Establishing a Relationship between Behavior Change Theory and Social Marketing: Implications for Health Education

Abstract

Social marketing has been applied in a variety of health education settings and has produced encouraging results. As the awareness and application of social marketing increases among practicing health educators, the link between social marketing and traditional behavior change theory becomes more critical. Because behavior change theory and social marketing are complementary, the challenge facing health education is how to make behavior change theory a useful and essential component of social marketing. This article describes the relationship between behavior change theory and social marketing practice. It is proposed that social marketing is the framework to which theory can be applied, resulting in programs that are theory-driven, consumer-focused, and potentially more effective. This integration of behavior change theory and social marketing can be achieved in four areas: planning, understanding consumer behavior, guiding formative research, and evaluating success. The added value of theory to an already promising framework like social marketing that replaces paternalistic, top-down approaches with consumer-based interventions should be compelling to all health educators.