Social Marketing Project on Reproductive Health

INTRODUCTION 

            I have learned that development, in the context of our society, is all about change for the betterment of the quality of life of people. This can be achieved through many ways. Social Marketing (socmar) and Social Mobilization (socmob) are two of them.

            In this article, I would like to focus my research on the field of reproductive health. I’ll be showing three (3) socmar/socmob projects as they deal with this issue from different parts of the world.

OVERVIEW

There are three (3) socmob and socmar projects that I would like to tackle in this paper. These projects are as follow:

            1. PROJECT ACTION

                        This is a “multi-faceted intervention strategy that directly addressed the reproductive health practices of young adults and related socio-cultural environmental factors.”  (Source Documents: Blair,    1995; Population Services International, 1996.)

            With the use of the social mobilization and social marketing strategies, the target audience was made more aware of the practice of safe sex to improve the quality of their life, particularly that of their health, thereby, helping them to bring about development as a people.

            As a social mobilization project, let’s see how they were able to follow the necessary steps: (based on Chapter 4 summary of our textbook)           

            2. THE PHILIPPINES MULTI MEDIA CAMPAIGN FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

            This is an “example of a project that uses the “Enter-educate model” to combine the use of popular media formats with the marketing of          a referral service.”  (Source Document: Rimon, J., et al., 1994.)

            3. THE PROFAMILIA MASS MEDIA CAMPAIGN

            In the Atlantic Coast of Colombia, research indicated that freedom and unconstrained lifestyle among young men were very rampant. They were not at all very much concerned with birth spacing and maternal/infant health and their attitude towards sexuality was very carefree. The campaign message, “keep being free, use Tahiti condoms,” and materials were then developed according to these findings to help curb this incidence.

CRITIQUE PROPER

I. PROJECT ACTION

A. Assess Needs

            à The project leaders were able to see that more and more youth in their community are being at risk of HIV/AIDS infection and even unwanted pregnancies due to premarital sex most especially among the youth. Consequently, this resulted to more social problems (poverty, STDs, abortion, etc.). Primarily, the spread of AIDS/HIV infection among the youth brought about the need to address this problem through ‘PROJECT ACTION’.

 B. Define Objectives

            à The objective of this project is to make the youth aware that certain behaviors can cause one to be a victim of dreaded sexual diseases like AIDS/HIV.  The model they used is intended to have an influence or impact on the behavior of teenagers and the community to which they live. Once a supportive environment is built, their youth can adapt certain behaviors that will help the whole community lower their risk of infection.

C. Identify Targets

            à The targets of this program are the young people specifically those ages 12 to 21 in Portland, Oregon, who are at high risk for infection with HIV.

D. Plan Implementing Details of Each Socmob Component

            à ADVOCACY – This project was not very clear as to which specific group of people they targeted for their advocacy on anti-HIV campaign. They only mentioned in terms of ‘representatives from different community organizations’. These representatives provided letters of endorsements, served as project community advisory board and as project advocates when contacted by the press or other agencies. What they did served their goal of trying to counter or at least neutralize the controversial campaign of the opposition which is to use condom vending machines in public places which is actually just secondary to abstinence from sexual activity at such young age.

            à COMMUNITY ORGANIZING - The necessary and primary action that needs to be taken is to decrease behaviors among teens that will make them susceptible to AIDS/HIV. This includes frequent use of latex condom or decrease sexual activity, even abstinence. In order to bring about these actions, the program penetrated the young person’s entire environment — physical, social, educational and cultural environment. When these environments were penetrated, concerned people (the stakeholders) participated. For the physical environment, those in charge of selling and marketing condoms made sure that these were accessible; For the social environment, parents and peers helped discuss human sexuality, AIDS prevention and the likes; For educational environment, schools are providing adequate information on human sexuality and AIDS prevention; For the cultural environment, sexual education is incorporated in TV shows, music, movies, etc. 

            They were right when they reported that “o have a positive impact on teens’ choices about sex, prevention programs need to influence the total environment in which young people live.”

            à IEC – According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component “basically involves the sharing of information to change attitudes and values of people, and also to create the demand and resources for needed services among the public.

IEC uses various communication media in conveying information and educating various stakeholders.” In this program, Project Action, they used community mobilization, mass media campaign, condom accessibility campaign and peer counseling program. All in all, these campaigns helped decrease sexual activity and the risk of HIV among the youth.

