Social Marketing vs.

Media Advocacy
Two Different Approaches
Toward a Common Public
Health Goal
 Social Marketing
 The use of marketing principles and
techniques to influence a target
audience to voluntarily accept,
reject, modify or abandon a behavior
for the benefit of individuals, groups
or society as a whole.

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 Media Advocacy
 Media advocacy is "the strategic use
of mass media to support community
organizing to advance a social or
policy initiative," (Dorfman and
Wallack, 1996).

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 Social Marketing
 Focus is on the consumer
 Begins with target audience

 Public health professionals listen to

needs and desires of the target

audience and builds program from
there.
 Involves in-depth research and

constant re-evaluation of every

aspect of the program.
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 Social marketing espouses that the same
marketing principles that were being used
to sell products to consumers could be
used to “sell” ideas, attitudes, and
behaviors.
 Seeks to influence social behaviors in
order to benefit the target audience and
the general society, not to benefit the
marketer.
 Social marketing has been utilized in
health programs for such diverse topics as
drug abuse, heart disease, and organ
donation.

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 Marketing mix: The 5 “p’s”

 Product
 Price

 Place

 Promotion

 Positioning

 And in social marketing a few other

“p’s”

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 Social Marketing “Product”
 Not necessarily a physical offering.
• Physical product – condom
• Services – medical exams
• Practices – breastfeeding; eating a heart-
healthy diet
• Ideas – environmental protection
 What is the consumers’ perceptions of the
problem and the product and how
important to them is the ideal that they
need to take action against the problem?
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 Social Marketing “Price”
 "Price" refers to what the consumer must
do in order to obtain the social marketing
product.
 This cost may be monetary, or it may
instead require the consumer to give up
intangibles, such as time or effort, or to
risk embarrassment and disapproval.
 If perceived cost is > perceived benefits,
unlikely to be adopted.
 If perceived benefits > perceived costs,
chances of adoption of products is greater.
 Cost can be neither to low, nor too high.
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 Social Marketing “Place”
 "Place" describes the way that the
product reaches the consumer.
 Intangible product

• Doctors’ offices
• Shopping malls
• Mass media outlets
• University health services
 Idea is to insure accessibility to the
target audience.
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 Social Marketing “Promotion”
 Promotion consists of the integrated
use of advertising, public relations,
promotions, media advocacy,
personal selling and entertainment
vehicles.
 Positioning – make the case that the

benefits of this product are more

desirable than the competition.

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 Other Social Marketing “P’s”
 Publics
 Partnership

 Policy

 Purse Strings

 Examples?

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 Health Campaigns Utilizing Social
Marketing Principles
 Australia:
• Victoria Cancer Council developing its
anti-tobacco campaign "Quit" (1988), and
"SunSmart" (1988), its campaign against
skin cancer which had the slogan Slip! Slap!
Slop!.
• Dancesafe followed the ideas of social
marketing in its communication practices.
 CDC campaign – “Why is this ulcer sufferer
so happy?”
 North Carolina – “Click It or Ticket!”
Campaign
 Florida – “Truth” campaign
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 Meet
Pat

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 Pat’s “Xtreme Makeover”
 Pat’s goal is to shape up, lose
weight, and “look fabulous.”

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 Pat’s “Xtreme Makeover”
 Will Pat look like
this?

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 Pat’s “Xtreme Makeover”
 Or this?

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 Applying social marketing
principles:
 Product
• Adoption of a behavior change involving
regular exercise and making better food
choices resulting in better cardiovascular
health and healthier weight

 Price
• Costs in behavioral and/or monetary
terms are acceptable

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 Place
• Health club and dining establishments
are appealing, accessible, and
supportive

 Promotion
• Use e-mail, interpersonal, small group
communication, and other appropriate
techniques to advance the product

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 Positioning
• Demonstrate that the benefits of this
product are more enticing than the
competition, e.g. physical activity is a
form of relaxation, not grueling exercise
and low-fat meals could be considered
an act of love for oneself.

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 Media Advocacy
 According to the Prevention Research
Center, "media advocacy is the
purposeful and planned use of mass
media to bring problems and policy
solutions to the attention of the
community and local decision-
makers.”

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 Media Advocacy
 While media advocacy efforts may take many
forms, often they involve organizing attention-
getting events to stimulate news coverage of an
issue.
 One frequent goal of media advocacy is to
refocus the framing of a problem and its solutions
from an individual level to an environmental or
policy level.
• Drinking will be solved through educating individual
students (individual level).
• Change drinking patterns on campus by changing
the environment in which the behavior occurs
(environmental or policy level).

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 Media Advocacy Comparison
 Brand X Media  Media Advocacy
 Individual Focus  Group focus

 Informs person with  Pressures decision

the problem and makers & mobilizes

informs the general community activists
population  Voice
 Health message  Power and social
 Information & change
personal change
 Power gap as key
 Information gap as
key

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 Media Advocacy: shifting focus
 Problem definition as
the individual level
 Health as a personal
concern
 Short-term focus on
program development
 Using mass media to
change health habits
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 Problem definition at
the policy level
 Health as a social
issue
 Long-term focus on
policy development
 Using mass media to
influence policy-
making
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 References
 Media Advocacy Toolkit.htm
 “What is Social Marketing?,” Nedra

Kline Weinreich

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