What is Social Marketing?
Social Marketing is the process of combining commercial marketing methods with public health approaches in order to achieve significant, large-scale public benefits. These methods can include:
- formative research and pilot testing
- paid or public service advertising
- other forms of mass communications such as interactive websites, social media public relations or earned media, and promotions.
Social marketing programs can be used to deliver nutrition messages to the SNAP-Ed audience. Social marketing is one of the three approaches outlined in the SNAP-Ed Guidance. Other approaches include Nutrition Education and Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) changes. See below for examples of how SNAP-Ed programs have used social marketing to communicate healthy messages to SNAP-Ed audiences.