            à CAPABILITY BUILDING – According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component is all about “harnessing the community’s potentials, particularly in sustaining itself”. It also makes use of training in order “to improve people’s knowledge of, attitudes towards and/or skills in advocacy and mobilization”.  This would coincide with the dissemination and teaching of information on human sexuality/sex education via the educational environment (schools).  It was also smart that they made the youth participate in such activities. The target market was not only the receiver of the benefits of the program, but they were involved in its implementation as well. By giving the youth the armor (through education) and capability (through active participation), the program can last for a long time through generations to come. However, it was not specified in their project what type of formal trainings they were able to produce for further sustainability. Perhaps, they should’ve also incorporated it here.

            à MONITORING AND EVALUATION - they were able to monitor and evaluate this project with the following results: “an increase in condom use among target group young adults with new (casual partners, from 72% to 90%); an increase in consistent use of condoms among target group young adults with new/casual partners and a decrease in reported sexual activity among the teenage population” (Paper on Promoting Reproductive Health for Young Adults through Social Marketing and Mass Media: A Review of Trends and Practices)

            Through monitoring and evaluation, there were learning gathered in order to improve the efficiency of the program:

• An environment must be created that supports the adoption of safer sexual behaviors.
• Media is one of the primary role players in disseminating information about proper sexual behavior and must therefore be considered as a key project stakeholder.
• For those that are at a higher risk of HIV, they must be provided with convenient and accessible, discreet, affordable, reliable condoms.           

            à NETWORKING & ALLIANCE BUILDING – this was done through the project designers’ alliance with the media, community mobilization campaigns and peer counseling program. Networking and alliance building have some similarities with IEC and community organizing, all of which involve the help and intervention of other stakeholders or those who are also interested with the program and its objectives.

E. Implement the Program

            à The program was successfully designed and implemented by Population Services International (PSI) as a national model in Portland, Oregon from July, 1992 through December, 1994. It was successful as can be seen by the percentage increase of abstinence from pre-marital sex and use of latex condom.

F. Monitor and Evaluate

            à Further monitoring and evaluation must be done in order to make sure that the project itself is keeping up with the times therefore guaranteeing its sustainability.

II. THE PHILIPPINES MULTI MEDIA CAMPAIGN FOR YOUNG PEOPLE       

A. ASSESS NEEDS

            à It has become a trend that more teenagers now are being faced with problems brought about by teen pregnancy and premarital sex. The project leaders were able to see this and would like to address this problem, thus, the implementation of this socmob project.

B. Define Objectives

            à The objective of this project is to bring about responsible sexual behaviors among teenagers through the use of popular songs with reproductive health messages coupled with the promotion of telephone hotline counseling service.

C. Identify Targets

            à Just like with Project Action, the target of this project is the youth particularly the teenagers and young adults. However, the project was not able to describe the specific age group. Teenagers are easy to delineate but ‘young adults’ could be subjective. Therefore, it is suggested that the target market for this project should have been specifically stated for better and easier duplication of the processes next time.

D. Plan Implementing Details of Each Socmob Component

            à ADVOCACY – The project used entertainment to advocate responsible sexual behavior among young adults. “Entertainment can attract attention and simultaneously provide a guide for reinforcing existing behavior or demonstrating new behavior. This approach arouses emotions in the viewer or listener — an often neglected factor in health communications.” (Kincaid, Larry, Johns Hopkins University, quoted in the source document.)

            à COMMUNITY ORGANIZING - According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component “involves the building of the community’s capability for problem-solving, decision-making and collective action”. This component also conveys that the objectives of socmob programs can be further achieved if people in the community get involved by actively participating in the activities.  For this particular project, this component was not specifically outlined. It is suggested that ways and means should have been included describing steps on how the community can get involved in the process or if ever the community was indeed involved for that matter. It focused too much on the launching of the songs sung by popular artists so much so that it neglected this aspect of socmob. If I were to develop such a program, I will probably launch a singing or choral contest using the two songs so that people will get more involved in the process and the lyrics of the song will further stick not only to their memories but the values imbibed in the song will be further practiced by the target audience. However, it was great that a campaign that exhibits the community’s capability for problem-solving, decision-making and collective action was promoted (Dial-A-Friend). This helped trained counselors and youths in trouble communicate with each other and in the process help the community become more aware of the prevailing improper sexual behavior and in turn be able to counter it.

