CHAPTER THREE

SOCIAL MARKETING THEORIES

Introduction
• Theories and models for social marketing abound, with little formal
consensuses.

 On which types of models

 For what types of social problems
 What kinds of situations are most appropriate.

1. HEALTH BELIEF MODEL

I. Theoretical Concept
• The Health Belief Model (HBM) is by far the most commonly used
theory in health education and health promotion.

• It was developed in the 1950s as a way to explain why medical

1
Theoretical Constructs
The following four perceptions serve as the main constructs
of the model:
 perceived seriousness
 perceived susceptibility
 perceived benefits
 perceived barriers
Each of these perceptions, individually or in combination, can be used
to explain health behaviour.
1. Perceived Seriousness

The construct of perceived seriousness speaks to an individual’s

belief about the seriousness or severity of a disease.

The perception of seriousness is often based on medical information

or knowledge. It may also comes from beliefs a person has about
the difficulties of a disease. 2
2. perceived Susceptibility
Personal risk or susceptibility is one of the more powerful
perceptions in prompting people to adopt healthier behaviours.

 The greater the perceived risk, the greater the likelihood of

engaging in behaviours to decrease the risk.

When people believe they are not at risk or have a low risk of
susceptibility, unhealthy behaviours tend to result.

3. Perceived Benefits
The construct of perceived benefits is a person’s opinion of the
value or usefulness of a new behaviour in decreasing the risk of
developing a disease.

People tend to adopt healthier behaviours when they believe the

new behaviour will decrease their chances of developing a disease.3
4. perceived Barriers
• Since change is not something that comes easily to
most people, the HBM addresses the issue of perceived
barriers to change.

• This is an individual’s own evaluation of the obstacles in

the way of him or her adopting a new behaviour.

• Of all the constructs, perceived barriers are the most

significant in determining behaviour change.

• In order for a new behaviour to be adopted, a person needs to

believe the benefits of the new behaviour be more important
than the consequences of continuing the old behaviour .
4
2. The Trans Theoretical Model of Health Behaviour Change
• This model, popularly known as “stages of change”, has become
one of the more often used models in social marketing programs.

• This model was being applied by social marketing programs in the

early 1990’s to increase physical activity levels of community
residents.

• Based on more than two decades of research, the TTM has found
that individuals move through a series of stages—
 pre-contemplation (PC)
 contemplation (C)
 preparation (PR)
 action (A)
 and maintenance (M)—in the adoption of healthy behaviours or
cessation of unhealthy ones. 5
 Stage One: Pre-contemplation((Not yet acknowledging that
there is a problem behaviour that needs to be changed) .

 In this stage, people are not thinking seriously about changing

and are not interested in any kind of help.

 People in this stage tend to defend their current bad habit(s)

and do not feel it is a problem.

 They may be defensive in the face of other people’s efforts to

pressure them to quit.

 They do not focus their attention on quitting and tend not to

discuss their bad habit with others. 6
 Stage Two: Contemplation ((Acknowledging that there is a
problem but not yet ready or sure of wanting to make a
change).

• people are more aware of the personal consequences of their bad

habit and they spend time thinking about their problem.

• In this stage, people are weighing the pros and cons of quitting
or modifying their behaviour.

• Although they think about the negative aspects of their bad

habit and the positives associated with giving it up (or reducing)

• They may doubt that the long-term benefits associated with

quitting will outweigh (more important than) the short-term
7
 Stage Three: Preparation/Determination(Getting ready to
change)
• In the preparation/determination stage, people have made
a commitment to make a change.

• Their motivation for changing is reflected by statements

such as: “I’ve got to do something about this — this is
serious.

• Something has to change. What can I do?”This is sort of

a research phase: people are now taking small steps
toward cessation (termination, end...)
8
• They are trying to gather information (sometimes by
reading things like this) about what they will need to do
to change their behaviour.

• Or they will call a lot of clinics, trying to find out what

strategies and resources are available to help them in
their attempt.

9
 Stage Four: Action/Willpower(Changing behaviour)
• This is the stage where people believe they have the
ability to change their behaviour

• And are actively involved in taking steps to change their

bad behaviour by using a variety of different techniques.

• The amount of time people spend in action varies.

• This is a stage when people most depend on their own
willpower.

