The applications of marketing tools and principles in order to achieve socially desirable goals can be termed as “social marketing” (Kotler and Zaltman 1971. Since, Influenza is severely prevalent in a number of countries around the globe and has a potential pandemic threat, communicating about this contagious form of disease and effective preparation in absence of public health emergencies is a key towards achieving global pandemic alert. Developing and designing pandemic communication strategies in order to convey specific messages and incorporating undesirable mis-information can regularize pandemic preparation strategy and thereby contribute to unnecessary panic situation in the time of a potential pandemic outbreak. This paper is an attempt to understand and study the effectiveness of a message through in the social marketing campaigns designed in pursue for a potential pandemic preparation and awareness level of the people with regards to “Influenza” as a major Epidemic and a Pandemic threat. Hence, these observations and findings contemplate the importance and urgency of such social marketing campaigns in an event of definite public health crisis. In this exploratory study, focus group discussions were carried out amongst 4 groups with visuals and general practice preparation methods for an influenza pandemic were explained to the participants. The findings were analysed and studied leading to an effective means of pandemic planning preparation.
KEY WORDS: Pandemic, Influenza, Social Marketing, Behaviour, Flu, Qualitative study, Focus group.
No comments:
Post a Comment