Social marketing uses commercial marketing techniques to change behaviors that benefit individuals or society in general. Unlike conventional marketing, which seeks to sell products or services, social marketing aims to promote voluntary behavior change. Some examples of behaviors that have changed due to social marketing are: using seat belts, wearing bike helmets, child immunizations, and smoking cessation. Although good social marketing campaigns use the same techniques as that of commercial marketers, by letting the customer be the guide for all major decisions, it is not primarily advertising and is not about top-down planning and decisions. Instead, it is about having a consumer orientation, which means understanding the target audience very well. An effective social marketer must be committed to ongoing communication with the audience in order to create programs, products, or practice that enable them to make the changes desired.
Planned Parenthood of Nassau County (PPNC) employs a wide range of local programs to assist young people in developing the skills necessary to make responsible decisions and help them become good leaders in the future. The mission that underpins their work with the youth is to help them recognize the powerful positive impact they can have on their peers, friends, loved ones, and families. For the last 16 years, peer education has played an essential role in the programs and services of PPNC for teens. The Teen Advocate Project (TAP) has trained and supported dozens of local youth who have in turn participated in several outreach and education activities. The PPNC also created the Teen Info Line, a telephone peer support service operated by and for teens. Along with the TAP, PPNC operates three other successful components of its education programs targeting the youth and their families: 1) male involvement program, 2) multicultural education program, and 3) substance awareness/sexual health education program. In recognizing that its mission to help the youth must not stop at the county border, PPNC established the Global Institute for Training in 1992 to develop youth leadership programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.
In 1996, Black religious groups in the US acknowledged that adolescent pregnancy is a serious problem for Black churches and that the churches have a responsibility to address reproductive health concerns. These statements bolster the collaboration between clergy and faith communities and Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington (PPMW) that began in 1992 when PPMW entered into a partnership with the Mt. Airy Baptist Church to prevent HIV infection. As new congregations entered the Church Partnership Program, the focus changed to the prevention of adolescent pregnancy. The program offers to ministers and lay leaders training workshops that incorporate a curriculum adapted for multiple denominations. PPMW also holds a series of monthly ministerial breakfasts to reach additional clergy and congregations. During the training and breakfasts, ministers are introduced to short-term programs offered by PPMW, such as parent-child communication workshops, forums for teenagers and younger children, and use of PPMW's resources. Longterm programs include an adolescent pregnancy prevention program, called the "Sursum Corda Youth Program," that provides life skills to 62 children from ages eight to 18. Other longterm efforts include establishment of a church-based reproductive health clinic and incorporation of an educational youth theater troupe. PPMW is currently producing a video describing this innovative partnership in order to promote its replication nationwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has taken steps to increase awareness and understanding of the association between violence against women and reproductive health. As part of their campaign, CDC have set objectives in identifying priorities for science, program, and policy development to reduce violence against women and improve women's reproductive health. In June 1999, the CDC sponsored a national conference on violence and reproductive health, presenting studies that addressed violence in relationship to pregnancy, HIV, repercussions of childhood violence, and cultural influences. During the conference, the presenter and participants emphasized the value of collaboration and working in partnership with agencies that specialize in domestic violence. There were also sessions on prevention and screening that were particularly relevant to Planned Parenthood professionals. Several recommendations were also given by conference members toward diminishing the connection between violence and reproductive health.
The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM), originally developed by James Prochaska and his colleagues, addresses the psychological mechanisms of changing a health behavior. The primary tenet of the TTM is that people move through a series of stages on their way to making a change. The five Stages of Change based on TTM can be applied to various health behaviors, from condom use to smoking cessation to cancer screening. Assessing Stages of Change can be used to demonstrate the beneficial effects of sexuality education programs. These stages, which classify individuals according to their current behavior and their intentions for future behavior, are composed of the following: 1) precontemplation; 2) contemplation; 3) ready for action or preparation; 4) action; and 5) maintenance. Individuals may go through all these stages in a linear fashion, skip stages, or move back and forth between them. Furthermore, this model suggests that education programs should be dependent on the participant's stage of readiness to change and should target the individual's perceptions regarding the pros and cons of the behavior in question.
