The Marketing Book 5th Edition

710 The Marketing Book

and age (for the prevention of substance and
tobacco use) are also very significant. Existing
health status may be an additional character-
istic addressed in this classification; for exam-
ple, health promotion programmes may be

directed at people with asthma or diabetes (so-

called secondary prevention).

Moving beyond basic demographic charac-

teristics, the application of psychographicseg-

mentation in social marketing is less well

Case 5 Ethical problems in social marketing segmentation

A government social marketing initiative in the north-east of England is seeking to reduce adolescent

drug use and associated harm through a social cognitive schools and media programme (Home Office,

1998; MacKintosh et al., 2001). Drugs prevention literature indicates that current drug use status is an

important variable which should be addressed in designing such programmes: the most effective

interventions are those which, among other things, target users and non-users separately, with product

offerings tailored to their current experiences and attitudes regarding drugs (Bandy and President, 1983;

Makkaiet al., 1991; Werch and DiClemente, 1994). However, had the programme developed a range of

intervention components for young people already using drugs – who could in principle have been

identified from extensive baseline data gathered on the target population before the programme began

• it would never have secured the necessary co-operation of the schools, communities and parents who
  understandably would not have wanted their young people to be labelled as drug users (Stead et al.,
  1997a). Building and managing the relationship with these key gatekeepers and stakeholders was critical
  to the programme’s existence. The only option was to adopt a non-stigmatizing undifferentiated targeting
  strategy – offering the programme to all young people in all schools in the area.

Table 27.2 Major segmentation approaches

Characteristics Attributes Social marketing

Personal Demographic Age, Gender, Social class,

Ethnicity, Family profile,

Income, Employment

+ Health status

Psychographic Lifestyle, Personality + Health beliefs, motivation,

locus of control

Geodemographic Geographical area,

Neighbourhood type

+ Residence in disadvantaged

area

Behavioural Usage, Loyalty, Response,

Attitudes

+ Health behaviour, Stage of

Change

Benefits Benefits sought + Barriers