Alcohol social marketing

What is higher risk drinking?

Higher risk drinkers (previously called harmful drinkers) are:

• Men who regularly consume over 50 units of alcohol per week
• Women who regularly consume over 35 units of alcohol per week

Men drinking between 22 and 49 units per week and women drinking between 15 and 34 units per week are at an increasing risk of alcohol-related illness (previously called hazardous drinkers).

The guidelines recommend that women shouldn't regularly drink more than two or three units per day, and that men shouldn't regularly drink more than three or four units per day.

The risk of alcohol-related harm rises in a linear fashion, broadly-speaking, so there is no clear differentiation between those drinking at increasing and higher risk levels. Those drinking at increasing risk levels are a legitimate secondary audience for social marketing.

Although binge-drinking is usually associated with young adults, it is typically older drinkers consuming at higher risk or increasing risk levels for a sustained period of time who will suffer longer term alcohol-related illness or death. The challenge for PCTs is how to engage and target these drinkers.

A 2007 DH scoping study showed widespread public ignorance of the health consequences related to heavy drinking. Frequent alcohol consumption was identified as a key indicator of higher risk drinking. The study found evidence that although higher social and economic groups (SEGs) consumed more, lower SEGs experienced greater alcohol-related health harm and that males over the age of 35 were most commonly at risk. It also found that identification and brief advice (IBA) was as an effective way of engaging with the audience.

The impact of higher risk drinking

Higher risk drinking has social and health consequences for drinkers and their families, as well as a huge impact on NHS resources. Alcohol-related hospital admissions in England are increasing at a rate of approximately 70,000 per year. DH is committed to delivering a fall against the trend of alcohol-related hospital admissions each year until 2010/11.

What is social marketing?

Social marketing is talked about a lot - so much so that it is sometimes difficult to understand what it actually is.

Social marketing is evaluated and measured against behaviour change. It begins with the problem, in this case alcohol-related harm, and is careful not to jump to the solution before having carefully scoped the issue and considered all the possible influences that affect the way an audience behaves.

Customer insights are therefore central to any social marketing programme. In-depth research with the audience facilitates understanding of their beliefs and values on a particular issue.

The National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) outlines the following three key elements of social marketing:

1. Its primary aim is to achieve a particular 'social good' (rather than commercial benefit), with clearly defined behavioural goals
2. It is a systematic process phased to address short, medium and long-term issues
3. It uses a range of marketing techniques and approaches (a marketing mix). In the case of health-related social marketing, the 'social good' can be articulated in terms of achieving specific, achievable and manageable behaviour goals, relevant to improving health and reducing health inequalities

What are its key features?

The following six features and concepts are key to understanding social marketing and have been incorporated into the 'customer triangle' model below:

• Customer or consumer orientation: A strong 'customer' orientation with importance attached to understanding where the customer is starting from, their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, along with the social context in which they live and work
• Behaviour and behavioural goals: A clear focus on understanding existing behaviour and key influences upon it, alongside developing clear behavioural goals. These can be divided into actionable and measurable steps or stages, phased over time
• 'Intervention mix' and 'marketing mix': Using a mix of different methods to achieve a particular behavioural goal. When used at the strategic level this is commonly referred to as the 'intervention mix', and when used operationally it is described as the 'marketing mix'
• Audience segmentation: Clarity of audience focus using audience segmentation to target effectively
• 'Exchange': Use of the 'exchange' concept - understanding what is being expected of people, and the real cost to them
• 'Competition': Use of the 'competition' concept - understanding factors that impact on people and that compete for their attention and time