Popularizing Health Insurance through Social Marketing in India

It was a wonderful spectacle to watch millions of people all over India taking to Yoga even braving the inclement weather. Rajpath had really turned into Yogpath as the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi put it aptly later on. The first ever International Day for Yoga on 21st June .2015 saw similar enthusiasm in many other parts of the world.

 

The question may be asked as to what was so spectacular or special about the day. After all, Yoga is nothing new to most Indians. Was there any need for the unwanted hullabaloo about it …..? 

 

Yes indeed, Yoga is known to most Indians for years as it originated in India  but the million dollar question is  how many Indians have adopted yoga as an integral part of their life. One just has to delve into the various health status indices of India  like life expectancy at birth, infant mortality at age one and five , neonatal death or the maternal death to appreciate the importance of Yoga in our lives. It is in this context, the Prime Minister’s effort to lead the nation with yoga matters the most. He definitely stood there for a strong cause.

 

The day showed most importantly India’s new found love and commitment for yoga. It also marks the beginning of new consciousness for good health and wellness in India. It is, however, to be seen whether this consciousness in the long run translates into changed behaviour leading to wellness of the society as a whole. The job, therefore, is cut out for everybody from common people, to policy makers and government and to law makers to build on this momentumand reap benefits in the longer run for individuals and the society as whole.

 

The need of the hour is to effect change in behaviour and adopt yoga as a way of life. It is always easier said than done but is definitely achievable. All it needs is focused attention and deft execution of deliverables or else the day will just linger in the public memory as act of mere symbolism.

 

This is also the time for social marketers to step in and leverage this new found enthusiasm to marketing gains.    The health insurance companies must look at this opportunity and use the same to the hilt to popularize their products among the masses.

 

This brings to fore the concept of Social Marketing and how it is  different from Marketing or more precisely Commercial Marketing. The term Social Marketing was first introduced by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in their epoch-making article “Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change” published in the Journal of Marketing way back in 1971.

 

According to them” Social marketing is the design, implementation and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research”. Since then many writers have contributed to expand on or elucidate the concept of Social Marketing.

 

The various definitions focus mainly on influencing and changing behaviour of target audience by using various marketing principles and techniques with the sole aim of benefitting the individuals and society at large.?

 

The core concept revolves around changing behaviour, attitude and firmly implanted beliefs of individuals, organizations and society as a whole in order to bring about a mark change that leads to social wellbeing .The social change accompanied by behavioural change is the core of this concept. 

 

The influencing and effecting change in behaviour calls for adopting a new behaviour altogether or dumping an unwanted behaviour or at time, adjusting with a current behaviour. A health conscious person for example loves walking or cycling all the way to reach his/her destination as part of his/her changed behaviour. Some health conscious people change eating habit altogether. In the lunch, they prefer salad to conventional food that they have been used to for years.
The social marketing focuses primarily on certain select areas. One of them is health. It can work heavily on health advancement related issues like the virtue of eating green and fibrous vegetables, immunization cover for new born babies  , improved sanitation, health coverage during pregnancy i.e. antenatal care coverage ,postnatal care visit within two days of childbirth,infants exclusively breastfed for the first six  months of life ,population using improved drinking-water sources etc. 

 

It can work on specific health related problems like obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and cancer. Many people with high blood pressure may not know that they suffer from blood pressure. Similarly many diabetics may not know they are diabetics for years. Similarly ladies aged 40 years and above and more likely to fall prey to breast cancers never go for simple mammogram tests to tackle with this serious problem.

 

Recent incidents of drinking and rash driving claiming innocent lives are serious behavioural issues that can be addressed through social marketing. It is one habit that many drivers who drink and drive would find very difficult to change.

 

In recent time, Pune traffic police adopted a noble idea of tackling the issue of not wearing helmets. It would present the offender a petal of rose to make them realize the problem of not wearing helmets.One can cite many examples of health related behaviors that can be addressed through social marketing.

 

But social marketing is not the panacea of all ailments. They are not the only agents who impact behaviour. Individual and group behaviour can be influenced by the level of science and technology, will power of the political establishment and more importantly a vibrant education curriculum both at the school and college level.

 

The role of media particularly social media assumes great importance as they have wider and effective reach to influence behaviour. Family and community members along with the opinion leaders also impact the individual behaviour. Therefore, social marketing needs to work with all the above agents of impact in tandem to generate the necessary influence on the behaviour.

 

The use of junk food can lead to serious health imbalance among the youngsters .Obesity is emerging as serious health problem in India as a result of food habit and life style. The success of social marketing lies in not merely recognizing the problem and informing the youngsters about the accompanying health hazards. . The ultimate test lies in whether youngsters desist from using junk food or using them as less as possible.

 

The question that often arises is the manner in which social marketing differs from commercial marketing. Social Marketing uses almost all the tools and strategies of commercial marketing but they differ in terms of “end” they serve to. Commercial marketing makes profit through customer satisfaction. They add to company’s wealth by ensuring the well-being of the individuals. On the other hand, Social marketing focuses primarily on individual and societal wellbeing.

 

Social change through behavioural change leading to societal gain is the most important goal of social marketing. Similarly Societal Marketing works on guarding and promoting the interest of the society. Societal marketing seldom influences the behaviour of the customers it servers.

 

Having elaborated the concept of social marketing, let us turn our attention on how the health insurers can use social marketing to popularize their products. Despite registering tremendous growth in recent years, health insurance even today is beyond the reach of a sizeable population of India. Roughly 25 crore people are covered by health insurance.

 

The incurred claim ratio is more than 100 percent and, therefore, is impeding the growth of health insurance in India. Health insurance has to deal with curative care as it is highly hospital centric in India .Given this background, health insurers need to do something different. They must look for social marketing in order to bring about perceptible change in health behaviour. Health insurers for example can provide household tips on how to avoid AIDS related risk behaviors.

 

They can also provide tips on maintaining good oral health behaviors by using interactive modes of communication like videos and audiotapes. They can hold health camps regularly and interact with people directly on such issues as maintaining good dietary behaviors. Many health insurance companies use wellness sites to promote good health. They can even organize workshop on issues such as diabetes, blood pressure and breast cancer at regular intervals particularly with mothers and opinion leaders.

 

They can support and even partner with institutions engaged in spreading the value of yoga. Most of the life style diseases can be cured and controlled by practising Yoga. Work with such organizations as above in influencing change in behaviour. Health insurers can also work with organizations that work for family planning and spread the value of breastfeeding, childhood immunization or use of contraceptives.

 

One may question how a commercial organization stands  benefited by social marketing because its primaryobjective is to ensure wellness of the society. But the effort of social marketing helps building in favourable brand image and helps corporates to discharge their social responsibility both effectively and efficiently.

 

Most importantly it increases the visibility of the companies in areas where it matters the most. Smart companies know for certain that favourable and friendly brand image alone can ensure increased sales in the long run.

 

Reference –
1. Social Marketing -Influencing Behaviors for Good by Nancy R. Lee and Philip Kotler
2. Marketing for Public Health -An Introduction by-Hong Cheng, Philip Kotler, and Nancy R. Lee
3. nt/uploads/Social-marketing_Andreasen.pdf- Social Marketing : Its Definition and Domain-Alan R. Andreasen- Journa] of Public Policy & Marketing,1994