An overview of social marketing in India

A Healthier 21stcentury has been the target of our country. The governments in their manifesto before the onset of new millennium have flaunted the slogan ‘Health for All by 2000 AD’. In reality it is still a myth. In Indian society, health care management is at the bottom of the welfare agenda. India lives in its almost 6.5 lakh villages. If basic health care does not reach the rural areas, no matter how much progress is achieved in the urban and semi-urban areas, overall growth as a nation will be retarded. Social marketing concept is a relatively new concept in social science literature. Even though the father of social marketing is a Marketing expert, its popularity gained in recent times and incorporated into the sociology curriculum in most of the universities in India and the world. Social marketing concept was introduced by Marketing Guru Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in the year 1971. For the first time they wrote an article entitled “Social Marketing: An Approach for Planned Social Change’ which published in ‘Journal of Marketing’. Since then this concept has been extensively used to promote healthy behaviour among the people. It focuses on influencing behaviours that will improve health, prevent injuries, protect the environment and contribute to communities. It is now realized that promotion of healthy activities depends on health education, lifestyle modification, behavior change, environment modification. Particularly in 21st century there has been a shift in focus of health care experts toward the role of positive aspects of social marketing in diseases prevention. In this background this paper has been emphasized on principles & practices of social marketing. It is based on secondary sources only.