Introduction to the Social Marketing for Public Health - Course 1 (self-learning)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course "Introduction to social marketing for public health" is the first of 5 courses that are part of the "Social Marketing Program for Public Health", developed by the Unit of Risk Factors and Nutrition of the Pan American Health Organization in collaboration with the University of South Florida. The program is sponsored by the American Heart Association and the Universal Health Coverage Partnership.

The introductory course addresses the essential theoretical aspects of social marketing and prepares you for the following program courses that aim to provide you with the skills you need to manage social marketing projects, identifying their stages, tasks, profiles involved, implementation times, resources, success indicators and results.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the introductory course, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate social marketing from other related disciplines
• Recognize the particular characteristics of social marketing
• Distinguish the steps that comprise the social marketing process
• Identify the tasks related to the initial planning and the development of the social marketing strategy
• Distinguish the elements of the marketing mix, or 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion)

PARTICIPANT PROFILE AND PREREQUISITES
This course is aimed at public health professionals from the Americas region who work in areas such as health promotion, chronic noncommunicable diseases, nutrition, smoking, harmful use of alcohol, among other areas that share the need to influence the people's behavior to improve their quality of life. It is taught free of charge for all students from the Virtual Campus of Public Health of the Pan American Health Organization.
 

COURSE STRUCTURE
The structure of the course is as follows:

Module 1:
Lesson 1: Basics of Social Marketing
Lesson 2: Initial planning
Lesson 3: Strategy elaboration
Lesson 4: Key Ideas and Next Steps

Module 2:
Case study: Promotion of breastfeeding
Case study: Promotion of physical activity
Case study: Promotion of healthy eating
Case Study: Prevention of Heart Disease
Social Marketing and the COVID-19 Pandemic

METHODOLOGY
In the design of the course we have combined passive learning resources, such as video review, with active learning resources, in which your participation and commitment are the basis of learning. The objective of the active learning resources is to reflect on the potential application of the theoretical content to the reality of your country through discussion forums that incorporate principles of social and collaborative learning.