Conclusion, limitations and future research directions
This model should not be regarded as a solution to complex behavior intervention and policy problems, but as a tool to be applied in the process of developing interventions with the segments in question. Tools should be developed to understand consumers’ experience with a social behavior and assist them to achieve their behavior change goals through confidence building and accurately anticipating their emotions. Applying the marketing concept of exchange to complex behaviors provides insights that allow marketers and policy makers to develop cost-effective interventions and institutional policies to achieve behavioral outcome objectives. For example, creating an exchange, consumers will value based on their anticipated emotions by providing them with emotional tools aimed at increasing their behavioral confidence. This may be generalizable to other social behaviors and family products and services, particularly those including other people or children as end users of the decisionmaking process. For example, other social behaviors include household food consumption, physical activity, domestic violence–respectful relationships and alcohol consumption. More general family products and services include education, mother and baby products, feeding products, services for mothers, services for babies, childcare and medical services. In all of these domains, marketing processes and service interfaces with customers are becoming increasingly important to ensuring consumers’ experiences are positive and supportive to maintaining desired behavioral outcomes. Future research is required to understand other important variables for changing complex social behaviors and how these interact over time.