            à IEC – According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component ‘basically involves the sharing of information to change attitudes and values of people, and also to create the demand and resources for needed services among the public. IEC uses various communication media in conveying information and educating various stakeholders.’ In this program, they used two (2) popular songs — “That Situation” and “I Still Believe” sung by two highly popular entertainers — Menudo and Lea Salonga respectively. The project then launched a public relations campaign to promote the use of the “Dial-a-Friend” Hotline after the songs began to be played on local radio and television stations. Here, young adults were urged to call the hotline, and discuss reproductive health and relationship issues in confidence with trained counselors. The artists themselves (Lea Salonga and Menudo) also helped promote the hotline in radio and television promotional spots.

            à CAPABILITY BUILDING – According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component is all about “harnessing the community’s potentials, particularly in sustaining itself.’ This is done by using training “to improve people’s knowledge of, attitudes towards and/or skills in advocacy and mobilization”. However, in this particular project, this component was not utilized. There were no trainings conducted, nor were there other educational strategies to help make the target audience more capable in exhibiting responsible sexual behaviors. Although the songs aired and the peer counseling done were quite successful, they do not guarantee sustainability in the future because a time will come when the songs will soon be forgotten and the peer counseling sessions will not be as popular and effective anymore, especially now that communication gadgets are very accessible and people communicate all the time using these new hi-tech tools.

            à MONITORING AND EVALUATION – this component is all about trying to improve the processes of the project so as to get better results in the future. If something seemed wrong, it must be corrected and further developed. As for this project, not much evaluation is done. The implementers were only able to monitor it. For instance, they were able to gather the following data: “The “Dial-a-Friend” hotline, during its year and a half of operation logged a total of 22,285 calls, averaging 293 calls a week. About 59% of these calls were actual problem cases; the other 31% were inquiries about “Dial-a-Friend,” requests to talk to Lea, and general questions. The most common types of problems presented by callers included: problems with boy-girl relationships, including pressure to have sex, pressure to get married, etc.; problems with parents, such as parental disapproval of boyfriend/girlfriend; problems with self-concept, including feelings of inferiority, guilt, etc.; problems with peer relationships; and problems related to sexuality, including unwanted pregnancy, premarital sex, and family planning (26% of the callers sought information about contraceptives ) “ . For this type of project where enter-educate model was done, it was ok to simply reach their objective of altering the behavior of the target audience. Since sustainability was not given much weight, evaluation was not included which could be detrimental to the whole concept of socmar/socmob because duplicity is undermined and it would only be good as long as the effect of the songs last.

            à NETWORKING & ALLIANCE BUILDING – this was done through the project designers’ alliance with certain corporations, the mass media, the artists/singers, sponsors (such as Pepsi, Nike, Nestle Philippines) and through the help of certain peer counseling groups. Since it involved public personalities and the use of entertainment, it was really a prerequisite to resort to the use of mass media (TV, radio, and print ads)

E. Implement the Program

            à The program was successfully designed and implemented by The Philippines Multi Media Campaign for Young People from June, 1987 through July 1990 through a joint effort between the Population Center Foundation (PCF) in the Philippines and Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The project addressed a trend toward teen age premarital sex and pregnancy. It also promoted responsible sexual behavior among young adults. Its intervention strategy focused on the production of popular songs with reproductive health messages coupled with the promotion of telephone hotline counseling service.

F. Monitor and Evaluate

            à Like Project Action, further monitoring and evaluation must be done in order to make sure that the project itself can be sustainable or can be duplicated for future use.

A. Assess Needs

         à During the late 1980s, the highest rate of voluntary sterilization was recorded in the Atlantic coast of Colombia. To address this issue, in 1987, PROFAMILIA, the nation’s largest private sector family planning organization, launched a six-month condom promotion campaign in the region in collaboration with JHU/PCS and the Futures Group/SOMARC in order to increase the prevalence of temporary family planning instead.

 B. Define Objectives

            à The project’s aim is to promote temporary family planning methods among potential users, retailers, and community distributors in the region by increasing their awareness and use of temporary contraceptive methods, particularly that of Tahiti-brand condom thereby also increasing Profamilia’s market share.

C. Identify Targets

            à This project specifically targeted males aged 15-25 years old because these are the ones who are sexually active and are in need of some form of contraception to decrease their risks for STDs/HIV/AIDS/unwanted pregnancies of their partners.  Another key audience was the pharmacy owners who are hopeful in the increase in sales of their Tahiti condom products. It was good that they were very specific in their target. It will make this project easy to duplicate in the future for further research and study. 

