Preventing Childhood Obesity - Evidence Policy and Practice.pdf

Social marketing to prevent childhood obesity
Box 28.8 Multiple promotion
approaches
Many of EPODE ’ s promotion activities are focused at
the local level, advertising local initiatives and events,
using personal selling through, for example, doctors
and teachers to promote the message. However, the
extensive publicity the program has received is seen
as encouraging more towns to enter the program. It
could also have the effect of reinforcing a social norm
around the program ’ s activities which would encourage
families to be involved.
aired on prime - time news broadcasts. Personal selling
is important in commercial sales of items like computers
and cars but can be equally effective when one -
on - one selling is included in the social marketing
strategy to sell the idea of a health behavior, for
example, using teachers, coaches and doctors. Perhaps
one area that social marketers could consider more is
that of sales promotions. In commercial marketing
this refers to free samples, discounts or gift. Sales promotions
in social marketing are “ incentives ” or “ facilitators
” . Offers for a week ’ s free trial at a gym or prizes
available for those entering a competition would fall
into the category of “ sales promotions ” . The EPODE
program uses many of these approaches to promotion
(Box 28.8 ).
Partnerships
In the context of obesity, “ Partnerships ” is a fifth
essential marketing mix element as the problem can
only be solved by an integrated effort involving
numerous agencies and stakeholders 24 including education
departments, schools, teachers, parents, health
departments and health professionals, regulatory
bodies, the food industry, commercial marketing
industry, and so on. Combining public and private
partners in a common endeavor is a powerful strategy
for engagement, particularly if there is joint funding.
However, there are important considerations in defining
those relationships to ensure that the content and
delivery of public health programs or messages are not
influenced commercial factors (Box 28.9 ).
Incorporating the e vidence
The many decisions made in the development of any
social marketing campaign need to be supported by
Box 28.9 Public – private
partnerships
A key element of EPODE is the public – private partnership.
Funding for the program comes from a mix of
public and private partnerships at the national and
local levels. National private sponsors have, to date,
come primarily from the food industry, insurance and
distribution sectors. These partners sign a charter to
confirm their intention to support this public health
project focusing on preventing childhood obesity,
promising that the program will not be referred to in
any product promotion, and that they will not intervene
in any way in the program content and will
refer to their involvement only in corporate
communications.
evidence, whether formative research with the primary
and secondary target audiences, or, as in the case of
EPODE, evidence from scientific literature and field
experience. In addition, there is (and should be) an
element of the marketers ’ judgement about what will
work: “ We must allow hunch and common sense
and — above all, vision ” (p. 7). 6
Conclusion
Effective social marketing requires coordinated
approaches both upstream (environmental, policy
changes) and downstream (individual behavior
changes). In practice, social marketing campaigns
need to be sustained over time to create change at a
cultural or societal level. We have been successful in
recent years in changing normative attitudes, for
example, towards drinking and driving, and making
smoking less cool. We have also had successes in the
challenging public health fields of HIV/Aids, cot
deaths and some cancers. 25 We are now trying to
create social norms that physical activity and healthy
eating are desirable. This will require commitments
from governments for strategic, long - term funding,
“ measured in decades not years ” (p. 192) 26 for
comprehensive, innovative and properly evaluated
25
interventions.
Knowledge alone is not enough to change people ’ s
behavior. The principles of social marketing are not
intellectually difficult or necessarily expensive but
they do provide “intelligent solutions ” 5 to important
251