Tackling health inequalities using geodemographics: a social marketing approach

Market research is generally considered the realm of the private commercial sector. This paper presents an innovative use of market research methods in the public sector, in particular the use of geodemographics, to tackle health inequalities. The term 'social marketing' has been around for over 30 years, since Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman's seminal paper of 1971, in which the concept was first presented. Social marketing is distinguished from commercial marketing by aiming to achieve a 'social good' through a 'behavioural change'. This paper explores the use of social marketing (commercial marketing techniques used in a societal context) to tackle 'diseases of comfort' and their resultant health inequalities. In this paper, we first discuss the conceptual underpinnings of social marketing, in order to elicit what truly defines it and makes it a worthwhile approach to achieving societal behavioural change. This paper presents a successful social marketing framework that is being used in practice in the UK to tackle commonplace public health issues. Discussion such as this is essential to develop a feedback loop that ensures that lessons are learnt and best practice is always adopted.