Social Marketing for Health
Can Principles from Advertising Agencies improve Public Health
The 4Ps of marketing are the first lesson that any budding product marketeer learns. Product, price, place and promotion are the elements that make up successful product sales. But with an intangible like public health, can the 4Ps be used to educate people and improve their health? In 1971, marketing experts Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman coined the phrase “social marketing”. Social marketing refers to the use of the 4Ps in areas such as health and other non-profit and social causes.
Social marketing in health has used the 4P concepts to educate and promote behaviour change. In some cases, health promotion is a tangible product such as a quit smoking nicotine patch or a workbook of health information and activities. By the use of mass media tools such as newspaper, radio and television advertisements, health information can be provided to large groups of people at low costs. For some individuals in society, the price of being healthy is a consideration, accordingly health promotion professionals must consider the cost to their target audience of participating in the healthier behaviour. This is not simply about consumers paying for services but also the ability of incentives to change behaviour, such as the opportunity to win a prize may encourage behaviour change in certain individuals.
The third P – place, is of utmost importance to the success or failure of a health promotion program. The place where messages will be displayed will be determined in part by the initial needs analysis, which determines the target market and by a channel analysis to understand where the target market will be reached, for example pubs and clubs, sports organisations, preferred television times and radio stations and other community activities.
The final P – promotion, can be undertaken in traditional ways, such as advertising or new technologies like Web 2.0, e-health and similar. Promotion should only be undertaken when there are clear goals and objectives attached to the promotion; for example in a prostate cancer awareness health promotion program, a television advertisement may be shown during preferred viewing time for middle aged to senior males to increase awareness of the symptoms of prostate cancer by 10% over a 3 month period in the target audience (45-64 year old males).
Social marketing is a useful tool to increase the effectiveness of a community based health promotion program. It offers a way to gain the attention of a mass audience, at a potentially low cost and in a creative manner.
Ads like this can educate the public about health
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