• They are making overt efforts to quit or change the

behaviour and are at greatest risk for relapse (reversion,
setback). 10
• They may use short-term rewards to sustain their
motivation, and analyze their behaviour change efforts in
a way that enhances their self-confidence.

• People in this stage also tend to be open to receiving

help and are also likely to seek support from others

11
 Stage Five: Maintenance((Maintaining the behaviour change))

• Maintenance involves being able to successfully avoid any temptations

to return to the bad habit.

• The goal of the maintenance stage is to maintain the new status quo.

• People in this stage tend to remind themselves of how much progress

they have made.

• People in maintenance constantly reformulate the rules of their lives

and are acquiring new skills to deal with life and avoid relapse.

• They are able to anticipate the situations in which a relapse could

occur and prepare coping (handling, managing) strategies in advance.

12
3. Diffusion of Innovations

• Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how,

why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through
cultures.

• Diffusion of Innovations seeks to explain how

innovations are taken up in a population.

• An innovation is an idea, behaviour, or object that is perceived

as new by its audience.

• Diffusion of an innovation occurs through a five–step process.

• This process is a type of decision-making.

• It occurs through a series of communication channels
over a period of time among the members of a similar
social system.

• five stages (steps): awareness, interest, evaluation, trial,

and adoption. (take note)

• Knowledge: In this stage the individual is first exposed

to an innovation but lacks information about the
innovation.

• During this stage of the process the individual has not

been inspired to find more information about the
innovation.
• Persuasion: In this stage the individual is interested in the
innovation and actively seeks information/detail about the
innovation.

• Decision: In this stage the individual takes the concept of the

change and weighs the advantages/disadvantages of using the
innovation and decides whether to adopt or reject the innovation.

• Implementation: During this stage the individual determines

the usefulness of the innovation and may search for further
information about it.`

• Confirmation: In this stage the individual finalizes his/her

decision to continue using the innovation.
Difference between diffusion and adoption

• Adoption is an individual process detailing the series of stages one

undergoes from first hearing about a product to finally adopting it.

• The diffusion process, however, signifies a group of phenomena,

which suggests how an innovation spreads among audience.
Adopter categories:

• Innovators: Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an

innovation.
 Innovators are willing to:
 take risks, have the highest Social class, have great financial
liquidity
 are very social and have closest contact to scientific sources
 interaction with other innovators.
• Early adopter: This is the second fastest category of
individuals who adopt an innovation.
These individuals have the highest degree of opinion
leadership among the other adopter categories.

• Early Majority: Individuals in this category adopt an

innovation after a varying degree of time.

• Late Majority: Individuals in this category will adopt

an innovation after the average member of the society.

• Laggards: Individuals in this category are the last to

adopt an innovation.
4. The Theory of Reasoned Action

• The theory of reasoned action (TRA) is perhaps the most

developed of this type of model and is widely used in
social psychology and consumer decision-making.

• It has more recently been applied to a number of health

and environmental behaviours.
Theory of Reasoned Action suggests that:
A person's behavior is determined by his/her intention to
perform the behavior and

That this intention is, in turn, a function of his/her attitude

 The best predictor of behavior is intention.
 Intention is the cognitive representation of a person's
readiness to perform a given behavior, and it is
considered to be the immediate antecedent of behavior.

• Attitude is a function of beliefs about the

consequences of the behaviour weighted by an
evaluation of each outcome.

• Subjective norms are a function of how significant

others view the behaviour, weighted by the motivation
to conform to each.
5. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

In contrast to the previous, theoretical models, SCT

explicitly recognizes that behaviour is not determined by
just intrinsic factors, or that an individual is a product of
their environment, but that he/she has an influence on:

What they do,

Their personal characteristics,
How they respond to their environment, and
indeed, what their environment is.

Changes in any of these three factors are hypothesized

to render changes in the others.
 One of the key concepts in SCT is an environmental
variable: observational learning.

 In contrast to earlier behavioural theories, SCT views:

 The environment as not just one that reinforces or

punishes behaviours,

 But it also provides a milieu where one can watch the

actions of others and learn the consequences of those
behaviours.
• Processes governing observational learning include :
1. Attentional: gaining and maintaining attention

2. Retention: being remembered

3.Production: reproducing the observed behaviour

4.Motivational: being stimulated to produce the

behaviour
 Reading assignment

• Refer Other core components of SCT

End of Chapter Three!!