Social Marketing Lessons from Central Asia Rowan E Wagner Westminster International University in Tashkent Tashkent, Uzbekistan 2008 Prepared as part of an education project of the Global Health Education Consortium and collaborating partners
Learning objectives Understand the difference between social marketing and other forms of marketing Understand the roles of different stakeholders in the process of social marketing Appreciate the challenges with implementing a social marketing aspect of a project Identify different resources for infomration on social marketing Page 2
Social Marketing is: Developing and implementation of programs designed to bring about positive sustainable individual behavior changes that result in an overall social change using basic tools and marketing concepts used by the private sector. About selling behaviors that may or may not have product association, but is a response to the needs and wants of the target audience or their community. Page 3
Examples of Social Marketing A Stop Smoking campaign where the program seeks to stop consumption of a product deemed harmful. A demand creation project aimed at motivating pregnant women to get at least one pre-natal check-up during their pregnancy A children s reading promotion program where the ultimate objective is to reduce illiteracy and increase skill sets of children to be better able to compete economically and socially, thus reducing health problems associated with poverty. Page 4
Important Marketing Concepts Product Price Placement Promotion Market Segmentation Customer-focused and -oriented Competition Page 5
Product Tangible or intangible offering of goods or services that are exchanged with the targeted individual or group for a price or benefit that results in a behavior change. The new desired behavior, through the use of the offered products or services, must compete successfully with the deemed benefit of the current behavior. Page 6
Product Examples Condoms Blood pressure screening Prenatal check ups Needle exchange points (NEPS) Clean needles and needle cleaning kits Page 7
Price What the targeted individual or group needs to do to receive the product and/or service that will lead to a long-term benefit through the behavior change. Can be directly financial or related to other costs such as: - time - lifestyle / social sphere - psychological effort - physiological effort Page 8
Placement Where the product, service or information is most readily available to the targeted individual or group that will support the desired behavior change. Page 9
Placement Example STD/HIV and counseling brochures in taxis and at high traffic areas that utilize sex worker services NEP ambassadors in drug alleys who provide information on safe clinics and provide clean needles Maternal health outreach workers who provide information and products to rural women either individually or to groups in their homes Page 10
Promotion Communication activities about the product, service, place, price or desired end behavior. Examples include: - Public service announcement (PSA) - Mass media advertisement - Events - Personnel selling or peer-to-peer advertising - Focused information-oriented entertainment Page 11
Promotion Your brain on drugs billboard advertisement (aimed at reducing drug use among youth) Mother Against Drunk Driving commercial (aimed at educing drunk driving) Free blood pressure screening provided by a health center (aimed at getting people to seek regular check ups if they have signs of high blood pressure) Race for the cure 10k run (event aimed at raising awareness and funds for cancer research) Page 12
Market Segmentation Individuals and groups who share defined behaviors are often not uniform in their perceptions or responses to marketing efforts due to aspects such as culture, religion, income, social standing and age, and therefore need to be segmented into key groupings to better support the behavior change process. Page 13
Market Segmentation Example In 2001 the government of Kyrgyzstan wanted to conduct a national measles and Rubella catch-up immunization campaign. The campaign targeted all citizens aged between the ages of 7 and 25. http://www.measlesinitiative.org/outside_2.asp As this represented a diverse market in terms of age and socio-economic profiling, several targeted activities and media material were developed to stimulate the action to become immunized during a 10-day time frame. Page 14
Market Segmentation Example To ensure that the message to get vaccinated was received in a manner that would attract and stimulate each member of the target population to get immunized; messages and activities were designed specifically to reach a targeted subgroup of the population. For example television ads aimed at parents, radio and recorded ads aimed at people working bazaars and activities aimed at street children. http://www.ifrc.org/docs/news/01/112301/ Page 15
Customer Focused/Oriented The focus of all the marketing activities is to get individuals or groups into believing, and acting on their beliefs, that the benefits received are greater than the costs incurred to make and sustain the desired behavior change. Page 16
Competition Behavior changes often have corresponding consumption changes which has a competition element that must be understood and addressed in the marketing process. Page 17
Other factors Partnership Policies Principle Capital Page 18
