In order to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify, or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups, or society as a whole, social marketing is used. The purpose of marketing is to make money while also meeting customer needs. Service providers and manufacturers create products and services to satisfy the needs of their current and potential customers while also turning a profit from their business ventures. When marketing tools are used to promote behaviour change, social marketing is taking place.
Why is it necessary to alter or change behaviour? Societies have different short- and long-term goals for peace, prosperity, and development, but individuals within those societies behave differently due to differences in their socialization, perceptions, needs, attitudes, and practices. Corrective and/or change measures to ensure compliance may be implemented where behaviours are not consistent and there are deviants. Moral persuasion for change can be a solution because such different behaviours are not always prohibited.
The adoption of social marketing theory, competencies, and procedures aimed at influencing change is motivated by this understanding. Social marketing is based on the idea of voluntary exchange, which acknowledges that consumers do not use or purchase goods and services if they cannot provide certain advantages. Customers and consumers consider the advantages associated with using or consuming a product or service when making decisions to buy or use it.
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There are numerous public health issues where state actors and private organizations anticipate that for change to occur, people must alter their behavior. For instance, one of the protocols for limiting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic calls for citizens to practice social distance, and security agencies are given the authority to ensure compliance.
In conjunction with this, health campaign messages are also created and disseminated in an effort to increase awareness, foster understanding and knowledge, inspire individuals to adopt positive attitudes, and ultimately assist citizens in embracing social seclusion and the use of face masks. The overall objective of the COVID-19 campaign messages distributed through various media is to promote social estrangement to the public and encourage them to see it as a means of slowing and halting the spread of COVID-19.
It is significant to remember that individual health decisions depend on the cultural and social context in which they are made. Health promotion that takes into account their sociocultural environment is necessary for their decisions to be in line with socially acceptable recommendations.
Because social marketing aims to alter behavior at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels, health promotion must target intrapersonal, interpersonal, social, environmental, and institutional spheres of influence. Social marketing places a high value on the health and well-being of people as individuals, members of communities, and members of societies, making this a key communication tactic for behaviour change.