How Taste and Sight Impact Brand Loyalty in Sensory Marketing

An argument can be made that marketing is easily one of the most important deciding factors for consumers to purchase food products. With both the various and copious amounts of companies contending for the loyalty of an exponentially growing population of consumers, it is important for food companies to understand what draws people to their products. A large amount of research has been conducted into the effectiveness of different marketing techniques (Spence, Puccinelli, Grewal, and Roggeveen, 2014). With food marketing, it is not merely enough for companies to sway consumers to purchase their food products by solely spouting out marketing jargon. Rather, studies have shown that consumers actually prefer to be able to see that the foods that companies are trying to sell can actually deliver on their respective product promises (De Pelsmaeker, Dewettinck, Gellynck, 2013). Therefore, it behooves marketers to find solutions that actively engage consumers in the food selection process. Sensory marketing is a relatively new discipline of marketing that embodies the idea of activating some if not all of the five senses which include sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. Triggering these senses can prove to be extremely powerful tools for marketing because they can greatly sway consumers on whether or not they will purchase certain items. Food companies are actively searching for ways to manipulate the senses in order to alter the perceptions of what prospective customers will experience. Within the discipline of sensory marketing, there are a variety of methods that food companies employ to activate the senses. One of the ways food companies use visual stimuli include altering the outward appearance on packaging like General Mills frequently does to its cereals. Another sensory marketing technique that engages a consumer’s sense of sight is by making certain product brands very visible, so that it is the only product that a consumer would consider to purchase as Coca Cola frequently does with its sodas in many convenient stores. Likewise, food companies also attempt to appeal to a customer’s sense of smell by using techniques that trigger salivation in consumers. In fact, some food companies use artificial scents to mimic the taste of the food that they sell, causing customers to form associations between the scent and the food product. Sensory marketers also utilize auditory stimuli. Some of these techniques can take on many forms that can range from music to onomatopoeias to catchy slogans. In this way, food companies are able to set themselves apart from other brands. Similarly, food venders such as Sam’s Club and CostCo attempt to appeal to people’s sense of taste by allowing people to sample food products in stores form a variety of sample stations before buying them. Some food companies also strive to engage consumers’ sense of touch by allowing people to be able to touch their products directly. Some companies have even begun to change the tactile qualities of the materials that the store is made up of when they replace old materials with products such as wood, linoleum, marble, and much more. With the different themes of sensory marketing that many food companies have to choose from, it is interesting to gain insight into the roles that each sense plays in it. This begs the question, which aspects of sensory marketing are the most effective

Effect of Tracheostomy Timing On Outcomes in Patients With Traumatic Brain injury

Tracheostomy following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common, yet the outcomes associated with tracheostomy timing are unclear. The objective of this study was to assess hospital outcomes of tracheostomy timing in TBI patients. We retrospectively analyzed data from the National Inpatient Sample database of adult patients aged ≥18 years with a primary diagnosis of TBI. Indexed hospitalizations of TBI patients who underwent either percutaneous or surgical tracheostomy between 1995 and 2015 in the United States were included. The interventional groups were 1) early tracheostomy (≤7 days) vs standard tracheostomy (8-14 days), vs late tracheostomy (≥15 days), and 2) tracheostomy vs no tracheostomy. Propensity score matching and conditional logistic regression models were used to analyze in-hospital mortality, length of hospitalization, and in-hospital complications among TBI patients in relation to tracheostomy timing. The risk of in-hospital mortality was 35% lower in patients who underwent tracheostomy vs those who did not (odds ratio 0.65

A Framework for Protecting Pregnant Women in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, highlighted and compounded problems while posing new challenges for the pregnant population. Although individual organizations have provided disparate information, guidance, and updates on managing the pregnant population during the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to develop a collective model that highlights all the best practices needed to protect the pregnant population during the pandemic. To establish a standard for ensuring safety during the pandemic, we present a framework that describes best practices for the management of the pregnant population during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.   Copyright © 2021 Dongarwar, et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited

Temporal trends of gestational malaria in the United States

Background: Although regarded as rare in the United States (US), increased global traffic and importation of malaria from endemic countries may lead to a rise in gestational malaria in the US. Methods: This multi-year retrospective study analyzed trends in diagnosed cases of gestational malaria from 2002 to 2017 using joinpoint regression models. We also assessed the association between gestational malaria and selected maternal-fetal adverse outcomes. Results: Mothers diagnosed with gestational malaria tended to be older, and the majority of diagnosed cases (52.9%) were among Non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks. Diagnosed cases of gestational malaria are on the rise in the US. Mothers diagnosed with gestational malaria were 5 times as likely (OR = 5.05, 95% CI: 4.05–6.29) to be anemic as compared to those without malaria. Compared to NH-Whites, NH-Black mothers were twice as likely to experience stillbirth, had nearly 50% greater adjusted odds of severe preeclampsia, and had about 30% elevated likelihood for preterm labor. Conclusions: There is a need to dedicate appropriate resources to identify women that are at risk for gestational malaria in order to prevent related pregnancy complications

A Surveillance System for the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and its ensuing mitigation measures have negatively affected the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) population. There is currently no surveillance system established to enhance our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to guide policy decision making to protect the MCH population in this pandemic. Based on reports of community and household spread of this novel infection, we present an approach to a robust family-centered surveillance system for the MCH population. The surveillance system encapsulates data at the individual and community levels to inform stakeholders, policy makers, health officials and the general public about SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics within the MCH population. Key words: • COVID-19 • Coronavirus • Maternal and child health • Family-centered • Surveillance system • Individual level data elements • Community level data elements • Community transmission of SARS-CoV-2   Copyright © 2020 Ajewole et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited