Social Marketing: Principles and Practice

R. Donovan and N. Henley IP Communications, Melbourne, 2003 415 pp. ISBN 0‐9578617‐5‐3 (pb) This book provides a comprehensive review of the key principles of social marketing, and critically appraises their application to health education and health promotion. The authors seek to move beyond the (original) definition of social marketing as ‘…an application of marketing principles and tools to the achievement of socially desirable ends’ and, consequently, they adopt a broader approach which has particular relevance to health promotion. For example, in addition to emphasizing the distinction between social and commercial marketing, the book also elaborates on the nature of the particular socially desirable goals that should be espoused by health promotion—asserting that these should be firmly rooted in the ideology of the United Nations Charter on Human Rights. In short, the authors not only reject a narrow victim‐blaming approach that has often characterized social marketing, but also consider that a major concern of social marketing must be to ‘…to bring about changes in the social and structural factors that impinge on an individual’s opportunities, capacities, and right to have a healthy and fulfilling life’. For example, social marketing should target ‘…individuals and groups in legislative bodies, government departments, corporations, and non‐profit organisations, who have the power to make policy, regulatory and legislative changes that protect and enhance people’s health, wellbeing, and quality of life’.