This study examined human brand positioning and health communication strategies among Bangladeshi fitness influencers by analyzing 1,049 Facebook posts from 18 content creators. Findings revealed a dominant preference for ideality-focused positioning (84.4%) paired with self-efficacy messaging (77.2%), indicating that influencer identity and message strategy are structurally coupled. Chi-square analysis confirmed significant associations between brand positioning and communication strategies, χ2(8, N = 1049) = 100.680, p < .001, Cramér's V = .22. Engagement analysis identified significant differences across strategies, F(4, 1032) = 10.023, p < .001, with attitude-focused content generating higher visible engagement; content strategy explained only 3.8% of variance, indicating that platform-structural factors outweigh message content in driving reach. Physical inactivity remains a major noncommunicable disease risk factor in Bangladesh, underscoring the public health significance of these findings. Integrating human brand theory with extended parallel process model-informed analysis, this study provides the systematic baseline for fitness influencer health communication in a Facebook-dominant South Asian context.
This study examines the development of health marketing communications research through a bibliometric analysis of 171 articles indexed in Scopus within the Business, Management, and Accounting domain. Using Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny, the study maps publication trends, influential sources, collaboration patterns, and thematic development. The findings show that the field is anchored in health communication, health marketing, and social marketing, while stronger thematic streams have emerged around persuasion, message framing, prevention-oriented communication, and co-design. The study also highlights underdeveloped areas related to digital health, cultural context, and health equity, offering a foundation for future research in health marketing communications.
Health marketing research has paid limited attention to how everyday digital platforms function as informal health marketing systems that shape adolescents' perceptions of appearance, self-worth, and treatment value. Positioning social media platforms as marketplace-mediated environments that produce health-related norms and consumer vulnerability, this study examines dental self-confidence (DSC) as a form of health-related market value among adolescents. Using data from 502 parent-child dyads in New Zealand and applying multivariate analysis and PLS-SEM, the findings show that lower dental self-confidence is associated with greater social and psychological impact (PI), with social impact operating as a key pathway. Active social media use was associated with a weaker protective DSC-PI association. This study extends health marketing theory by (a) conceptualizing dental appearance as a form of health-related market value, (b) positioning everyday digital platforms as informal health marketing systems, and (c) extending consumer vulnerability frameworks to adolescent health consumers navigating marketing-mediated appearance norms.
The rapid development of Meta Humans, i.e. Artificial Intelligence-based virtual assistants, has expanded transformative services opportunities for people with disabilities. This research note adopts a narrative literature review to explore how Meta Humans can enhance service experiences and wellbeing, while identifying opportunities and challenges in inclusive service contexts. This review scrutinized a total of 58 publications (N = 58) and identified three interrelated themes: (1) the application and impact of Meta Humans for people with disabilities, (2) the role of Meta Humans in transforming wellbeing and service experiences for people with disabilities, and (3) privacy, trust, ethics and inclusiveness of services by Meta Humans. Building on this background, this article proposes future Transformative Service Research directions relating to Meta Humans serving people with disabilities. It aims to stimulate academic discussion on how Meta Humans can advance digital inclusion and social participation and provide theoretical guidance for ethical policy formulation.
