Brian Lamb School Health

Communication Campaign
Introduction
Our objective is to conduct comprehensive primary and secondary formative
research by interviewing students in the College of Liberal Arts, Professors in
the Brian Lamb School of Communication, members of the Brian Lamb School
Advisory Board, professionals in health communications to create a report that
can be used to create a health communications program at Purdue University.

Our objective is to increase interest in a health communications program at

Purdue University within a focus group by 15% by Tuesday April 18, 2017.

Our campaigns mission was to gauge the interest of current and prospective
students in studying health communications and develop a health
communication program that will meet industry needs.
Research
This semester, we focused our research on:

Health communication undergrad programs at universities in the United States

Careers in health communication

Purdues current health communication graduate program

Best practices for conducting a focus group

Analysis
S.W.O.T.

Key Strengths: Established Brian Lamb School Brand and supportive Advisory Board

Key Weaknesses: Dont necessarily know what our resources will be in terms of conducting
research

Key Opportunities: Using the Sona Research System to form focus groups and using
promotional materials to promote interest in health communication courses among students.

Key Threats: Students not having knowledge about health communications and seeing the
value in the program
Analysis
Two objective means two publics:

Publics Objective 1
1. Purdue Liberal Arts students
2. Professionals in health communications
3. Purdue Brian Lamb School of Communication Advisory Board
4. Faculty in the Brian Lamb School of Communications
5. Purdue Academic Advisors

Publics Objective 2
1. Purdue Liberal Arts students
Interviews with Advisors
Purpose: To evaluate student mindsets and discuss the logistics and rationale of a
hypothetical health communication program

Method: Two of the four advisors were interviewed in person; the other two
answered questions via email.

Takeaways:

It needs to appear as a viable career or career complement

It would need to have many higher-level classes of medically relevant, yet
communication based topics
Interviews with Faculty
Purpose: To gauge student interest as well as student capabilities and skill sets.

Method: Email interview

Takeaways

Need to relate to many different majors

Students need to see the benefits directly
Interviews with Advisory Board Members
Purpose: To acquire input from advisory board members, who are also industry professionals, based on their
opinions of adding a health communication program

Method: Two of the Brian Lamb School Advisors were interviewed over the phone with pre-determined
questions based on their involvement and expertise

Takeaways:

There is a need for health communications professionals in large agencies as well as the
traditional places you would think of health communication occuring, and it is a field that has
been remarkably stable in its growth
Interviews with Health COM Professionals
Purpose: To gauge the value of a health communication program in the professional
world.

Method: Interviewed two health communication professionals via

Takeaways

Health communication would be an excellent minor or additional program,

but not a major
The field is very diverse and professionals would have loved to have
participated in a health communication program but it might too limiting
Focus Groups
We held four focus groups this semester with each of the following groups:
Brian Lamb School of Communication Students
Biomedical Engineering Students
Health and Human Sciences Students
Exploratory Studies Students
Purpose: To gauge the interest in a health communication program at Purdue among students and
perceive what the advantages and disadvantages of such a program may present.
Method: We used the SONA research participation system to find focus group participants.
Takeaways:
Students will only be interested in a health communications course if it is directly applicable to their
future.
Students would like to know about the option of a health communication program during their
freshman year.
Students are looking for hands on courses and internship experiences.
Students dont necessarily know or understand what health communications is or what careers
studying health communications will prepare them for.
Report
We condensed the key takeaways from each group we talked to into a formal report that contained our
recommendations for what we believe a health communication program at Purdue should look like.

Recommendations:
A health communications program at Purdue should either be a series of elective courses or a
minor.
The question students are asking is essentially, How will this help me? When considering
branding, this should be the first question we answer.
It is important to research all of the ways that a health communications program can be an
advantage to students pursuing various career paths and be clear and concise outlining these
advantages.
Offering hands on classes and internship opportunities will both increase interest in health
communications among students and increase their marketability for a future job in the industry.
Distinguish how the program will be different from existing majors such as public health and
communications
Promotional Materials
Purpose: We will target Purdue Brian Lamb students using key messaging based on our research to create a
powerpoint presentation and informative flier.

Flyer: produced by Sammi & Frank

Powerpoint Presentation: produced by Alondra & Meagan
Flyer
Purpose: Creating a flier will provide students in
the focus group with a summary of all the
information about what a health communications
program at Purdue would look like and also help
the client advertise studying health
communications to students in the future.
Powerpoint Presentation
Purpose: A powerpoint presentation will help facilitate the conversation of our focus group and
explain the reasons students should consider studying health communications at Purdue.
Evaluation
We plan to conduct a pre-test and post-test to evaluate if we reach our objective. We will execute a
pre-test at the beginning of our focus group by asking students if they are be interested in participating
in a health communication program at Purdue. We will then present our promotional materials created
from our research report. We will execute a post-test by asking the students a second time at the end
of the presentation if they are interested in participating in a health communication program at
Purdue.

Our final focus group which we will use to evaluate our campaign on is scheduled for Wednesday,
April 26.
What we learned and advice to future groups
I learned to always stay on top of the tactics, even if youre not sure if its perfect, focus on improving
in the edits - Alondra Magallanes
Dont be afraid to ask for help from multiple sources. While some advice may contradict, seeing the
viewpoints of why can be just as important. - Frank Vandeputte
I learned how important research really is in the process of creating communication. We ran a
research-driven project this semester that can now largely contribute to successful and targeted
campaigns in the future. - Sammi Boram
Questions