Breastfeeding is recognised as the optimal method for feeding infants with health gains made by reducing infectious diseases in infancy; and chronic diseases, including obesity, in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Despite this, exclusivity and duration in developed countries remains resistant to improvement. The objectives of this research were to test if an automated mobile phone text messaging intervention, delivering one text message a week, could increase “any“ breastfeeding rates and improve breastfeeding self-efficacy and coping. Women were eligible to participate if they were: over eighteen years; had an infant less than three months old; were currently breastfeeding; no diagnosed mental illness; and used a mobile phone. Women in the intervention group received MumBubConnect, a text messaging service with automated responses delivered once a week for 8 weeks. Women in the comparison group received their usual care and were sampled two years after the intervention group. Data collection included online surveys at two time points, week zero and week nine, to measure breastfeeding exclusivity and duration, coping, emotions, accountability and self-efficacy. A range of statistical analyses were used to test for differences between groups. Hierarchical regression was used to investigate change in breastfeeding outcome, between groups, adjusting for co-variates. The intervention group had 120 participants at commencement and 114 at completion, the comparison group had 114 participants at commencement and 86 at completion. MumBubConnect had a positive impact on the primary outcome of breastfeeding behaviors with women receiving the intervention more likely to continue exclusive breastfeeding; with a 6% decrease in exclusive breastfeeding in the intervention group, compared to a 14% decrease in the comparison group (p < 0.001). This remained significant after controlling for infant age, mother' s income, education and delivery type (p = 0.04). Women in the intervention group demonstrated active coping and were less likely to display emotions-focussed coping (p < .001). There was no discernible statistical effect on self-efficacy or accountability. A fully automated text messaging services appears to improve exclusive breastfeeding duration. The service provides a well-accepted, personalised support service that empowers women to actively resolve breastfeeding issues. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12614001091695 .

This paper aims to examine the service experience in an online support community of consumers to understand the nature of social support and how it is experienced and enacted by vulnerable consumers. A netnographic study was conducted to examine vulnerable consumers’ participation in an online support group for weight management. The Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) program was used, and additionally data were coded using open coding. A hybrid approach to data analysis was undertaken using inductive and deductive methods. The findings suggest online social support groups can be used as an online “third place” to support vulnerable consumers, with vulnerable groups engaging with the online support group differently than those in the normal weight group. Social support was also found to be bi-directional in nature. This study only investigates one online support group. To gain deeper insights, other support groups should be examined over a longer period. This paper demonstrates that transformative services have the hidden capacity to optimize their services to enable vulnerable consumers to co-create social support in a safe place, thus providing a non-judgmental environment with the end goal of improving their health and well-being. Findings reveal how services can enable marginalization and stigmatization to be overcome and inspire social action through the use of online support groups. This research is unique in that it used a netnography approach to examine how vulnerable consumers interact in an online service setting, reducing self-report bias and allowing for a natural research setting, thus allowing a unique understanding of how vulnerable consumers experience and enact social support.

There is a dominance of cognitive models used by marketers when studying social phenomena, which denies the complexity of the behavior under investigation. Complex social behaviors are typically emotionally charged and require a different perspective. The purpose of this research is to challenge the planned behavior approach and reframe marketers’ perspectives on how to study complex social phenomenon such as breastfeeding. An online survey of 1,275 American and Australian women was undertaken to test the Model of Goal Behavior in a breastfeeding context. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis of novice (first-time mothers) and experienced mothers is used to test the hypotheses. The findings demonstrate emotion and experience matter when understanding a complex social behavior such as breastfeeding. The emotional variables in the model had significant relationships, while the cognitive variables of instrumental and affective attitude did not. As women progress through their customer journey (from novice to experienced), the behavioral drivers change. This research demonstrates an emotion, and experience-focused approach should guide the design of social marketing interventions aimed at changing complex social behaviors. This research presents empirical evidence to challenge the pervasive use of planned behavior models and theories in marketing. Importantly, in social behavior models, emotion rather than attitudes have a larger role in determining intentions and behaviors.

Littering continues to be a problem worldwide. The purpose of this article is to update earlier systematic reviews on littering and using a scorecard of seven social marketing components, assess the extent of social marketing use in identified littering programs. Following Center for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines, the search included all peer-reviewed studies published between 1995 and 2015 in the English language available through 10 databases. A total of 1,220 articles were initially identified and resulted in a final set of 17 that met the study criteria. The analysis revealed key insights including a lack of social marketing use in litter prevention efforts to date providing an opportunity for future research. Limitations of the current study and opportunities for future research are outlined.

Unintended consequences of service are important yet infrequently examined in transformative service research. This research examines an online service community that transformed into an online third place, with consumers socializing and forming lasting relationships. Using practice-informed theory-building and an abductive reasoning approach, findings are presented from both manual and automated coding of three qualitative data sets that form the basis of a case study examining an online weight management service forum. Extending beyond current conceptualizations of the third place, this study is the first to propose a framework delineating online third place characteristics and their impact on consumers’ eudaimonic (the capacity for self-realization) and hedonic (attainment of pleasure and avoidance of pain) well-being. Findings show that in the absence of a physical or virtual servicescape, social factors including social density, equity, and personalization are key to constructing an online third place that supports well-being through building social connections and enjoyment. The new framework provides guidance for service managers to transform their online service communities into online third places to support consumer well-being and to identify and manage potential unintended consequences, for example, by ensuring segmentation of the community based on consumer groups’ shared interests and consumer empowerment through participation.