Support
the recommended guidelines.
Seekers are the least active of all six segments (1.9 days active
per week, versus 2.7 days for the Target Group overall). However, this knowledge has proved insufficient to motivate
them into healthy levels of physical activity despite health
problems being relatively common. For example, one in three
rate their health as only Fair or Poor, around twice the level
for these ratings compared with others in the Target Group.
Thus, other perceived benefits and motivations need further
investigation to help change their behaviour.
16 Obstacles to Action

Fortunately, this segment also accepts that several other Mental Health
benefits are likely to result from regular physical activity.
These include feeling good about themselves (91%), having A further highly distinctive feature of this group is that
more energy (89%), and losing or maintaining weight (83%). fully 22% self-report depression or mood disorder and
In addition, at least four in five from this segment rate each of 11% report anxiety disorder. These rates are around
these perceived benefits as important to them. twice as high as for others in the Target Group overall
(Fig.9). Given the evidence about the value of physical
Given that intrinsic motivations such as having fun are activity in reducing depression and anxiety, it seems
probably an important driver of maintaining physical activity particularly important to help these people increase the
levels, it is good to know that two thirds rate themselves as activity level. In addition, for some, the improvements
likely to have fun as a result of regular physical activity, and in mood may be the type of success experiences that
nine in ten rate this benefit as important to them. will help build the confidence/self-efficacy required to
maintain regular physical activity.
Low Confidence/Self-efficacy
Also note that Support Seekers have relatively poor physical
Support Seekers are distinctly low in the confidence/ health (34% rate their health in general as Fair or Poor
self-efficacy to start regular physical activity in the compared with 18% in the Target Group overall).
next month (an average confidence rating of 5.0 out
of 10, compared with 6.1 for the Target Group overall Demographics
and 8.6 for the Active Group). Only one in eight are Support Seekers have some demographic differences
highly confident they can reach target levels of activity compared with the Target Group. The most distinctive
(ratings of 9 or 10). The results suggest the following demographic characteristics are:
might be useful to increase their confidence, by giving
them success experiences or perhaps by introducing • 65% women (cf. 59% in the Target Group overall)
them to practical skills and strategies for working • 63% aged 25–49 (cf. 54% in Target Group)
regular physical activity into their life:
• 16% Màori (cf. 12% in Target Group)
• Introduce them to ways that provide the social support and
encouragement they want. (Three in five rate themselves • 53% working full-time (cf. 48% in Target Group)
as likely to be more physically active if they had someone • 44% with a child under 18 years old living in their home
to go with or if someone agreed to sponsor them/check on (cf. 37% in Target Group)
their progress; both these results are around 20 percentage
• 53% in large cities (cf. 46% in Target Group)
points higher than for the Target Group overall.) Around
30% say they will use walking groups if they are available.
• skills for helping them keep to a routine (this is a major FIG.9 KEY FEATURES
commitment barrier for them) or to find time (two thirds
rate themselves as likely to be more physically active if
they had an extra hour free time). This indicates the need
to help them build new achievable routines which include
physical activity or to adapt existing routines (e.g. replacing
some regular short car trips by walking).
• encouraging appropriate activity types for the obese (27%
of Support Seekers are obese) or those with minor health
problems (28% report hayfever/seasonal allergies, 19% high
blood pressure, and 17% high cholesterol). This segment
shows relatively high interest in health information with over
60% indicating interest in health information on weight
control, physical activity/exercise, and nutrition/food choices.
 17

Summary Diagram
The following summary diagram (Fig.10) highlights
particularly distinctive features of Support Seekers,
together with a few important related characteristics.
At the centre of the diagram is the Core Need: Support for
coping strategies. Support is central because insufficient
encouragement from others was reported by 99% of the
segment. We suggest that more support from others should be
particularly directed towards helping with coping strategies:
• “Coping” because these people are already under pressure
as shown by their more common reports of feeling stressed,
lacking time and energy, and the lack of time for physical
activity because of work (not to mention less common, but
comparatively higher, reports of depression and anxiety).
• “Strategies” because improvement for many in this group is
likely to relate more to mental skills/strategies such as time
management, prioritising, and careful goal-setting, rather
than physical skills.
The second layer of the diagram, Feelings and Beliefs, is
relatively crowded, reflecting the dominance of psychological
factors in the segmentation. Fewer major characteristics of
the segment are directly observable in the Physical layer.

FIG.10 SUPPORT SEEKERS: SUMMARY

18 Obstacles to Action

Appendix I – ACNielsen Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance
ACNielsen is committed to the principles of Total
Quality Management, and in 1995 achieved certification
under the International Standards Organisation ISO
9001 code.
The company maintains rigorous standards of quality control
in all areas of operation. Furthermore, ACNielsen is routinely
and regularly subjected to independent external auditing of
all aspects of its survey operations.

ISO 9001
In terms of this project, all processes involved are covered by
our ISO 9001 procedures.

Code of Ethics
All research conducted by ACNielsen conforms with the Code
of Professional Behaviour of the Market Research Society of
New Zealand.
 19

Appendix II – Margins of Error

Precision in General
Because we have only taken a sample of New Zealand
adults, any results represented for this population will
have a margin of error. Two issues need be considered
with respect to precision of results and margins of error
for segmentation results like these:
• The judgemental component of segmentation. The large
amount of judgement rather than statistics involved in the
segmentation process means that margins of error are not
calculable for the fundamental split into segments (and
relatedly, the size of each segment). For example, no clear
statistical criterion prevented us from choosing a split into
four segments rather than six or from clustering 20 key
variables rather than 13.
• Weighting. Results are weighted to correct for the
probability of selection and sample imbalances (e.g. age,
gender, ethnicity) as described in detail in the Technical
Report. Such weighting typically results in margins of error
distinctly larger than those for a simple random sample of
the same size.
Indicative Margins of Error
The indicative margins of error provided below are
those that would apply for a simple random sample of
the “effective sample size” shown. As described in the
weighting section of the Technical Report, the effective
sample size (for the full sample) is approximately half
the actual (unweighted) sample size. This does not
take sample stratification or weighting non-linearities
into account, but these are not expected to have had a
major effect.
For the rim-weighting procedure used, more precise
margin of error calculations would be time-consuming
and hence expensive; incurring these extra costs was not
seen as worthwhile given that the focus of the study is on
segmentation rather than, for example, prevalence estimates.
The reports commonly compare results from a segment
to the Target Group overall. The margin of error for such
differences is slightly larger again (because of the additional
sampling error in the Target Group estimate). For example,
an indicative margin of error for difference between the
Others Oriented segment versus others in the Target Group
(n=3685–398=3287) where both estimates are around
50% is 7.4% rather than the 6.9% in the table above (for a
standalone estimate from the Others Oriented segment).

Table 1: Indicative margins of error

Others Oriented Support Seekers Target Group

Actual sample size 398 529 3685
Effective sample size (approx.) 199 265 1843

Estimate in report
50% 6.9% 6.0% 2.3%
40% or 60% 6.8% 5.9% 2.2%
30% or 70% 6.4% 5.5% 2.1%
20% or 80% 5.6% 4.8% 1.8%
10% or 90% 4.2% 3.6% 1.4%
5% or 95% 3.0% 2.6% 1.0%

Note: 95% confidence level used.

20 Obstacles to Action

Appendix III – References

Bandura, A. 1998. Health promotion from the perspective of
social cognitive theory. Psychology and Health, 13, 623–649.
Bauman, A., McLean, G., Hurdle, D., Walker, S., Boyd, J.,
van Aalst, I., & Carr, H. 2003. Evaluation of the National
‘Push Play’ campaign in New Zealand—creating population
awareness of physical activity. The New Zealand Medical
Journal, 116 no. 1179.
Maibach, E.W. & Cotton, D. 1995. Moving people to
behaviour change: a staged social cognitive approach
to message design. In Maibach, E., & Parrott, R.L. (Eds.).
Designing health messages: Approaches from communication
theory and public health practice. California: Sage
Publications.
Porter Novelli. 2002. NuPA Target Audience Report #1
(Women in Motion 40–54). Prepared for the American
Cancer Society (Draft).
SPARC. 2003. SPARC Facts: Results of the New Zealand Sport
and Physical Activity Surveys (1997–2001). Wellington: SPARC.