Social Marketing Resources
|
- What is social marketing?
- Why use social marketing?
- CDC Social Marketing Resources
- Other Social Marketing Resources and Links
What is social marketing?
One traditional definition of social marketing is—
"The application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of society."
Andreasen, AR. Marketing Social Change: Changing Behavior to Promote Health, Social Development, and the Environment. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 1995.
A commercial marketer looks for ways to convince customers to purchase a product. Similarly, a social marketer tries to influence the behavior of a target audience.
Why use social marketing?
Social marketing can be thought of as a mindset used in planning and
partnership development, or a structured and strategic planning process. It
can be used to influence the behavior of individuals or the behavior of
policymakers and influential persons for policy and environmental changes.
The structured planning process allows you to make well-informed decisions
about what audiences to target, what are their specific needs, and how you
can meet those needs. The development of programs or products to effectively
change behavior can be accomplished by understanding your audience.
The process for social marketing planning is described in the Division for
Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity’s Social Marketing for Nutrition
and Physical Activity Web course and CDCynergy: Social Marketing.
CDC Social Marketing Resources
Social Marketing for Nutrition and
Physical Activity Web Course
The Social Marketing for Nutrition and Physical Activity Web course
trains public health professionals in the basics of social marketing with an
emphasis on implementing nutrition and physical activity social marketing
programs. The course includes the following seven modules: Social Marketing
Basics, Problem Description, Formative Research, Strategy Development,
Intervention Design, Evaluation, and Implementation. Students have a chance
to interact with and provide advice to a fictional program planner who is
struggling with common challenges. The course includes tips for working with
limited resources, worksheets, a glossary, and links to multiple resources.
CDCynergy: Social Marketing Edition, Version 2.0
CDCynergy: Social Marketing Edition is a training and decision-support tool
designed to help public health professionals systematically plan social
marketing programs within a health context. It contains case examples
illustrating the social marketing planning approach and a wealth of
reference resources and materials. The enhanced Version 2.0 retains the
popular features of the original, and adds a test your knowledge feature,
more step-by-step support and user friendly interface, greater
interactivity, global search capabilities, and updated and streamlined
content.
Obesity Prevention Coordinators' Social Marketing Guidebook*
(PDF-2.6Mb)
The guidebook developed by the Florida Prevention Research Center at the
University of South Florida provides instruction on how to coordinate a
social marketing intervention for nutrition, physical activity, or obesity
prevention. It includes worksheets, tools, and information to help in the
management and coordination of a social marketing program. The guidebook is
supplemental to CDCynergy: Social Marketing Edition and adds practical tips
and information specific to nutrition, physical activity, and obesity.
Case Studies in Social Marketing
These case studies provide examples of how states have used social
marketing to plan nutrition and physical activity interventions.
Segmenting Audiences to
Promote Energy Balance: A Resource Guide for Health Professionals
(PDF-3.2Mb)
This resource guide describes audience segmentation and five energy balance
segments developed from Porter Novelli’s ConsumerStyles© and HealthStyles©
survey databases. The segmentation framework categorizes U.S. adults
according to attitudes and behaviors regarding nutrition, physical activity,
and weight control. The guide also includes an application section, detailed
data tables, and a 10-question survey with analysis tools that classifies
respondents into one of the five segments.
One analysis tool mentioned in the resource guide is the
MS Excel Segment
Analysis Tool. (XLS-26k) Because this tool is not found in the PDF document
it is included here as a separate link. See Appendix D of the PDF file for
more information about the Excel tool and how to use it.
Other Social Marketing Resources and Links
National Social
Marketing Centre*
The National Social Marketing Centre—a strategic partnership of the
Department of Health and the National Consumer Council from the United
Kingdom—has a Web site with a variety of resources for social marketing.
These resources include an independent review of the effectiveness of social
marketing, documents, presentations, and other reports.
Turning Point
Social Marketing National Excellence Collaborative*
The mission of this collaborative is to provide national leadership to
achieve social marketing integration as a routine part of public health
practice at all levels. This Web site includes a Social Marketing 101 online
PowerPoint presentation and a social marketing resource guide.
Social
Marketing in Public Health Conference and Field School*
This annual conference is designed for public health professionals and
health educators in a variety of settings. Topics and speakers are selected
to elaborate on key elements of the social marketing approach and to
illustrate how social marketing can be applied to a wide variety of public
health topics. The conference includes in-depth trainings and workshops at
the introductory and intermediate levels. The University of South Florida
offers the Social Marketing in Public Health Field School in addition to the
annual conference. The Field School is a selection of courses offered in an
intensive 4- to 7-day format.
Center for
Advanced Studies in Nutrition and Social Marketing*
The Center was established to enhance social marketing strategies to improve
nutrition and physical activity behaviors related to preventing cancer and
other chronic diseases. In addition to basic social marketing information,
this Web site provides lectures, case studies, and resources specific to
social marketing’s application to nutrition and physical activity issues.
Inventory of Qualitative
Research
This Web site provides basic information about qualitative studies that have
been conducted in nutrition, physical activity, and other related fields.
The qualitative research presented includes formative research to study
target audiences while developing intervention strategies, to research
pretest intervention activities and/or materials, and monitoring and
evaluation research to find out how projects are doing so they can be
fine-tuned to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program used to calculate, analyze, and store data. Text in Excel files can be easily modified or copied for use in other applications.If you do not already have Excel, you can download Excel Viewer for free*.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Page last updated: October 14, 2008
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion