User-informed marketing versus standard description to drive demand for evidence-based therapy: A randomized controlled trial.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing represents a vital strategy to disseminate evidence-based therapies (EBTs). This 3-phase research program, informed by the marketing mix, developed and evaluated user-informed DTC materials for parents concerned about adolescent substance use (SU). Phases 1 and 2 consisted of qualitative interviews (n = 29 parents) and a quantitative survey (n = 411), respectively, to elicit parents' preferred terms and strategies to disseminate EBT. Building upon prior phases, the current study (Phase 3) developed a user-informed infographic (128 words, 7th-grade level) focused on SU therapy. Parents were randomly assigned to view the user-informed infographic (n = 75) or a standard EBT description (n = 77) from the American Psychological Association (529 words, 12th-grade level). Logistic regressions examined the effect of marketing condition on parent-reported behavioral intentions and actual requests for EBT information, controlling for correlates of parent preferences in Phase 2 (parent education level; adolescent internalizing, externalizing, legal, and SU problems). Counter to hypotheses, condition did not have a main effect on either outcome. However, there was a significant interaction between condition and adolescent SU problems: among parents whose adolescents had SU problems, the user-informed infographic predicted 3.7 times higher odds of requesting EBT information than the standard description. Additionally, parents whose adolescents had legal problems were more likely to request EBT information than parents whose adolescents did not. The infographic was 4 times shorter and written at 5 grade levels lower, thereby providing a highly disseminable alternative. Findings highlight the value of specificity in DTC marketing, while advancing methods to create tailored marketing materials and communicate knowledge about psychological science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Dimensions of Treatment Quality Most Valued by Adolescent Substance Users and their Caregivers.

Professional psychologists are increasingly encouraged to document and evaluate the quality of the treatment they provide. However, there is a significant gap in knowledge about the extent to which extant definitions of treatment quality converge with patient perceptions. The primary goal of this study was to examine how adolescent substance users (ASU) and their caregivers perceive treatment quality. The secondary goal was to determine how these perceptions align with expert-derived definitions of ASU treatment quality and dimensions of perceived quality used frequently in other service disciplines. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with 24 ASU and 29 caregivers to explore how participants conceptualize a quality treatment experience. Content analysis identified three major dimensions of perceived treatment quality, each of which contained three sub-dimensions: Therapeutic Relationship (i.e., Acceptance, Caring, Connection), Provider Characteristics (i.e., Experience, Communication Skills, Accessibility), and Treatment Approach (i.e., Integrated Care, Use of Structure, and Parent Involvement). Results revealed modest convergence between patient perceptions and existing definitions of quality, with several meaningful discrepancies. Most notably, the Therapeutic Relationship was the most important dimension to ASU and their caregivers, while expert-derived definitions emphasized the Treatment Approach. Implications for practicing psychologists to enhance training and supervision, quality improvement, and health education initiatives are discussed.

Customer-centered brand management.

Most executives today agree that their efforts should be focused on growing the lifetime value of their customers. Yet few companies have come to terms with the implications of that idea for their marketing management. Oldsmobile, for example, enjoyed outstanding brand equity with many customers through the 1980s. But as the century wore further on, the people who loved the Olds got downright old. So why did General Motors spend so many years and so much money trying to reposition and refurbish the tired,tarnished brand? Why didn't GM managers instead move younger buyers along a path of less resistance, toward another of the brands in GM's stable--or even launch a wholly new brand geared to their tastes? Catering to new customers, even at the expense of the brand, would surely have been the path to profits. The reason, argue the authors, is that in large consumer-goods companies like General Motors, brands are the raison d'etre. They are the focus of decision making and the basis of accountability. But this overwhelming focus on growing brand equity is inconsistent with the goal of growing customer equity. Drawing on a wide range of current examples, the authors offer seven tactics that will put brands in the service of growing customer equity. These include replacing traditional brand managers with a new position--the customer segment manager; targeting brands to as narrow an audience as possible; developing the capability and the mind-set to hand off customers from one brand to another within the company; and changing the way brand equity is measured by basing calculations on individual, rather than average, customer data.