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Jill Jesson, lecturer in the marketing group at
Aston Business School, Birmingham
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Valentin Mosichev/Dreamstime.com
The challenge for social marketers is that they may have to try
to persuade people to give up things they like |
Anti-smoking policies
• Progressive rise in cigarette prices and taxation
• Health warnings on product packaging
• Advertising of tobacco banned
• Sustained investment in health promotion campaigns
• Mass media campaigns
• Health promoting local environments, led by local authorities
and employers
• All public places and work places to be smoke free
• Smoking cessation services |
SUMMARY
The most significant environmental change to support people who want
to give up smoking is the legislation to ban smoking in public places.
Following
Scotland in March 2006, and Wales and Northern Ireland in April 2007,
England moves one step closer to being smoke free on 1 July 2007, when
it becomes illegal to smoke in almost every enclosed public place and
workplace.
Social marketing will be used to support this health promoting policy
and will become more prominent in the design of health promotion campaigns
of the future. Social marketing is not a new approach to promoting health
but its adoption by the Government does represent a paradigm shift in
the challenge to change public opinion and social norms. As a result
some behaviours, like smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, will
no longer be socially acceptable.
The Department of Health has decided that social marketing should be
used in England to guide all future health promotion efforts directed
at achieving behavioural goals. This paradigm shift was announced in
Chapter 2 of the “Choosing
health” White Paper with its
emphasis on the consumer, noting that a wide range of lifestyle choices
are marketed to people, although health as a commodity itself has not
been marketed.
The DoH has an internal social marketing development unit
to integrate social marketing principles into its work and ensure that
providers deliver. The National Centre for Social Marketing has funding
to provide ongoing support, to build capacity and capability in the
workforce.
This article describes the distinguishing features of the social marketing
approach. It seeks to answer some questions. Is this really a new idea,
a paradigm shift, or simply a change in terminology? What do the marketing
principles offer that is new, or are they merely familiar ideas repackaged
in marketing jargon? Will these principles be more effective than current
health promotion practice and, if so, how does it work? Finally, what
are the implications for community pharmacy? Full text article (PDF 50K) |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal