Social Marketing: The Family Planning Experience in Ethiopia

Abstract

The study aimed at analyzing the role and practice of social marketing as an approach to address issues related to attitudinal change about family planning.Based on the idea of social marketing and its application to positively influence the behavior through changing attitudes of individuals related to family planning and contraceptive use, the study developed with the methodology applied for preparing instruments of data collection, sampling and data analysis. Marketing-mix as designed for social issues such as family planning has a key role to play to positively develop the attitude towards the concept and brining favorable changes in the behavior of individuals. Also, individual’s responsibility towards society and his/her usage of family planning services was also found to be associated with, and contributed by, social marketing-mix. Therefore, social marketing activities are contributing favorably to individual’s concerning social responsibility i.e. increasing the level of individual’s responsibility towards society through his/her own usage experience of the services of family planning, and vice versa. In other words, as the social marketing activities and programs increase, the attitude towards family planning will become more favorable among the society members. The study is an attempt to relate the idea of social marketing, as an approach of bringing attitudinal changes in the behaviors of individuals towards the concept of family planning and the use of contraceptives. Therefore, the idea as being tested in the context of Ethiopia, and the factors contributing to behavioral change could be of great importance for policy makers of population control and health related areas. Furthermore, the study maintains relevance to contribute significantly to the existing literature of social marketing and consumer behavior related to family planning.

Keywords: Social Marketing,Family Planning, Social Marketing Mix Elements

Paper type: Research paper