Social Marketing for Safe Water

Place: Place refers to where and when the target audience performs the behavior,receives tangible goods or services and the additional augmented product elements(Lee & Kotler, 2011). Making access to the offered product as convenient as possibleis one key to increase engagement in the desired behavior. The Spring Healthbusiness model already includes the convenient-access component by offering cleandrinking water through home-delivery to the target audience. Drinking safe water isno more time-consuming or effortful. The management has already defineddistribution channels for the product, such as local kiosks and home delivery by theentrepreneur or a delivery-boy. It is critical that these channels are functioningproperly and reliable in order to increase levels of continued use of Spring Healthwater. People involved in the distribution channels need a high motivation, resultingfrom monetary or non-monetary incentives, to fulfill their task appropriately.Promotion: Promotion is the final tool of the strategic marketing mix andcommunicates the product benefits, the price and accessibility. The target audienceshould be motivated to buy the product through key messages, messengers andcommunication channels. The key message of the campaign could be “Drink SpringHealth water and live a healthy and prosperous life”. It is important that educationaland promotional messages refrain from finger-pointing at the undesired behavior ofthe target audience, but include positive aspects of the offered product such asconvenience, affordability and healthiness. The key messages are transportedthrough messengers and communication channels. To date, Spring Health has notincluded influential persons in the village, such as village leaders, priests, teachersand doctors, in their promotional strategy. Persons, who have influence on the targetaudience should play an important role in the upcoming social marketing campaignsto increase the credibility of the messages. Other possible messengers arevolunteers and community organizations who spread the word about Spring Healthwater. Spring Health has just started to recruit rural management and developmentstudents who walk in groups through the village shouting slogans or conduct roleplayswith educational messages in the centre of the village. These communicationchannels, the water testing melas and face-to-face selling are promising and shouldstill be used. Spring Health should also continue to use posters and flyers, but theymay need some improvement. The study in the field revealed that persons who are51