Concepts, lessons, good examples

A recent paradigm that the author of this TOP has found useful for the water, sanitation and hygiene is Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for behavioural impact in health and social development. This draws lessons from commercial marketing to achieve a specific behavioural result for a specific target group with a carefully designed strategic, integrated marketing communication plan.

Behavioural results

IMC suggests that key conventional "Information-Education-Communication" (IEC) programmes in health have been able to increase awareness and knowledge, but they have not been as successful at achieving behavioural results. It is clear that informing and educating people are not sufficient bases for behavioural responses. Behavioural impact will emerge only with effective communication programs, purposefully directed at behavioural goals, and not directed just at awareness creation, or advocacy or public education.

Private sector experience over 100 years in successfully using IMC with consumer behaviour (for products both awful and superb) points to an approach applicable to health and social development. IMC begins with the client/consumer and a sharp focus on the anticipated behavioural result, clearly mapped out by practical market research or situation analysis related to the desired behaviours. This requires the integrated application of the disciplines of health education, adult education, mass communication, social and community mobilisation, folk media, marketing (including village-level marketing traditions), advertising, public relations and public advocacy, counselling, client/customer relations, and market research to achieve the ultimate goal of behavioural results.

Eight steps

Integrated marketing communication involves the following eight steps:

1. State overall goal and behavioral results/objectives
2. Situational 'market' analysis vis-à-vis the precise behavioural result;
3. Strategy for achieving behavioural results, including communication objectives and an outline communication strategy;
4. IMC plan of action, specifying integrated communication actions to be undertaken with details on Message, Sender, Channel, Receiver, Effect, Feed back and Setting (MSCREFS);
5. Management of the IMC plan;
6. Progress Monitoring and impact assessment;
7. Calendar / Time-line / Implementation Plan;
8. Budget.

Summer course

The New York University and Dr.Everold Husein (now Communication Advisor at WHO) who combines 25 years of commercial marketing and social marketing with public health communication experience are offering a three-week summer IMC course for planners dealing with communication challenges on health and social topics in the developing world. See Courses and Conferences.