Social marketing practices in public health campaigns : a study on concepts, techniques, and practices of communication managers in Costa Rica

Abstract

Social marketing has shown significant growth globally, demonstrating success in changing behaviours related to tobacco harm, recycling and STD prevention. Communication units in government agencies perform campaigns for social good, although research shows evidence of social marketing’s application in Latin America with insufficient clarity and positioning as a behaviour change tool. In Costa Rica, its growth and use remain limited. The study aims to understand how criteria align with practices by examining how communication managers in Costa Rica’s public health agencies incorporate social marketing into campaigns, focusing on their perspectives, motivations, and application of the criteria. The study is limited to practices, rather than issues addressed in the campaigns. The research was performed using a set of repeated in-depth interviews to communication and programme managers and comparing them with social marketing benchmarks and criteria literature. Rather than creating a framework to build an intervention, these benchmarks offer key components to enhance effectiveness. Elements as behaviour change, consumer orientation, exchange, marketing mix, segmentation, competition, relationships and approaches are used as components to analyse the perspective of managers. Results show that managers’ practices seem highly aligned in criteria derived from earlier characteristics of commercial marketing. Behaviour change is considered central to their practice. However, behaviour change models are perceived as an activity in the domain of technical groups. While evaluation, consumer orientation, relationships, and alliances are highly valued, they often conflict with budgetary constraints and unperceived amplification and reach. The research concludes that interventions are not typically employing a specific framework, although some align closely with social marketing criteria. Campaigns were mainly targeted using downstream approaches, but some also included specific upstream components. Managers appear critical of the over-emphasis on individualism and consider that interventions should consider socio-environmental factors. Further published evidence and evaluation of interventions are needed to demonstrate the real benefits of social marketing in communication units.