Abstract
Purpose: Exposure to unhealthy lifestyle behaviours before pregnancy affects the health of mothers and their (unborn) children. A social marketing strategy could empower prospective parents to actively prepare for pregnancy through preconception care (PCC). This study aims to describe the development of a PCC social marketing strategy based on the eight-point benchmark criteria for effective social marketing and to clarify the concept of using social marketing for health promotion purposes. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive literature search was carried out regarding the needs of the target population and PCC behavioural goals, leading to the development of a bottom-up, ambassador-driven, communication concept. Findings: In-depth insights of all benchmarks were analysed and incorporated during the development process of a new PCC social marketing strategy, with a special focus on the application of the “Health Belief Model” (Benchmark 3) and “the Four-P framework” (Benchmark 8). Evidence-based preconceptional health information is our product, for a low price as the information is freely attainable, promoting a message of overall women‘s health and online or through a consult with a health-care provider as the appropriate place. This formative research resulted in the development of the Woke Women® strategy, empowering women to actively prepare for pregnancy. Originality/value: Developing a social marketing strategy to enhance actively preparing for pregnancy shows potential to encourage prospective parents to adopt healthier preconceptional lifestyle behaviours and can therefore improve the health of future generations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 154-173 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of Social Marketing |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 8 Feb 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 11 Mar 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding : This work was supported by The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) under Grant number 50–54300–98–230. The funder had no role in the design of the study. Author contribution : VYFM, AF, MP and MPHK contributed to the study design, conceptualisation and interpretation of the research. VYFM conducted the literature search and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. LMGB contributed to the manuscript with her expertise in social marketing. WvA is responsible for the conceptualisation of the social marketing strategy and also contributed to the manuscript. All authors revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and made a substantial contribution to conception and design. All authors have given final approval of the version to be published. Competing interests : All authors declare they have no competing interests.
Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) under Grant number 50–54300–98–230. The funder had no role in the design of the study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Veronique Y.F. Maas, Lyne M.G. Blanchette, Wencke van Amstel, Arie Franx, Marjolein Poels and Maria P.H. Koster.