Social Marketing Campaigns

Social Marketing Campaigns: Social marketing uses traditional marketing concepts to change health behavior, with the ultimate outcome of a healthier population. Social marketing campaigns have been used to raise awareness of risk and risk behaviors, to promote the adoption of healthy behaviors, and to encourage cessation of unhealthy behaviors. In this assignment, you will be analyzing social marketing campaigns.

For this assignment, select two social marketing campaigns that have been conducted on the same health issue. Be sure to select social marketing campaigns or health issues different from those you used in previous discussion questions, assignments, or the final project.

Using the readings for this week, the South University Online Library, and the Internet, write a 3–5-page paper that addresses the following:

• Evaluate both campaigns discussing their strengths and weaknesses.
• Examine how each of the 4Ps of the marketing mix—price, product, promotion, and place—was addressed in each campaign.
• Compare and contrast the campaigns in terms of the definitions of social marketing provided in the readings.
• Examine the outcomes or objectives for each campaign.
• Describe the intervention strategies for each campaign.
• Conclude the paper with your recommendation for the most effective campaign, giving a brief justification.

Social Marketing Campaigns
Social marketing campaigns apply traditional marketing strategies to achieve social engagement and health promotion. They aim to influence the target audience into changing some of their social behaviors and promoting healthier behaviors. Diabetes is a public health concern in contemporary society as it affects different populations adversely. From global research conducted by the World Health Organization, undiagnosed diabetes accounts for 50% of diabetes cases. Poorly controlled or undiagnosed diabetes, either type 1 or type 2, may cause kidney, eye, nerve, or heart damage and result in premature death. Social marketing campaigns have been integrated into various regions to mitigate this developing ailment by creating more awareness of the disease’s existence, promoting the adoption of healthier behaviors, and the cessation of unhealthier behaviors among different age groups.
World Diabetes Day
It is the primary social marketing campaign for diabetes. It got established in 1991 by International Diabetes Federation supported by WHO as a response to the increase in concerns about the economic and health threat resulting from diabetes. In 2006, World Diabetes Day was made official as a UN day celebrated on November 14 every year across the globe (da Silva, 2017). On World Diabetes Day, the special occasion’s theme is usually “Act to change your life today.” The campaign’s main objective is to raise global awareness, urge people to embrace healthy eating, and educate them on how it may positively affect all types of diabetes management. Eating healthy foods is a good practice for everyone as it plays a vital role in preventing type 2 diabetes.
 In the 2018 celebration, the campaign’s intervention strategy involved promoting universal health coverage for equitable and affordable access to management of diabetes. It included improving capacities and knowledge of individuals with diabetes and their caregivers, such as their families, to manage their care to reduce economic hardships in households with fewer coping strategies with diabetes’ economic burden (Pandey & Sharma, 2018). The strategy is an excellent strength for the campaign as it focuses on the significant threats exposed to the patients and the entire community at large. However, such campaigns may not always work since it is a global campaign for all countries and may not be implemented in corrupt countries. It is also difficult for WHO to evaluate the implementation of such strategies in all countries. The product was addressed as healthy foods in the campaign; the price was associated with the disease’s costs to the patient and their families. The place was the government officials who would provide universal health coverage enabling the individuals to access health care. Promotion in the campaign is majorly conducted over newspapers, televisions, radios, and conferences.
Together We Can Prevent Diabetes
The campaign was developed to help raise awareness in Santa Clara County. It enabled the residents to know that it is possible to prevent diabetes, which is “in our hands,” by healthy choices such as consuming more vegetables and fruits and doing moderate to light physical activities like yoga and walking. The campaign calls for personal change in behavior as the main objective of the campaign; it also calls for organizations and residents in the regions to work together and support one another in working collectively in addressing the diabetes health crisis, which was the intervention strategy for the campaign (Santa Clara County Public Health, 2019). The local leaders also urge community partners to ensure access to diabetes screening among residents to offer the community more resources to reduce diabetes as another intervention strategy. The campaign indicates that it is possible to prevent type 2 diabetes, which lies in one’s hands through eating healthy and exercising. This campaign’s major strength is that it helps raise awareness about diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes. The campaign may be cost-effective and easy to conduct by involving a specific region than a global campaign where results are also measurable.
The Santa Clara County campaign on diabetes has some weaknesses, just like any other social marketing technique. The campaign only creates awareness of the pandemic in a designated area, whereas the pandemic is global. Moreover, the campaign majorly focuses on creating awareness and giving the residents knowledge to prevent the disease. It may be ineffective to some extent considering there is nobody involved in helping the individuals implement the strategies such as those from low households such as universal health coverage (Santa Clara County Public Health, 2019). The product was addressed in the campaign as healthy foods. The price was the reduced psychological, time, and emotional costs, which will be prevented when the individual adheres to the guidelines given in preventing the disease and the screening methods of diabetes. The place addressed in the campaign as the residents and the various institutions in the region helped promote the campaign. The promotion was majorly done through social media platforms like public health and other regional institutions’ websites, newspapers, and posters with campaign arts in different languages.
Campaign Comparison
The “World Diabetes Day” and “Together We Can Prevent Diabetes” campaigns are similar in various ways to social marketing campaigns. Both have borrowed techniques from the traditional marketing practices with the primary aim of social engagement and promoting a healthy lifestyle in the targeted population. Both have raised awareness concerning risk behaviors and risks associated with diabetes, encouraging the target population to cease the unhealthy behaviors. The main difference between the two campaigns is the campaign’s area coverage. The “World Diabetes Day” is a global campaign, and the “Together We Can Prevent Diabetes” campaign is limited to Santa Clara County.

The “World Diabetes Day” and “Together We Can Prevent Diabetes” campaigns are effective methods of controlling the spread of diabetes. “World Diabetes Day,” being a global campaign, helps spread awareness to many individuals much faster. As a global campaign, it insists on the necessity of all stakeholders, private or public bodies, to be involved in one way or the other in controlling the spread of the disease. WHO supports this campaign, which helps reach out to poor and developing countries where there can help the individuals in such countries access the knowledge and means of surviving through the chronic disease. Therefore, unlike the “Together We Can Prevent Diabetes” campaign that is limited to a smaller scope, this campaign would be more effective and efficient in preventing diabetes.

References
da Silva, E. (2017). World Diabetes Day. BAOJ Diabet, 3, 023.
Pandey, S. K., & Sharma, V. (2018). World diabetes day 2018: battling the emerging epidemic of diabetic retinopathy. Indian journal of ophthalmology, 66(11), 1652.
Santa Clara County Public Health. (2019, December 31). Together we can prevent type 2 diabetes in Santa Clara County – Public health department – County of Santa Clara. Welcome to the County of Santa Clara. https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phd/collab/dpi/Pages/diabetes-home.aspx