Editor’s note: Steve Appel is president of Appel Research, LLC, Niskayuna, N.Y. Barbara Bird, RNC of Bird Consulting Group, a Clifton Park, N.J., health care consultancy, The project described in this article was done in conjunction with Lisa Grace of Conceptual Images for the Bureau of Ambulatory Care Services, AIDS Institute, New York State Department of Health (Roberta Glaros, director), and largely funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Appel and the other moderators involved, including Francesca Moscatelli and Nancy Banks, are Qualitative Research Consultants Association members.

Statistics show that infant mortality rates in parts of New York State rank near those of many third-world countries. Since there is a clear link between proper prenatal medical care and positive pregnancy outcomes, the obvious solution is to convince more women to get prenatal care.

That’s exactly what the AIDS Institute, a division of the New York State Department of Health, had in mind when it hired a team of consultants * a health care expert, a marketing researcher and a media producer - to develop a multimedia campaign to address this mission.

The task was to get the hardest-to-reach pregnant women to seek early prenatal care. To succeed, we would have to convince these women - often drug addicts, convicted felons, illegal aliens, refugees - to tell us what it would take to win them over.

The method would be marketing research, using focus groups and Perception Analyzers. A key use of those little black boxes with antennae was trade-off analysis (the ability to measure messages and images in comparison to each other) - in addition to the more common second-by-second graphing of radio and TV spots. The major benefit of the Perception Analyzer system is that you get not only the yes or no opinions but also a measure of their intensity.

There were two unique aspects to this pr...