Effective Health Promotion Among Communities of Color: The Potential of Social Marketing

There is a general assumption on the part of many health communication planners that culture matters. This chapter identifies and articulates how social marketing principles can effectively guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally appropriate and relevant health promotion programs. The emphasis on audience in social marketing provides a conceptual framework for incorporating culture in health promotion programs. It discusses how to incorporate issues of cultural appropriateness and relevance to three essential social marketing principles: audience orientation, tailoring, and exchange theory. Identifying and understanding how racial and ethnic cultures differ and how this variance affects the health behavior change process can lead to more effective health promotion campaigns. ¹