Applying Social Marketing in Healthcare: Strategies to Promote Health

Dear Colleagues,

Activating healthy behaviors is the goal of most health policies, strategies, and actions put in place by policymakers, healthcare managers, and professionals in order to improve population health, prevent the occurrence of chronic disease risks or manage chronic conditions, and support active and healthy aging. However, informing people and improving their intentions or attitudes may not be enough, which is why the final goal is an actual change in their behaviors. Additionally, actions have to be directed towards people who do not behave as expected or towards those who are willing but not confident in their ability to change; a “sweet nudge” may support them. Hence, the capacity to translate goals into results and outcomes is heavily dependent on the strategies and tools adopted. Social marketing proposes a bottom-up approach based on value-exchange processes able to induce changes in individuals’ behaviors and produce, in turn, benefits for the whole society. Applying rigorous methods, identifying a clear matter to manage and a population segment to target, choosing the behavior to activate, referring to the best behavioral theories to apply to this end, defining the goals to achieve, being aware of the potential barriers, and using a structured planning and evaluating process are the key steps for an effective intervention design and implementation. Papers addressing the activation of behaviors to produce individual and societal benefits in terms of health are invited for this Special Issue, especially those combining innovative strategies and tools coherently with social marketing, practical application, and evidence for the achieved results and outcomes. Papers that contribute to defining new policies and strategies at the national level are also welcome.

Dr. Anna maria Murante
Guest Editor

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• social marketing
• behavior change
• value exchange
• innovative strategies
• innovative tools