Social Marketing Quarterly

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began developing a social marketing campaign, Prevention IS Care , to encourage physicians to routinely screen HIV-infected patients for HIV transmission behaviors and to deliver HIV prevention messages. The planning team selected behavioral theories on the basis of formative research conducted during 2004–2005 and integrated these theories into the social marketing framework. The team decided to use the diffusion of innovation model and social cognitive theory. They selected as their target audience primary care and infectious disease physicians in private practice who deliver care to 50 or more persons living with HIV (PLWH). The social marketing framework, the diffusion of innovation model, and the social cognitive theory facilitated the development of this audience-centered campaign and provided elements that may encourage physicians to adopt the innovation: routine screening of HIV-infected patients for HIV transmission behaviors and delivery of HIV prevention messages during office visits.

Corporate sponsorship of social causes by tobacco and alcohol industries has increased in recent years, although little is known about the effects of prosocial sponsorship efforts in the context of the Internet. This article presents the results of a study designed to evaluate social cause Internet sponsorship effects in terms of two communication objectives: brand awareness and brand image. The effects of three corporate sponsors (Marlboro, Budweiser, Visa), paired with high/low congruent messages, were examined in an Internet experiment (e-newspaper). Sponsor motive also was examined. Results showed no differences with regard to brand awareness. However, high congruent sponsors with stigmatizing products yielded lower brand image than the low congruent sponsor with a nonstigmatizing product. Sponsors with stigmatizing products were thought to have selfish motives and this influenced brand awareness and attitudes about brand image. Implications for social marketers are discussed.

Quit and Win contests are social marketing campaigns that have met with great success in achieving smoking cessation. They have been organized in over 80 countries around the world, have had over 2 million smokers participate, and have helped an estimated 150,000 smokers quit. Quit and Win contests work by offering prize incentives and a supportive environment to smokers who wish to quit smoking. This article examines the structural components of Quit and Win programs that make them successful social marketing campaigns, along with the measures used to determine their success. Recommendations are provided for increasing the success of Quit and Win programs in the future. This review also provides useful lessons for the development of other types of social marketing campaigns.

Social marketing has been a discipline founded on the open and robust exchange of ideas regarding the nature of social change, the adaptation and adoption of commercial marketing, and the ethics of influencing behavior for beneficial outcomes. As a practical discipline, with a strong theoretical and philosophical framework, it also relies on the open communication between academic and practitioner to ensure those researching and those implementing are speaking the same social marketing language. In early 2006, the international social marketing mailing list (SOC-MKT) was subject to a short, albeit critical, debate on the ethics and nature of social marketing, the social marketing tool kit, and the role of social marketers. This article reports on the summary and implications of the debate among academics, practitioners, and founders of the social marketing discipline.