Small Vademecum of social marketing

"Social marketing is the use of commercial marketing techniques to encourage behaviors that are beneficial to the well-being and/or health of individuals." This definition is taken from a small book that has just been published and whose subtitle fully sums up the objective: from understanding audiences to changing behavior.

In the context of an industrial epidemic such as smoking, social marketing is in fact particularly valuable for public health actors. This discipline helps them in the design and implementation of their projects and actions. It also allows them, in its critical dimension, to integrate the analysis of the strategy of the tobacco industry whose purpose is at odds with public health.

In this Vademecum-type work, the authors recall the theoretical explanatory models of behavior and how tools such as market studies with the identification of targets and the segmentation of approaches contribute to understanding the public and their environment.

They support actions designed on the basis of a strategy integrating an inventory, clear and assessable objectives. Mirroring the marketing mix and its 4 Ps (product, price, place, promotion), social marketing structures actions around 5 axes, the 5 Cs:

• The proposal of a Behavior that one wishes to have adopted,
• The minimum cost associated with adopting this behavior
• The Ability to Engage in This Behavior
• Strengthening the approach through a communication campaign
• The involvement of Collaborators or partners.

The authors particularly develop the illustration of the collective challenge of Month Without Tobacco launched in France since 2016.

This approach was also the basis for the feasibility and opportunity studies of the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products.