MESSAGE DESIGN GUIDELINES IN HEALTH COMMUNICATION TO PROMOTE POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND REINFORCE WELL-BEING BEHAVIORS OF SOOK ENTERPRISE, THAI HEALTH PROMOTION FOUNDATION

Abstract

This research was designed to achieve the following objectives: 1) To study key factors in message design of health communication for Sook Enterprise and 2) To study message design guidelines to foster positive attitude and promote well-being behavior. This qualitative research consists of in-depth interviews with two main target groups of Sook Enterprise, namely 6 individuals from a business-to-business group working in employee well-being and managing intra organizational communication, and 10 individuals from a business-to-consumer group participating in the "Mission Challenge: Reduce Belly Fat, Reduce Diseases” campaign of Thai Health Promotion Foundation and a focus group interview and workshop with Sook Enterprise's management committee, consisting of 7 members. The researcher synthesizes the data obtained from the literature review and relevant research works with the data collected from the in-depth interviews and focus group interviews toward comprehensive understanding to identify connections between ideas, explore relationships and summarize the study findings. The results show that there are 7 key factors in message design of health communication which are target group identification and study, communication strategy, stimuli, motivation, capability and resource appraisal, outcome variables, and cues in the message such as persuasive techniques and a variety of information sources and reference groups. The study also finds out that guidelines for designing health message to promote health behaviors must be in a format that is easy to disseminate. Stimulus must be included in the message to motivate behavioral change. The health message should be divided to align with specific health issues with outcomes linked to the recipient's goals and health problems. There must be sufficient supporting information for consideration and decision-making to act on what the message aims to motivate.