La Commande du Coeur ("Shop for Your Heart"): a point-of-choice nutrition education campaign in a low-income urban neighborhood.

This research suggests that point-of-choice campaigns can be implemented in low-income communities, although store personnel began to view campaign materials and activities as a nuisance after 2 months, and their enthusiasm and commitment decreased. Employee interest might have been more sustainable if the campaign had been shorter or if it had been implemented 1 or 2 weeks at a time rather than being continually present in the store. This approach would necessitate easily removable displays and materials. Items such as the kiosk were too cumbersome for easy setup and removal. Despite widespread advertisement and 4 months in the community, awareness of the campaign was moderate and use was low. Not surprisingly, awareness and use were higher among women, older persons, and persons who lived in St-Henri, possibly because they do the shopping or have the time and interest to notice promotional messages. Awareness and use of specific campaign components appeared to be higher for easily available, highly visible materials and activities that required little or no effort by consumers. Others have suggested that consumer effort required to recognize, view, read, and internalize point-of-choice messages is important and have recommended methods such as videocassettes of nutrition messages or brand-specific shelf labels that reduce customer effort to absorb information. Both the intervention agent and retailers reported that the cholesterol screening events were very popular and that they should have been offered more frequently. Although these events are relatively complex and costly, this response suggests that they are an appropriate and effective way to increase awareness and heighten interest. By contrast, almost no interest was shown in supermarket tours. Although our publicity might have been ineffective, it is more likely that this kind of activity did not interest the target group, possibly because of lack of time or low perceived need or usefulness.