cover story Initial phase
Implementation
Attainment
contemporary social circumstances. One example is the Danish campaign ‘Company Fruit’ (part of the ‘6 om Dagen’ campaign promoting con- sumption of fruit and vegetables). This campaign profited from the growing corporate social responsibility trend, and it met companies’ need for easily implementable actions to boost their employees’ health.
Another factor that may be suc- cessful is private-public-partnerships (PPP), i.e. a close co-operation with the private sector. One obvious reason for this is the economic incentive as PPP may enhance the financial basis of a campaign. However, accord- ing, to the spokesperson of the Danish ‘Wholegrain’ campaign, one advan- tage of PPP is that private companies provide public campaigns with more dynamics and drive.
Another consequence is that pri- vate companies might co-operate in developing new, healthier products, thus assisting in creating structural changes that might be essential for a campaign to be a success. The Danish ‘Wholegrain’ campaign, for example, has boosted the focus on creating alternative and new products for consumers who try to increase their wholegrain consumption.
For both the private and the public sectors, a PPP automatically gives ac- cess to an extended network. Private companies may benefit from a PPP as the endorsement derived from the public sector cooperation improves the company’s image. A campaign that starts with an interest in public health, however, might also turn into a financial success and may thus continue: The Scottish Grocers' Federation – which launched the ‘Healthy living’ campaign aimed at getting local supermarkets to introduce more vegetables and fruit – focused on getting the supermarkets themselves interested in conducting the project rather than them participating
NHDmag.com Aug/Sept '10 - issue 57
because they felt obliged to. Their expe- rience with this PPP is that the campaign becomes self-financed if the supermar- ket owners see that it is a success.
Implementation One area where public institutions have learnt from the private sector is in applying social marketing. In a Euro- pean context, the concept appears to be most common in Britain. This can be observed in both the ‘Fuel Zone’ cam- paign, a Glasgow-based campaign for healthier school canteen food, and the ‘Change4Life’, a community-based campaign in Sheffield, whose layout of campaign material, website and the message are quite similar to what a private company would employ. As mentioned above, a contribution from the private-public-partnerships is that the public sector gains insight into the way private companies market them- selves and simultaneously gain access to their tools.
The private sector has far more experience in both selling a product and promoting behaviour (i.e. not only the purchase, but also the use) and this experience can be transferred to public campaigns. One important tool, among others, is the use of a logo or brand. For ‘FitKid’ – a German cam- paign for better crèche meals – as well as for the Danish ‘Wholegrain’ campaign and the British ‘Fuel Zone’, a recognisable brand or logo has been of great importance. With regard to communication, one of the most important aspects of social marketing, it can be seen that differ- ent kinds of information campaigns are still being used. The French school-milk campaign is one such example, show- ing that often enough funds are avail- able for a mass media strategy. Com- munication is, however, not dependant on funding, as the Belgian campaign promoting Thursday as a ‘Veggie Day’ in the town of Ghent shows. A
factor of success here appeared to be attracting as much media atten- tion as possible. The campaign didn’t have the means to use a large-scale media strategy, but managed to gain broad public attention as a result of a news reports on CNN.However, not all campaigns share the view that com- munication is crucial. The representa- tive of ‘Fuel Zone’ claimed that they only used advertising until they realised that ‘word of mouth’ communication proved to be far more effective – as well as cheaper. The spokesperson of the Danish ‘School Fruit Fyn’ believed that media campaigns generate at- tention but do not necessarily create real change. Obviously, massive media campaigns can do no harm, but, since they are so resource-consuming, they may detract resources from other parts of a campaign possibly carrying more habit-changing clout.
One aspect observed as a success factor in several of the examples, is a certain cohesive or linking effect on a community level. Social community is developed in several ways. In the pres- ent examples, it might be done through creating a sense of solidarity with and trust in the local supermarket, as in the campaign of the Scottish Grocers’ Federation, or the local fruit producers, as in the Danish ‘School Fruit Fyn’. In the Sheffield version of the ‘Change4Life’ campaign, the experience outcome was that a healthier lifestyle cannot be dictated by external authorities, but is promoted by peers within a social group. Local communities are more inclined to listen to their peers as they seem to trust them more. The success factor of Empowerment must be understood in the context of involving the social community. A number of health campaigns have seen that attempts of behavioural change have led to people feeling powerless and overwrought. ‘Change4- Life’ has provided people with tools
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