Positioning social marketing as a planning process for health education

American Journal of Health Studies, Spring-Summer, 2003 by Brad L. Neiger, Rosemary Thackeray, Michael D. Barnes, James F. McKenzie

Abstract: While social marketing is flourishing, there appears to be confusion regarding what it is, what it can reasonably do, and how it should be applied to health education. Some confusion relates to a perception that social marketing is limited to narrow strategies, interventions, or theories. The purpose of this paper is to position social marketing as a systematic planning process similar to those used in health education. The paper describes why social marketing is a planning process, how it compares and contrasts to health education planning models, and how the social marketing planning framework may benefit health education practice.

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Social marketing has been used in varying degrees for over 30 years in international and domestic settings, with the primary intent to improve health and social conditions. It has been defined as, "the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society" (Andreasen, 1995, p.7).

Although social marketing is increasingly recognized as a viable process, there appears to be considerable confusion regarding what social marketing is, what it can reasonably be expected to do, and how it should be performed. McDermott (2000) indicated that social marketing may be poorly understood by most health educators, whereas Smith (2000) implied that similar confusion exists among social marketers themselves. Andreasen (1995) has claimed that what is often called social marketing is not really social marketing. For example, programs that do not focus on consumer behavior (i.e., that do not create strategies with the consumer in mind), that do not involve adequate market research (i.e. merely conducting a focus group is not adequate market research), that do not carefully segment the target audience, and that do not recognize "competition," can not rightfully be called social marketing (Andreasen).

A recent review of "marketing" as it is represented in "health promotion" literature suggests that elements of social marketing associated with health promotion interventions often lack an overarching marketing plan and that the integration of marketing components to make the process truly strategic is lacking (Hill, 2001). Reaction to this review by Lindenberger (2001) proposed that while social marketing is flourishing and having a significant impact on health promotion, the current understanding and utilization of social marketing in changing behaviors fail to grasp the comprehensive nature of marketing (e.g., being more than promotion). Furthermore, while the diffusion of social marketing is prolific, the quality of knowledge that accompanies that spread appears to be inadequate (Lindenberger, 2001).

The purpose of this paper is to position social marketing as a systematic planning process, describe how the social marketing process compares to and can complement traditional health education planning processes, address the potential benefits of using a social marketing planning approach, and discuss general implications for health education.

SOCIAL MARKETING AS A PLANNING PROCESS

Social marketing is best interpreted as an approach to strategic planning that places consumers at the core of data collection, program development, and program delivery (DHHS, 1999). Thackeray and Neiger (2000) have called social marketing a planning framework that is theory-driven and consumer focused. It has been defined by Schwartz as a "large-scale program planning process designed to influence the voluntary behavior of a specific audience segment" (as presented in Albrecht, 1997, p.23). Smith (2000) defined social marketing as a "process" for influencing human behavior on a large scale.

McKenzie and Smeltzer (2001) have proposed a Generalized Model for program planning in health education (see Figure 1). Most, if not all, health education planning models can be aligned to this Generalized Model. The Generalized Model is composed of the following steps: understanding and engaging, needs assessment (including priority setting), development of goals and objectives, developing interventions, implementing interventions, and evaluating results. Based on the content of the Generalized Model, social marketing qualifies as a planning approach. For example, Table 1 presents prominent models or schematics associated with social marketing practice as repotted in literature. Common elements in these models are highly consistent with the Generalized Model. To consider social marketing as something less than a multi-phased, systematic planning approach will likely jeopardize the potential quality and impact of related interventions

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SOCIAL MARKETING AND TRADITIONAL HEALTH EDUCATION PLANNING MODELS

There are several similarities, as well as key differences, in the planning processes associated with social marketing and health education. The Generalized Model (Figure 1) as well as social marketing models presented in Table 1 will be used to compare the two planning approaches.