Nowadays cardiovascular disease is one of the main reasons of death. The number of people dying from the disease is steadily increasing, for example, in UAE it comprises 40% from all diseases, and globally it constitutes one-third of all deaths (Roth et al., 2019). Thus, it is important to find proper instruments that could influence the situation. Social marketing can be regarded as the mean of increasing people’s awareness about the cardiovascular diseases and ways of their prevention.
Statistics Concerning Cardiovascular Diseases
The statistics of cardiovascular diseases reveals that for the last three decades the number of deaths caused by this reason is rising. This is supported by the World Health Organization (2018) and Denova-Gutiérrez & Lorkowski (2020) statistics: the number of cases of CVD nearly doubled from 271 million in 1990 to 523 million in 2019. As Roth et al. (2019) put it, primary stroke prevention strategies do not seem to be effective, as the number of lethal cases increases. However, the number of researches in this field increases, which can lead to the better understanding of mechanisms underlying people’s behavior. For example, Sham (2018) mentions that the PubMed database, there were about 120 articles dedicated to the social marketing strategies in the sphere of health. The social marketing strategies are applied in different fields that could affect the cardiovascular disease rate, although the increase of their number puts their effectiveness under the question.
Benchmarks of the Social Marketing Strategies
Social marketing strategies are prepared and can be analyzed according to different factors. According to Shams (2018), six benchmark criteria are involved in a social marketing strategy. The first one is behavior change, which means that social marketing intervention aims to change people’s behavior and has measurable objectives. The second benchmark is consumer orientation, which means that the intervention should be based on the consumer’s experience, needs, and values. The third benchmark refers to segmentation and targeting, as the strategy should be tailored for a particular target group. The fourth benchmark is “marketing mix”, involving price, promotion, product, and place. The fifth benchmark is exchange, which means that the strategy offers the people something valuable for them, making them to consume the product. The last benchmark is competition, as competition is expected to change people’s behavior and to stimulate their activity.
Thus, according to these benchmarks, the product of a social marketing strategy aimed at decreasing the rate of cardiovascular disease should be the change in people’s behavior and lifestyle. Aceves-Martins et al. (2021) claim that using at least five of these benchmarks is able to increase the effectiveness of the school-based marketing interventions. They can benefit the measures aimed at regulating the weight of young people, as obesity can cause the cardiovascular problems.
Different Factors Causing Cardiovascular Diseases
Cardiovascular problems are caused by a range of different factors. According to the statistics provided by the World Health Organization (2018), the main causes of these diseases are the use of alcohol, lack of physical activity, obesity, tobacco use, and salt intake. Thus, the strategies should also be multilateral, encouraging people to maintain a number of different healthy attitudes. As Shams (2018) puts it, social marketing can promote health products, and motivate people to refer to health facilities. The researches by Mostafavi et al. (2021), Shakir et al. (2020), and Berends and Halliday (2018) revealed the effectiveness of social marketing strategy in encouraging the young people to change their lifestyle. Thus, some strategies turn to be effective, which means that it is important to continue their implementation.
References
Aceves-Martins, M., Llauradó, E., Tarro, L., Moreno-García, C. F., Trujillo Escobar, T. G., Solà, R., & Giralt, M. (2016). Effectiveness of social marketing strategies to reduce youth obesity in European school-based interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition reviews, 74(5), 337–351. Web.
Berends, L., & Halliday, R. (2018). Capacity building and social marketing promotes healthy lifestyle behaviour in an Australian Aboriginal community. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 26(4), 279–283. Web.
Denova-Gutiérrez, E. & Lorkowski, S. (2020). Global burden of cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, 1990-2019: Update from the GBD 2019 study. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Web.
Mostafavi, F., Zamani-Alavijeh, F., Mansourian, M., & Bastami, F. (2021). The promotion of healthy breakfast and snacks based on the social marketing model: a mixed-methods study. Journal of health, population, and nutrition, 40(1), 22. Web.
Shakir, M. A., Singh, A., Levy, P., Cohen, D. A., Moran, S., Mikelson, C. H., Rodriguez, R., Gray, W. A., & Patel, R. (2020). Social media use and community-based cardiovascular health-care professionals: Perception versus reality. Heart views: the official journal of the Gulf Heart Association, 21(4), 276–280. Web.
Shams, Mohsen. (2018). Social Marketing for Health: Theoretical and Conceptual Considerations. In Haider M. & Platter H.N. & Higginbotham B. (Eds.), Selected Issues in Global Health Communications, IntechOpen. Web.
World Health Organization (2018). Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Country Profiles. Web.