The Role of Social Marketing in Community Health Improvement: A Mixed Approach

Social marketing (SM) is a fitting strategy in world health that is aimed to ensure attitude correction in the community, laying the foundation for the behavioral changes resulting in health promotion in the community. The purpose of this research was to explain the role of social marketing in promoting community health.

This was applied research conducted through a descriptive survey. For data gathering, a mixed quantitative/qualitative approach was adopted. The statistical population included the youth under 25 years old who smoked cigarettes in Mazandaran Province. Based on the Cochran formula, a sample consisting of 385 respondents was formed, and the individual members of it were selected using proportionate random sampling. The data on social marketing mix and normative system were collected using the questionnaires constructed by Pang and Kubacki [1] and Issock et al. [2], respectively. The data on advertisement were collected using the questionnaire constructed by Dunn and Nisbett [3]. Data analysis was performed in PLS Software using Structural Equation Modeling.

The result indicated that the messenger’s features influenced the user perception of social marketing and had a positive effect on the user normative system. Further, the results suggested that the user normative system affected their perception of social marketing.

It was concluded that marketing practitioners can manipulate consumer perception of social marketing by shaping ethical norms.