Background: Chronic diseases are serious problems both in the United States and worldwide. Physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol drinking are primary risk factors of chronic diseases. Social marketing is defined to be a systematic planning process applying commercial marketing technologies that go beyond just communication. Social marketing has been increasingly applied in public health behavioral change interventions. Although there have been some narrative reviews of social marketing effectiveness, the magnitude of the effect of social marketing principles on health behaviors remains unclear. To advance knowledge in this field, this review aimed to provide a summary effect of social marketing. Moreover, a series of moderator analyses were conducted to identify key factors of effectiveness. The ultimate goal of this review was to provide suggestions for the future social marketing intervention planning.
Methods: A random effect meta-analysis was used to examine data from 56 studies. Data were entered into Comprehensive meta-analysis software version 2. Standardized mean difference effect size Hedge's g was used. For moderator analyses, subgroup analyses (analogue to analysis of variance) were conducted to test the effect size differences.
Results: Interventions using social marketing principles were effective at bringing about small but statistically significant behavior changes. Interventions designed to effectively change eating, physical activity, and smoking behaviors were effective; those addressing drinking alcohol were not. Interventions that tackled multiple behavior objectives usually failed to succeed. This review showed that marketing mix, exchange strategies, and use of theory were significant factors of program effectiveness.
Conclusion: Social marketing interventions were effective in improving some health behaviors. Based on the findings of this review, we suggest that social marketers offer extensive marketing mix strategies and expand their scope in using theories and models from communication and marketing fields. Social marketers should offer both tangible and intangible benefits the targeted population truly value. Finally, social marketing interventions should avoid multiple behavioral objectives and make a simple, clear, and 'doable' behavior recommendation. |
