Mention the word marketing to employees at most companies, and they will understand how it relates to their business. Successful commercial marketing can mean the difference between a company's profit and loss, jobs or layoffs, growth or bankruptcy. Mention the word marketing to public health professionals, and you may get blank stares, head shakes, or looks of confusion (and I've seen them all). Marketing is not well-known or understood in the public health community, in part because it is rarely taught in public health or medical schools. Nonetheless, the time has come to increase our awareness, training, and application of health marketing strategies and principles, because the field holds great promise for increasing the adoption of health promotion and protection information and interventions.
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Defining Health Marketing
As we grapple with ways to best reach the public and improve health, principles of commercial marketing are an underused resource. According to the American Marketing Association (1), marketing involves "creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders" (emphasis added). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has adapted this definition by defining health marketing as "creating, communicating, and delivering health information and interventions using consumer-centered and science-based strategies to protect and promote the health of diverse populations." Health marketing uses the science and strategies of commercial marketing to promote its products, namely, evidence-based health information and interventions. Although the ultimate goal of commercial marketing is to benefit the product "sellers" and shareholders, the ultimate goal of health marketing is to benefit the product "consumers" and the public.
The science and practice of health marketing draws heavily from several related and often overlapping disciplines and models. Market research, marketing strategy, and public relations allow for a customer-focused approach and an emphasis on strategic planning and dissemination. Health communication, risk communication, and health promotion provide a theoretical and practical basis for message development, design, and delivery. Health marketing also draws on such diverse disciplines as relationship management; social marketing; mass and speech communication; public affairs and journalism; health education; instructional design; sociology and psychology; and the creation of audio, video, and multimedia products, among others. Almost all of the aforementioned health marketing foundations emphasize the fundamental importance of audience engagement, a creative aesthetic, and extensive formative evaluation.
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Improving Health Through Marketing
In this issue of Preventing Chronic Disease, Maibach et al (2) make a compelling case for the important role that marketing can play in public health and clearly define key constructs of marketing. The authors suggest that core marketing activities (i.e., conducting customer research, building sustainable distribution channels, and improving access to easily adopted programs) can enhance the adoption and implementation of health behaviors and practices, specifically, evidence-based prevention strategies. Furthermore, they advocate that the effective marketing of evidence-based health programs can help close the gap that exists between public health research and everyday practice.
Maibach et al are on the forefront of a growing trend in health promotion and protection. Although marketing strategies are not new to public health, their diffusion and adoption are beginning to increase in many sectors, particularly as the relationships and collaborations grow stronger between businesses and private and governmental public health organizations. CDC's health marketing efforts may provide a useful example for the development, advancement, and operationalization of other health marketing programs.
The National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM), one of the newest among 12 national centers at CDC, was established in 2004 as a result of an agencywide strategic planning process known as the Futures Initiative. The mission of NCHM is to protect and promote health and advance CDC's goals through innovative health marketing programs, products, and services that are consumer centered, high impact, and science based. All of NCHM's people and programs are committed to being customer centered by identifying and meeting the needs of our audiences and partners; being high impact by leveraging our assets, strengths, and partnerships for maximum health impact; and being science based by using and generating scientific evidence and established best practices.
NCHM's activities and capacities fall into four functional categories of marketing. First, we have a unit focused on product design, research, and development, with our