Marketing Diet and Exercise: Lessons from Mammon

Abstract

Social marketing's defining quality is that it exploits learning from the commercial sector. This distinguishes it from health education and promotion, and provides three key insights for exercise and nutrition promotion: 1) It is the self-interest at the core of human (and even of social marketers') behavior that dictates the need for consumer orientation and mutually beneficial exchange. 2) Our goals should be subjected to strategic analysis to identify our consumers; we need to work out who in society is best able to bring about a particular change in diet or exercise - and target our social marketing efforts accordingly. In many instances this will not involve targeting the individual citizen. 3) We need to think long term. Whoever the consumer is, we need to move beyond ad hoc transactions and focus on building mutually beneficial relationships with them.