50 SOCIAL MARKETING GUIDE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMME MANAGERS AND PRACTITIONERS

Synthesis of the case study

The ECDC Social Marketing guide provides public health programme managers and practitioners with a summary of social marketing concepts and approaches. The guide introduces key principles and action steps that can be applied when considering, implementing and/or evaluating social marketing approaches as a part of communicable disease prevention activities or other public health programmes. Social marketing is defined as an approach that seeks to integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviours that benefit individuals and communities for social good. This approach draws on data about beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, behavioural theory, and experiential evidence, about what works and doesn’t work in changing behaviours, to develop public health interventions. Social marketing incorporates input from end-users, stakeholders, partners and an analysis of external competitive forces that either encourage or restrict desired behaviours.