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Social marketing – tackling some of UK’s toughest healthcare issues

The healthcare industry is facing some tough issues. With more people relying on the NHS to deliver professional health services on a daily basis, it has reached breaking point.

The number of people using the UK’s health services is a key factor, funding and staffing are others, but the real question is, can social marketing principles be used to initiate and sustain preventive health change among groups and communities perceived to be at risk?

One train of thought is that if the healthcare industry can get to grips with some of the underlying causes of many of the health issues it’s having to deal with, it stands a chance of survival.

Robust health marketing strategies are required 
Now more than ever, there is a need for healthcare providers, to deliver health marketing strategies that deal with society’s social, health and mental wellbeing issues. These strategies need to deliver cohesive, coordinated and effective behaviour change among groups of people and communities, to limit unnecessary pressures on the NHS.

Social marketing – a possible solution?
While there is no quick fix, social marketing has been successfully used to initiate positive behaviour change among certain target groups.

Social marketing agencies specialise in marketing health services and NHS marketing, and are working with healthcare advertising agencies, to create frameworks that deliver positive behaviour change.

Dealing with underlying causes
We are a nation full of bad habits! Many of us, smoke, drink excessively, eat unhealthily and live our lives on the edge. Social marketing aims to understand why people make poor lifestyle decisions, and then finds ways of influencing those choices, leading to positive outcomes. But it’s not just the poor decisions we are making that are crippling the NHS. We are all living longer and, therefore, suffering from a range of age-related health issues.

Combining ideas from commercial marketing and the social sciences, social marketing is a proven tool for influencing behaviour in sustainable and cost-effective ways.

But it’s the value that social marketing delivers that makes it stand out. Social interventions are already helping the healthcare sector, but it’s the lifestyle benefits it delivers to people and society as a whole, that makes it a such an exciting concept.

Who are we? 
We’re Perfect Circle - an award-winning social marketing agency, Manchester that delivers positive behavioural change across the UK.
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