Putting social marketing into practice

Social marketing is acquiring a familiar ring to people in the health sector. The UK government's recent public health white paper talks of the "power of social marketing" and "marketing tools applied to social good [being] used to build public awareness and change behaviour." This has led to the formation of the National Social Marketing Centre for Excellence, a collaboration between the Department of Health and the National Consumer Council. The centre will develop the first social marketing strategy for health in England. Similarly, the Scottish Executive recently commissioned an investigation into how social marketing can be used to guide health improvement. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States all have social marketing facilities embedded high within their health services. Evans has outlined social marketing's basic precepts. We develop some of these ideas and suggest how social marketing can help doctors and other health professionals to do their jobs more effectively