key: cord-0818306-terkpft5 authors: Nejad, Marzeyeh Soleymani; Harooni, Javad; Charkazi, Abdurrahman; Shams, Mohsen; Latifi, Marzieh title: Using Social Marketing to Promote Preventive Behaviors Related to COVID-19 date: 2021-07-31 journal: J Lifestyle Med DOI: 10.15280/jlm.2021.11.2.52 sha: f48e660061557424bbf9be57700dd7480ed49ff1 doc_id: 818306 cord_uid: terkpft5 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, a newly discovered coronavirus, the best strategy to deal with the infection is prevention aimed at reducing transmission in the community. This article aimed to using effective behavior change strategies are needed to control COVID-19. Social marketing facilitates the acceptance, rejection, modification, abandonment, or maintenance of particular behaviors by groups of individuals, often referred to as the target audience. The six-benchmark criteria for social marketing interventions include Behavior change, Customer research, Audience segmentation Marketing mix, Exchange, Competition. Social marketing can promote healthy behaviors. Perceived benefits of the preventive behaviors can be considered. Besides, media, advertising, and other methods to reach out to the consumers to inform and encourage them should be considered. For this purpose, a slogan and a logo should be designed and installed in all educational interventions and media such as posters, pamphlets, face-to-face training sessions, group discussion sessions, telephone counseling, and videos. Advertising using celebrities covering their faces with masks can persuade people to wear face mask. To promote health behaviors, professionals should pay attention to the segmentation of the target audience before providing any service. All plans should be piloted before implementation. Besides, information sources should be organized, and media that should be used to inform the target audience should be identified. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) , is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, a newly discovered coronavirus [1] . The virus is very contagious and has spread globally [1] . On 30 January 2020, COVID-19 was declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern [2] . World Health Organization (WHO) also, characterized the disease as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 [3] . Data as received by WHO from national authorities shows that there were 10 185 374 cases and 503 862 deaths globally by 10:00 CEST, 30 June 2020 [4] . Increased cases globally have highlighted the need for effective actions. Therefore, the best strategy to deal with the infection is prevention aimed at reducing transmission in the community [1] . Based on the current evidence, the virus spread mainly through respiratory droplets, bodily fluids, fecal-oral, direct contact, and environmental surfaces [5] . Therefore, to prevent infection and to slow transmission of COVID-19, people should involve in special behaviors, including: maintaining physical distance from others; washing hands, wearing face masks, avoiding touching face, covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing; staying home in case of feeling unwell [6] . Some studies show that most people have a sufficient knowledge about COVID-19 [7] [8] [9] . However, they don't completely adherence to [9] . Therefore, using effective behavior change strategies are needed to control COVID-19. There are three main strategies to change or modify social behaviors: For people who consider the behavior change but do not have the required knowledge or skills, education is effective. Enforcement of laws and regulation is appropriate for the entrenched people who have no desire to change and resist deliberately. Marketing can be useful to bridge the gap between these two approaches and will be a good solution for those who are aware of the need to change but have not considered changing [10] . Therefore, social marketing is the key to behavior change, when education or law is not helping. Theories of communication and social change are useful to the extent that they are able to lead to the solution of social problems [11] . The concept of social marketing has been defined in the health education literature for over years. According to Andreasen, "Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society" [5] . It is typically defined as a programplanning process that applies commercial marketing concepts and techniques to promote voluntary behavior change [5, 12] . Social marketing facilitates the acceptance, rejection, modification, abandonment, or maintenance of particular behaviors by groups of individuals, often referred to as the target audience [12] . The six benchmark criteria for social marketing interventions, according to Andreasen, include: Social marketing interventions seek to change behavior and have specific measurable behavioral objectives. Evaluating and monitoring a social marketing intervention is necessary from begin at the first of the planning process till end. As program interventions are implemented, each is monitored to assess its effectiveness to determine if it is worthy of being sustained, and to identify activities that require mid-course revision. Formative research and intervention elements are pre-tested with target group [11] . Social marketers know it is not possible to be "all things to all people." Rather, marketing differentiates populations into subgroups or segments of people who share needs, wants, lifestyles, behavior, and values that make them likely to respond similarly to public health interventions. Social marketers are more likely to divide populations into distinct segments on the basis of current behavior, future intentions, readiness to change, product loyalty, and/or psychographics. Compared with other systematic planning processes, social marketing devotes greater attention and resources to segmentation research, the identification of one or more segments as the target audience to receive the greatest priority in program development, and development of differential marketing strategies for selected population segments [13] . Four Ps should be considered, including Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Product refers to the set of benefits associated with the desired behavior or service usage. To be successful, social marketers believe that the product must provide a solution to problems that consumers consider important and must offer them a benefit they truly value. Price refers to the cost or sacrifice exchanged for the promised benefits. This cost is always considered from the con- Promotion includes the type of persuasive communications marketers use to convey product benefits. Promotional activities may encompass advertising, public relations, printed materials, promotional items, signage, special events and displays, face-to-face selling, and entertainment media [3] . The central element of any influence strategy is creating attractive and motivational exchanges with target audiences. This factors that may impact a program, prior to designing the program. Data are gathered about forces external or internal to the social change campaign that impinges on its ability to successfully influence its target adopters. These factors include the political context, demographics, economics, physical setting, sociocultural factors, etc. [14] . Defined as other behaviors, campaigns and offerings that compete for the target audience's time and attention. Promoted products always face competition for the consumer's attention and resources in a dynamic marketplace of ideas, priorities, and choices. Therefore, marketing communication explicitly acknowledges the environment within which decisions are made and develops strategies to increase the desirability or perceived relative value of particular decisions within that context, so that the product can compete favorably with consumers' other options [15] . Intervention considers the appeal of competing behaviors and uses strategies that seek to remove or minimize this completion [5] . Despite education and law enforcement from the beginning of the pandemic, some people still do not follow healthy instructions to prevent the disease. Involvement in the behaviors, for this group, need to be more attractive. Social marketing can help promoting healthy behaviors of such groups [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] . According to social marketing, a situation analysis is needed to find a better view of the environment, such as the previous and/or current public health efforts, communication, and marketing related to COVID-19. Passing some months of the pandemic, a gap analysis will determine in which areas more emphasis need to be in place. In the next step, target audience should be selected and All plans should be piloted before implementation. Besides, information sources should be organized, and media to inform the target audience should be identified. 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