            à ADVOCACY – The project used campaign messages aired in four radio spots over 15 stations, and complimentary print materials distributed in pharmacies and other outlets to advocate responsible sexual behavior among young adult males. Through media advocacy, positive messages regarding proper sexual behavior , values and attitudes and themes that address the reproductive health needs of young adults are put out there to be recognized by the masses especially its target audience and make these things more acceptable by the people.

            à COMMUNITY ORGANIZING - According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component is a process that “involves the building of the community’s capability for problem-solving, decision-making, and collective action.” It also initiates action to solve community problems. Since in this project, they are trying to solve the problem of rampant sexual activity among young male adults, they made use of a Qualitative Research Project and the Mass Media Promotion Project.  Pharmacy owners participated in the campaign and young adult males participated as subjects in the surveys.

Through their cooperation and participation, their objectives of increasing the use of Tahiti condoms and awareness of such were achieved.

            à IEC – According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component “basically involves the sharing of information to change attitudes and values of people, and also to create the demand and resources for needed services among the public. IEC uses various communication media in conveying information and educating various stakeholders.” In this program, they used Mass Media Promotion Project which proved to be very effective in changing the attitudes and values of the target audience. They had campaign messages aired in four radio spots over 15 stations. Furthermore, complimentary print materials were distributed in pharmacies and other outlets. Through these promotions and campaigns, Tahiti condom sales and views on condom use increased as compared to their  pre-campaign levels.

            à CAPABILITY BUILDING – According to our textbook, DEVC 208 Communication and Social Marketing, this socmob component is all about “harnessing the community’s potentials, particularly in sustaining itself”. It also makes use of training in order “to improve people’s knowledge of, attitudes towards and/or skills in advocacy and mobilization”. For this project, there was no training mentioned but instead, they developed reference materials, point of purchase mobiles, posters and stickers, and leaflets in dissemination information on the use of temporary contraception.  However, use of these materials may not ensure the sustainability of the project. They can also be so good and effective as far as the campaign period is concerned. But afterwards, it can only be hoped that the target audience concerned will continue to practice what they have learned and gathered from this project.

            à MONITORING AND EVALUATION - they were able to monitor and evaluate this project with the following results:  “During the period of the campaign, Tahiti condom sales increased by 77 percent over pre-campaign levels. Though the post-campaign period showed a drop in sales, average sales for the six months following the campaign remained almost 60 percent above the pre-campaign levels. The post-campaign survey indicated that 3.8 percent of men interviewed expressed the intention to use condoms in the future, compared with 1.7 percent in the pre-campaign survey. Similarly, in the post-campaign survey 42 percent of men interviewed felt condoms were safe and effective compared with only 24.5 percent at the pre-campaign. These results show that machismo need not pose an obstacles to family planning in Latin America. “ (See Annex A)

            à NETWORKING & ALLIANCE BUILDING – this was done through the project designers’ alliance with the media (through the Mass Media Promotion Project and their tie-up with Pharmacy owners). Networking and alliance building have some similarities with IEC and community organizing, all of which involve the help and intervention of other stakeholders or those who are also interested with the program and its objectives.

E. Implement the Program

            à The program was successfully designed , in 1987 in order to address the lowest prevalence rate of temporary family planning methods and the highest rate of voluntary sterilization in  the Atlantic coast of Colombia. PROFAMILIA, the nation’s largest private sector family planning organization, launched a six-month condom promotion campaign in the region in collaboration with JHU/PCS and the Futures Group/SOMARC.  

F. Monitor and Evaluate

            à Results were consolidated and evaluated. It was found out that the post-campaign period showed a drop in sales. With this, further monitoring and evaluation must be done in order to make sure its sustainability. Though average sales for the six months following the campaign remained almost 60 percent above the pre-campaign levels, the project promoters must not be complacent to make sure that their objectives are continuously achieved over time.

LEARNINGS

·         Projects and campaigns about sexuality and reproductive health always focus their market segment on the young adults since this market segment is the one usually active in carefree sexual activities.

·         In the field of Social Marketing and Social Mobilization, Mass Media plays a huge role in shaping the attitudes and behavior of the people. It is recommended to use this tool responsibly and with a sense of accountability at it’s fullest.

        ·         Continuous monitoring and evaluation must be done for various socmar/socmob projects in order to have sustainability. They must be duplicable and further improved when opportunity allows it because effects of such projects could die down over time.