Role of Marketing in Polio Eradication

This 16-page document describes the marketing effort of the Global Polio Eradication campaign as requiring sustained political advocacy and mass community mobilisation, together with strong management and supervisory processes. The article explores "an integrated approach for polio eradication, emphasising the role of marketing by various stakeholders..." Included as potential partners that need to be involved in addition to government public health infrastructure are: employers and businessmen, the media, academia, private health care, and the community. The document emphasises advocacy, community participation, and community ownership of the immunisation and surveillance programmes as keys to success, and reviews a number of strategies in detail.

The document focuses on marketing from the perspective that self-interest is a pivotal marketing concept. As stated here, marketers use consumer research to identify the ways in which prospective consumers define their self-interest. Insight gained from consumer research is then used to develop products to improve their odds of success in the marketplace. The author suggests that societies need to prioritise health as linked to their own self interest. He reviews the "4 P's" of marketing - product, price, place, and promotion, and suggests that marketing is a population-based behaviour management strategy. Thus, public health programme managers can manage behaviours of people by providing them with healthier behaviour options that are more attractive than other options in the marketplace. "Success of good marketing is that the consumer himself/herself approaches to demand the product."

The author turns to the distribution of the social marketing of positive health behaviours (e.g., sanitation, immunisation, etc.), asking if the best and most financially prudent approaches are those using celebrities and pursuing the masses. He favours marketing through communication (combining campaigning and advocacy), and motivation of "team force" (referring to civil society and community groups) as strategies. The document details the following possibilities:

1. Make advocacy effective: According to the author, "You need to find ways to make the message stand out in this onslaught of information, and create a range of advocacy publications, videos, and visuals...". He advises and elaborates the following:
   
   • Keep the written message simple.
   • Use powerful language.
   • Share something new.
   • Keep the visual message interesting.
   • Target your audience.
2. Create demand: Popularising polio eradication in both audiences that are internal (employees, board members, committees, and volunteers) and external (population segments, decision-makers, policy-makers, partners, etc.) includes:
   
   • Encourage people to mail items representing polio eradication to government officials to urge them to support the initiative.
   • Compile a list of people with polio and think of ways to use this list as a petition, advertisement or display. Present petitions to politicians.
   • Organise “Did you know?” campaigns to educate the public that polio is still a major health problem, ready to be eradicated.
   • Create a local website on polio eradication.
   • Use the symbols and logos attached to the polio eradication initiative.
   • Give public recognition to national spokespersons and ambassadors for the polio eradication initiative.
   • Arrange for a celebrity to participate in a National Immunisation Day [NID].
   • Have a celebrity polio victim spear-head a local attack on polio. S/he can be a Polio Ambassador.
   • Arrange an exhibition with photos, maps and graphs in the city town hall or local library to raise awareness about the disease and the status of the eradication efforts.
   • Include migratory and underserved populations through Information and Education Communication (IEC) campaigns using local services.
3. Strategic role of media in Pulse Polio Programme Promotions: Media opportunities include:
   
   • Advertising by commercial interests of polio vaccination, promoting health as a basic human right, and sponsorship of vaccination-promoting activities by organisations or commercial companies.
   • Using books, documentaries, and articles about health issues to include the importance of being polio free healthy citizens.
   • Discussions of health issues as a by-product of news items or entertainment programmes, including the concept of vaccination for polio eradication so it gains social acceptance.
   • Planned promotion of anti-polio messages.
   • Inviting people who contracted polio to narrate their stories
4. Health promotion training and guidelines: Training during national immunisation days (NIDS) at all levels for improving both management and service delivery. Workshops to be held for all Social Mobilisation Committee member partners including DHMT(District Health Management Team), health workers, and volunteer vaccinators on resource mobilisation, message dissemination, and vaccine handling. Training on communication and social mobilisation should include key messages, activities, intended groups, and the channels and messages to use. The national level should issue additional guidelines on specific issues such as dealing with rumours and dealing with the media.
5. Multiple channels of communication: Channels cited are promotion of NIDs through a thorough mix of mass media and interpersonal channels (e.g., the Zambian slogan “Bye- Bye Polio” used in radio and television spots, posters, and stickers); announcements of the specific vaccines in the vernacular languages of villages; and interpersonal channels, including local leaders, religious leaders, school pupils, drama groups, peer educators, and market announcements.
6. Designing health communication campaigns: This includes the media components, the campaign structure, evaluation, collaboration, context, and the principles of successful messages.
7. Role of students: The ability of students to disseminate polio messages, including primary students using drama and role play and older students serving as NIDS volunteers, is recognised in the document for the ability to reach deeply into the community.
8. Combating rumours: The document cites rumours, including links to polio vaccine and impotency as a result of a family planning campaign, or links to the HIV virus. The author recommends written guidelines on how to handle the rumours. "The central health managers should designated one person to be the spokesperson for [all rumour-related] information and make it clear to the provincial, district, and health facility managers that all inquiries must be channelled directly to that person for any official comments. The districts should be subsequently instructed to intensify their interpersonal communication, through door-to-door visits and the use of religious leaders, chiefs, and other ‘influence brokers’."
9. Motivation of health workers (use of volunteers): The author analyses volunteerism, claiming that volunteers who know the community, their practices and beliefs, the terrain, and the language where they work facilitate the immunisation and surveillance efforts. He recognises that volunteer fatigue increases as cases of polio remain a problem in endemic areas. One suggestion given is to include the story of polio success in school textbooks to raise awareness, recognise volunteers, and revive interest in volunteering. The document adds the following motivating factors for volunteers: achievement, power, affiliation, recognition, and altruism. Volunteer expectations of the organisation with which they participate include: consideration, patience, courtesy, and cooperation; clarity, tasks they are capable of performing, and relevant information; professional treatment and private constructive criticism; and appreciation, sincerity, recognition, and a positive work experience that builds confidence (e.g., being able to accomplish tasks competently and being given tasks that build competency, reinforcing learning.)

The author concludes that the public health community has an obligation as well as a major opportunity to harness the value of marketing in the polio eradication programme by involving civil society and the private sector in the marketing effort.