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Key Words audience segmentation, consumer research, consumer orientation, theory, evaluation
Abstract Social marketing, the use of marketing to design and implement programs to promote socially beneficial behavior change, has grown in popularity and usage within the public health community. Despite this growth, many public health professionals have an incomplete understanding of the field. To advance current knowledge, we provide a practical definition and discuss the conceptual underpinnings of social marketing. We then describe several case studies to illustrate social marketing's application in public health and discuss challenges that inhibit the effective and efficient use of social marketing in public health. Finally, we reflect on future developments in the field. Our aim is practical: to enhance public health professionals' knowledge of the key elements of social marketing and how social marketing may be used to plan public health interventions.
INTRODUCTION
Societies worldwide face an ever-increasing array of health challenges, heightening the importance of social change efforts. Social marketing, the use of marketing to design and implement programs to promote socially beneficial behavior change, has grown in popularity and usage within the public health community. In recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), and other governmental and nonprofit organizations have used social marketing to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, promote breastfeeding, decrease fat consumption, promote physical activity, and influence a wide variety of other preventive health behaviors (12). State and local communities are using social marketing to increase utilization of the Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), prenatal care, low cost mammograms, and other health services (9). Internationally, social marketing has been used to improve access to potable water (42), eliminate leprosy in Sri Lanka (55), increase tuberculosis medicine adherence (37), and promote immunizations and universal iodization legislation (15, 31), among other applications. Social marketing has enormous potential to affect other health problems such as observed health disparities between members of ethnic minority and majority groups (54).
There also has been increasing professional activity in the field by academics, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies. New textbooks and workbooks, multiple annual conferences, the inclusion of social marketing in national public health conferences, training...