Partnership Social marketing, unlike a traditional buyer-seller transaction, is complex and requires many resources to ultimately produce the public benefit gained by the behavior change. Page 19
Policies Are required to help sustain collective individual behavior changes that benefit society. Examples include policies that encourage targeted individuals and groups to stop smoking by prohibiting smoking in public areas. By running the risk of a negative consequence such as a fine, positive behaviors (i.e., not smoking in a public area) are reinforced. Page 20
Principle Capital Unlike commercial companies and services who use marketing for consumer goods, social marketing campaigns normally provide public goods and often rely on very limited funding sources (federal, donor, seasonal donations) that may have a specific agenda. Thus the purse strings or funds may be attached to defined target groups, time limitations or type of good or service to be provided. Page 21
Case Study A local health authority in Termez Uzbekistan becomes aware of an increase in maternal mortality (June 2006). In response to the this alarming situation it responds by adding new prevention and clinical services but these services go unutilized by most of the population that could benefit from these services. Access to skilled birth attendant Access to transportation to a clinic Access to skilled medical staff who have the appropriate equipment Page 22
Case Study After several months with little progress in increasing in the number of clients for the new services the government commissioned a study group to determine why the services went unused, even though a large public service media campaign was launched and ran for several weeks before the services were introduced. Page 23
Case Study - Results The commission found: The media channels were radio and television on state owned stations in the one official language. Most people in the community had limited access to electricity and three languages were used in the everyday lives of the community. Many were not literate in the official state language. No mention of costs and benefits of the services were mentioned in the advertising even though the service mix included free and low cost (subsidized) services. Page 24
Case Study - Results No research was done prior to introducing the services on such issues as accessibility and travel and time costs, as well as the impact of lost time from places of employment or home. After the commission presented the analysis to the local government. The government responded by holding a community meeting with key stakeholders. A grass roots communication campaign was launched through traditional community mechanisms. Target key decision makers included mothers-in-law and husbands. Page 25
Case Study - Results Local NGO s were invited to help set up a community transport fund with each household contributing a small fraction to purchase gasoline to be used by a local taxi service that would transport clients to the clinics. An overall community education campaign was launched targeting employers and other key stake holders on the danger signs of an at-risk pregnancy (to both mother and unborn child) Page 26
Case Study - Results Within six months of initiating community support actions, there is a significant increase of service utilization: 216 monthly visitors to 542 visitors for prenatal and maternal counseling and continued to steadily rise peaking at 607 visitors after 14 months. However, after the peak the overall utilization began to decline to a level slightly above 300 visits per month (April 2007 April 2008 ) due to changes in staff and levels of government support. Page 27
Organizations involved in social marketing activities and research American Red Cross (www.redcross.org) social mobilization for measles and Rubella immunization Population Services International (www.psi.org) social marketing of condoms and activities to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS Save the Children US (www.savethechildren.org) village pharmacies BRAC (www.brac.net) community outreach workers in Bangladesh CORE Group (www.coregroup.org) social and behavioral change Page 28
Summary From this module we have explored how social marketing works using many of the same principles of traditional marketing. Social marketing, however, contains more complex components than traditional marketing since the ultimate outcome is behavior change rather than product use and consumption. Page 29
Recommended Reading Social Marketing: Why should the Devil have all the best tunes? Gerald Hasting (2007) Social Marketing in the 21st Century Alan R. Andreasen (2005) Hands on Social Marketing: A Step-by-step Guide Nedra Kline Weinreich (1999) Social Marketing Improving the Quality of Life Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto, Nancy Lee (2002) Page 30
Contacts Rowan E. Wagner Business Administration Course Leader Westminster International University in Tashkent 12 Akhunbabaev Street Tashkent 100000, Uzbekistan 998 71 2387418 rwagner@wiut.uz
The Global Health Education Consortium gratefully acknowledges the support provided for developing these teaching modules from: Sponsors Margaret Kendrick Blodgett Foundation The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Arnold P. Gold Foundation This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.