Becoming Something You Aren’t
QuitPlan, a Minnesota Department of health smoking cessation organization, wanted to understand why the number of smokers weren’t going down as expected. Despite the serious consequences of smoking, even the very real threat of death, smokers continued to smoke.
QuitPlan needed to know how they could them stop smoking. Unfortunately Quitplan was limited to a two year program and they were running out of time…
Fast.
The result of Alchemy’s qualitative research revealed a major insight to the barriers of quitting. Behavior was directly tied to identity.
That’s Not Me
At the heart of the situation was smokers could not see themselves as non-smokers. Why? Because “that’s not me”.
- Non-smokers were successful and affluent. They had white teeth, beautiful hair, great skin, dressed well, and always smelled good.
- Non-smokers were athletic, health conscious, and physically active (aerobic classes, hiking, biking etc.) and practiced yoga and/or meditation – distinctly foreign concepts to smokers.
- Smokers identified with yellow teeth, thin, lackluster hair, gray skin, in a lower income tier, alcohol, bad diets and inactivity.
- They felt unaccepted which meant non-smokers didn’t like them for who they were.
- There was a smoking community that revolved around social circles fellow smokers. Close, meaningful friendships, deep bonds, comradery, a sense of unity, and acceptance that translated into “you’re one of us”.
- Smokers also turned away from smoking cessation organizations and website because they were made up of non-smokers. Smoker experience with non-smokers was that couldn’t relate to them and judged them. To them, non-smokers had no clue of just how hard it was to quit.
How do you get people to transform into someone they can’t relate to and see as completely different from themselves?
The majority of smokers in the study did want to quit. They knew the consequences and had tried many times to quit.They hated that at every turn non-smokers were constantly reminding them of those consequences as if they didn’t know.
But the two of the biggest obstacles were:
- They would have to leave a world where they were accepted for a world where they never felt accepted and had always been looked down upon. It left them in the lurch of between two worlds feeling like they weren’t a part of either.
- Turning to an organization for help meant one choice: Do it our way.
Some smokers wanted guided assistance from a program. Some wanted personal support from someone that related to them. And then there were those those who saw smoking as the hallmark of fiercely independent people – just like them. Being told what they needed to change in order to be accepted was in direct opposition of their self-identity.
But what they all shared was the feeling shunned, unaccepted, and worst of all judged. It was a cold, gray world where their only solace was in the company of other smokers.
If Only
If only they didn’t have to feel so inferior to non-smokers. If only there were people who understood them and could personally relate to what they were going through.
The answer lay in an emergence of an alchemy between smokers and previous smokers. QuitPlan need to understand how they could be a part of it. Alchemy created online communities that clearly demonstrated how smokers turned to each other and previous smokers for help, advice, support, and most of all personal understanding. Sensitivity and understanding these dynamics gave QuitPlan the ability to contribute to the chemistry and be a part of the smoking landscape.
Outcome
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