Social Marketing Quarterly

Programa de Educación Sobre la Obesidad (PESO) was a targeted intervention which intended to raise awareness about the obesity epidemic, reduce the proportion of overweight and obese adults, and promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables within the Hispanic community of Seminole County, Florida. It was funded through the Florida Department of Health statewide Hispanic Obesity and Prevention Program. The PESO program utilized a multidisciplinary design to implement and evaluate a nutrition education and obesity reduction program. The 4-month program was a collaborative effort of the Seminole County Health Department, University of Central Florida, and Iglesia Vida Nueva church in Seminole County. We used a social marketing framework to deliver the curriculum and structure some of the lessons. In addition, we utilized this framework to critique, redesign, and make recommendations for future programs.

Research suggests that youth do not use condoms because they trust their partner. This article describes the Trusted Partner regional behavior change communication campaign and uses data from Lesotho, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia to evaluate the impact of the campaign. Cross-sectional surveys of youth aged 15 to 24 were conducted in each country before and after the campaign. The surveys measured elements related to trust and condom use with a regular partner. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to investigate the determinants of condom use and whether exposure to the campaign was associated with condom use. The evaluation of the campaign showed mixed results. The percent of youth recalling the campaign varied among countries: 32% in urban Lesotho, 54% in urban Mozambique, 16% in Uganda, and 39% in urban Zambia. In all 4 countries, sexual caution with a partner had a positive relationship with condom use. However, exposure to the campaign was only associated with condom use in Mozambique. These results from Mozambique indicate that more intense exposure may be necessary to achieve impact. Regional campaigns appear to be a cost-effective way to reach large numbers of youth, but more detailed measures of exposure should be pursued to improve program evaluations.

Branding is at best a complex phenomenon in conventional commercial settings and even more so in social marketing where the application of branding concepts and techniques are fairly recent but nevertheless gaining momentum. Against the backdrop of contraceptive social marketing programs implemented in Pakistan over the past 2 decades to promote the use of contraceptives, this article examines ways in which social marketing organizations used branding in a variety of ways to achieve positive behavioral changes and stronger market positioning. Using 3 illustrative case studies, our article provides a review of issues influencing branding in a highly regulated market-space. It finds that the development of trademarks and logos is fundamental to building a memorable brand, as is consistency of design and colors. Much of the techniques applied can be described as “pseudobranding”; (Hall & Jones, 2007) — conveying the identity of the product while not actually naming it.

This field/analytical study examined the marketing actions (antecedents) and performance (consequences) of relationship quality in a health and fitness setting. To analyze data collected from a random sample of 542 members drawn from fitness centers in Amman, Jordan, the linear structural relationship model was used to identify structural characteristics of relationship management among fitness centers' employees, including physical fitness and health experts, administrative staff, and members. The empirical results of this study were fourfold. First, greater employees' relational and member orientation resulted in higher relationship quality. Second, better health and fitness providers' (employees') attributes resulted in higher relationship quality. Third, higher relationship quality resulted in better relationship continuity. Fourth, committed member relationships resulted in member satisfaction, loyalty, positive word of mouth, and promotion. These in turn contributed to the enhancement of fitness center image. Within the past 20 years, social marketing application to health and fitness problems has grown rapidly. A number of social marketing implications and recommendations are highlighted.

High-risk drinking, the consumption of 5 or more drinks on one occasion, constitutes a serious public health issue among young adults, particularly college students. In an attempt to address this issue in a cost-effective manner, many universities have implemented social marketing interventions sometimes utilizing social norm theory and in other cases using more traditional strategies. However, some practitioners, school officials, and even researchers incorrectly use the terms social marketing and social norms marketing, interchangeably. Social marketing influences health behavior through the use of marketing principles, such as the use of the 4Ps (product, price, placement, and promotion) to increase knowledge, change attitudes, and motivate individual or societal change. Conversely, social norms represents a specific theory which can be applied using social marketing principles. Social norm interventions are designed to correct peoples' misconceptions concerning the prevalence of a particular behavior. Theorists assert that by providing accurate information concerning the prevalence of the behavior of interest people will alter their behavior to fit the“norm.” Using social marketing approaches with or without social norms theory represents a promising cost-effective strategy for addressing high-risk drinking among college students. However, failing to understand and appreciate the conceptual underpinnings of how these two concepts relate to one another may result in ineffective interventions and conclusions concerning the efficacy of social marketing and/or social norms theory.

The testing of the MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch models (1986) of the relationships among A_ad, brand cognitions (COG_{b or t}), attitudes (AFF_{b or t}), and intentions (INT_{b or t}) was extended to the nontraditional context of social advertising compared to consumer goods advertising and for low compared to highly involving topics (or products). The results indicate that A_ad not only has a direct influence on AFF_{b or t}, but also had an indirect influence via COG_{b or t} within both a social context and a consumer goods context, either for low or highly involving topics or products. The impact of AFF_{b or t} on AFF_ad is not significant in any of the 4 conditions. Implications for social marketing are given.

Social marketing has advanced rapidly from its beginnings almost 40 years ago. This commentary takes a look at the current themes in published social marketing research by using text-mining to analyze articles published in the past 5 years. It also discusses the areas for future research, especially the need for published social marketing research to expand from mostly health-related application to other areas.