Social Marketing

Dr Anshuli Trivedi
IIIrd Year resident,
Department of Community Medicine
NSCB Medical College Jabalpur-M.P.
E-mail-dranshulitrivedi@yahoo.com
 Definition-
Social marketing can be described as the
process of motivating people (through
application of marketing techniques) to
voluntarily adopt behavior which is beneficial to
them, over other ‘potentially’ harmful behavior.
Main objective- 1)To promote public health
with the overall aim of improving health for all.
2) It offers a unique opportunity for public
health specialists to bridge the gap between the
health care delivery systems and those who are
unaware or unwilling to use it.
Social Changes of SM-
(a) Cognitive changes
(b) Action changes
(c) Behaviour change
(d) Value change
Marketing MIX-
Produc
t
Promot
ion

Place

Price
Marketing Mix-
The Product : In health care setting, the product
may be a tangible material (such as a therapeutic
drug of an educational pamphlet) or an
intangible/non-standardised service (such as a
training course on HIV counseling or nursing care
in ICU).

 Social marketing of health products also involves

issues like product/service branding, packaging,
positioning, form, life cycle and product
development.
 Place
It is important for success of social
marketing that the product/service should be
located where users aremost likely to find
them without any stigma.
Similarly, a public health specialist should
realize that
the best place to undertake social marketing
of immunization and breast feeding would
perhaps be an antenatal clinic of a hospital
which is visited by expecting mothers.
The Price :
The Price : In ordinary curative or promotive health
care scenario, the demand for health care is
dependent on the price and personal income, in
comparison with life threatening situations, where
an individual seeks the required surgical/medical
care at whatever cost it is available, irrespective of
his personal income.
For promotive/preventive health care, demand is
more if the price is low and personal income is
high.
For example, use of helmets among two-wheeler
users.
Promotion of product-
Promotion (Visibility & Timing) : High
visibility constantly reminds the user of
the existence of product/service.
 Timing, on the other hand, pertains to
presenting the reminder when the user is
most likely to accept the idea, product or
the service.
For example, social marketing of Oral
Rehydration Solution (ORS).
Marketing Msg-
Designing the message : Social marketing messages
should be able to educate the target group about the
existence of the health problem and its understanding.
Empower the group to undertake action/behaviour
recommended and explain to the target group about
benefits of a particular recommended behaviour.
A social message needs to be short, correct and
delivered to target audience at appropriate time.
 The social message must also overcome any cultural,
social and traditional practices, which resist change.
Repeated message for Pulse Polio Immunization on
mass media by leading film stars.
Algorithm of Social Marketing
Step 1 - Identification of health problem &
establishing methods for social marketing.

Step 2 - Identification of priorities and

implementation of affordable efforts

Step 3 - Analysis of marketing activities,

including social message
 Step 4 - Identification of target audience for
each marketing component.

Step 5 - Analyzing each marketing strategy to determine

attitude & potential resistance with target groups.

Step 6 - Identification of objectives for each

target group
 Step7 - Designing and testing the social
message

Step 8 - Selection of marketing/distribution

system

Step 9 - Evaluate the impact of social

messages
Uses-
Social marketing can be used to help
combat many major fatal diseases-
especially in children in developing
countries, that can be prevented by
vaccination, nutrition or hygiene.
Even in developed societies, social
marketing finds place in diet education
programs to lower cholesterol levels or
anti-smoking campaigns
 Limitations-
It is most often focused on change in individual
behavior whereas other health education techniques
aim intervention at families, villages and
communities.
Social marketing may lead people to believe that a
particular marketed behavior is better than other
health promoting behaviors, which are not being
marketed intensively.
It often proves ineffective where major barriers
(such as poverty, lack of health facilities, social
discrimination and lack of political will) resist
change in individual behavior.
 It is also ineffective where individual
efforts are inadequate to achieve the desired
behavior.
Social marketing is often a labour and time
intensive activity and obtaining adequate
funds may be a problem.
Mass media too is mostly aimed at an
audience capable of paying, thus social
marketing efforts by mass media are often
poor in quality & ineffective.
 Accurate market analysis is most often not
possible.
Market segmentation, which is essential for
targeting
efforts towards the target audience, may itself be
detrimental to efforts because of discrimination
& stigma attached to such segmented behaviour.
For example, clients of commercial sex Workers.
Product strategy building is difficult in social
marketing.
Pricing strategy in social marketing is also a
challenge
Strategy for selecting channels for dissemination
of social messages is a challenge since
incentives & financial returns for the medium of
distribution (such as a doctor or a hospital) are
minimal, intangible and often non- financial.
Communication options in social marketing are
limited
Social marketing programs often face failure due to
limited knowledge of marketing principles among
health planners.

Such programs also often face opposition from

competing groups (such as tobacco companies in anti-
smoking campaigns and baby food manufactures in
breast feeding campaigns).

Evaluation of impact is especially difficult in

case of social marketing because change in social
& individual behaviour & attitude is complex and
intangible with very few objective variables.
THANKS