Download this fact sheet: Community health campaigns: social marketing (for students) [PDF: 41 KB]
Introduction
Every day we see hundreds of advertisements. Some ads can be entertaining, some are funny, some are informative and some are designed to do us good. Advertising can be used in community health campaigns to give people information that is not based on the need to make a profit, but to encourage them to do the right thing.
Community health campaigns are also known as “social marketing campaigns”. They differ from other sorts of marketing campaigns because they use marketing techniques to try to “sell” social change rather than a product.
This fact sheet provides a definition of social marketing and explains the principles behind it.
What is social marketing?
The aim of social marketing is to encourage positive behaviour and healthy living. The difference between social marketing and other types of marketing is that the aim of social marketing is to improve the wellbeing of the community, whereas the aim of commercial marketing is to benefit the interests of the marketer. A social marketing campaign can motivate people to do something that they are not doing (such as going to the doctor for a check up) or to persuade people NOT to do something (such as drink alcohol to excess, smoke or use illicit drugs).
Why is social marketing needed?
Social marketing is important because its aim is to improve people’s lives by encouraging positive behaviours and discouraging unhealthy or harmful behaviours. By trying to influence people to adopt healthier lifestyles, social marketing programs can take the pressure off the health system so that limited resources can be used more effectively.
Examples of social marketing campaigns that have targeted health behaviours are:
- Quit campaign
- drink driving
- SunSmart.
How does social marketing work?
Social marketers need to understand their target audience before they can figure out how to influence them. Just letting people know about an issue is not enough. They have to research the target audience and find ways to reach them with messages to which they can relate.
The issues involved in social marketing are generally more complex than in other types of marketing, and involve a number of other disciplines such as psychology, communication, economics and sociology. However, there are some basic principles of marketing that apply in social marketing; for example the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.
Product
In order for people to want a product, they have to feel that they are missing something or have a problem that needs to be solved. Products that are part of social marketing campaigns can include:
- physical products (sunscreen)
- services (health checks)
- behaviours (eating healthy food)
- ideas that have direct or indirect benefits (environment protection, staying out of the sun at certain times of the day).
Price
The price refers to what a person is willing to do to obtain the product. In a social marketing campaign the price may be:
- money
- time
- effort
- risk of embarrassment.
If the costs outweigh the benefits it is not very likely that the person will try a product or change their behaviour. The perceptions of cost and benefits can be determined through research.
Place
Place refers to the way that a product reaches the target audience. For a physical product this means where people can get the product. For products like health messages, this refers to decisions about how the target audience will be reached with information or training (for example, advertising or conferences). It also means providing a way for people to act when they are motivated to do so.
Promotion
Promotion refers to advertising, public relations and media support. The focus is on creating and sustaining demand for the product. Social marketing campaigns often use mass media because they can reach and influence a large group of people. Mass media campaigns involve film, television, radio, information brochures, billboard advertising and the Internet.
Example of a social marketing campaign aimed at young people
Youth Solutions is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation that aims to prevent and reduce drug use and related harm among young people in Macarthur, Wingecarribee and the wider community of New South Wales. In 2003, they held a youth forum for young people living in the Macarthur and Wingecarribee regions, focusing on issues of concern about young people’s use of cannabis. This resulted in a program to provide a locally relevant campaign that involved young people and the general community.
The campaign called for an understanding about the “real issues” for young people in the region, so 165 young people were asked about their concerns through focus groups and surveys. Issues about personal safety (including health, violence and sexual assault) were the most common issues raised in the surveys and focus groups. This made it possible to determine what the important issues were and how young people wanted health messages delivered to them.
A further 189 young people were then consulted about the types of campaign message that would be relevant to them. They came up with “Dope EFX u”. Following this, 12 young people participated in an intensive one-day “creative workshop” to choose the promotional materials for the campaign. The following resources were chosen by the young people:
- T-shirts
- wristbands
- posters
- three weeks of half-page newspaper advertisements as well as various editorial coverage
- two weeks of radio advertisements on two commercial radio stations
- letterbox drop of postcards promoting the message and the community forum to over 40 000 residents
- web-based fact file.
"Dope-EFX u" is a pretty clear message designed by young people for young people.
Conclusion
Now that you know a little about social marketing you should be able to identify some of your school’s health campaigns; for example, healthy eating, being SunSmart, keeping fit, anti-bullying. If you have a message that you want people to receive you can use social marketing techniques to get your message across.
For more information about social marketing, drugs and drug prevention contact the DrugInfo Clearinghouse on tel. 1300 85 85 84, email druginfo@adf.org.au, or see our website www.druginfo.adf.org.au.