Scoping your project/activity

An important element of the scoping phase is to establish what we already know about the issue by reviewing existing sources of information; e.g. past research studies; news reports; epidemiological data; published papers in journals; Government statistics etc.

The National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) and the Department of Health have developed a toolbox to help people understand the steps that should be followed to develop an intervention, which aims to encourage people to present earlier to primary care with signs and symptoms of cancer. 

The NSMC toolbox also highlights key sources of information that will help find out epidemiological information such as 1 year survival rates and service data including 2 week waiting times. 

• Help seeking and delay literature – Key insights
• Cancer Research UK and Department of Health NAEDI Qualitative Research with cancer survivors, the general public (segmented using DH's Healthy Foundations model - see below for further information) and GPs - April 2010
  This research was commissioned to further explore:
  • barriers to early presentation
  • investigating how to motivate people with signs and symptoms to visit their GP quickly
  • refining and testing NAEDI communications messages
  • understanding the role and reactions of health professionals 
• Read the segment specific analysis:
  • 'Over 50s, C2DE'
  • 'Live for Todays'
  • 'Unconfident fatalists'
  • 'Balanced compensators'
  • 'Health Conscious Realists'
  • 'Hedonistic Immortals'
• Risk factors for delayed presentation and referral of symptomatic cancer: evidence for common cancers
• Patients' help-seeking experiences and delay in cancer presentation: a qualitative synthesis
• Cancer Awareness Measures (CAM)
  • Development of a measurement tool to assess public awareness of cancer
  • Public awareness of cancer in Britain: a population-based survey of adults
  • Awareness of cancer symptoms and anticipated help seeking among ethnic minority groups in England
  • Validation of a measurement tool to assess awareness of breast cancer
  • Patient delay in presentation of possible cancer symptoms: the contribution of knowledge and attitudes in a UK population sample 
  • Awareness of cancer among frontline staff: Informing training needs  
  • CAM national baseline report 
  • CAM sexual orientation survey
  • The breast, bowel and lung cancer CAMs were used in a national survey in March 2010, findings will be available in due course, contact the CRUK project support team for more details.
  • The generic CAM was used in a national survey in 2010. Findings will be available in due course, contact the CRUK project support team for more details.
  • Breast CAM development paper
  • Telephone survey of frontline staff using the CAM
• Patient delay in presentation of possible cancer symptoms: the contribution of knowledge and attitudes in a population sample from the United Kingdom
• Cancer Research UK conducted a survey into fear and cancer. Download the results or read the press release.
• Existing insight on early detection of breast, bowel and lung cancer
• NEW For an example of how insight and information can be pulled together from existing sources and overlaid with local data, download this scoping report produced on behalf of Thames Valley Cancer Network.

There are many ways to segment an audience and the NSMC toolbox provides a range of helpful guidelines.

In addition there are a number of respected organisations with significant experience of profiling audiences and are worth getting in touch with to find out about building up the local picture for key target audiences in your area.

Healthy Foundation Segmentation model
The Department of Health’s new toolkit on segmentation includes 19 Golden Questions which will help you formulate which segment your target group fits with. Healthy Foundations provides a unique motivation segmentation, enabling service providers and commissioners to re-align the front-end of services enhancing accessibility, service uptake and subsequent health outcomes.

In the research phase, a random sample of approximately 5000 people aged between 16-74 was approached. As a result, five segments of different people taking radically different approaches to health behaviour and attitudes were identified:

• Balanced Compensators
• Live for Todays
• Unconfident Fatalists
• Hedonistic Immortals
• Health Conscious Realists

This tried and tested model has an 89% success rate and will help save valuable time when developing a profile of your target group

Below are a number of documents that will help you use the Healthy Foundations model:

• Background to Healthy Foundations Model
• Healthy Foundations Life-stage Segmentation Model Toolkit
• Allocation model
• Algorithm scorecard

Contact: Department of Health - Healthy Foundations Project Team

Mosaic
Mosaic provides a detailed profile of key target audiences – clustering specific groups which can help you to understand who they are, where they live, what they do with their lives. 155 Mosaic person types aggregate into 67 household types and 15 groups, to create a 3 tier classification that can be used at the individual, household or postcode level. Mosaic can help you pinpoint which communities to target, provide data to support effective communications, media planning and buying. The latest version was produced in 2009.

• Contact: Experian
• Tel: 0115 968 5005
• Web: www.experian.co.uk

CACI - ACORN
ACORN segments the UK population into small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households by 5 categories, 17 groups and 56 types.

ACORN is used to understand target audiences lifestyle, behaviour and attitudes, or the needs of neighbourhoods and people’s public service needs. Over 200 public sector organisations use CACI data.
HealthACORN is the first consumer classification to focus on the specifics of health and provides the opportunity to target health improvement resources in any local area by offering a unique insight into many lifestyle issues such as diet, exercise, smoking habits, alcohol consumption as well as illness attributes. HealthACORN can also be used to provide background data to develop effective communication strategies.

• Contact: CACI - ACORN
• Tel: 020 7602 6000
• Web: www.caci.co.uk

Target Group Index (TGI)
TGI GB is a continuous survey of consumer usage habits, lifestyles, media exposure and attitudes. Established in 1969, the survey provides accurate and independent marketing information on adults aged 15+ (a total annual sample of 24,000 adults are contacted). The survey is updated four times a year.

• Contact: Kantar Media
• Tel: 020 8433 4000
• Web: www.kantarmedia-tgigb.com
  

By using a mix of these tools, you will be able to create a picture of the type of people that you want your intervention to target, you will know more about the best ways to communicate with them, their beliefs and barriers to engagement and where they are more likely to live and work. By having this depth of understanding of your target audience, you will have a greater chance of running a successful campaign.