Abstract
The third sector, key to social and personal development, needs to evolve and adapt to the technological revolution and digitalization that accelerated due to the global pandemic of COVID-19. Social marketing offers strategies and tools that allow digitalizing processes of female empowerment in contexts of poverty, violence, inequality, and social exclusion. People living in these contexts were the ones that suffered the most from the pandemic, both due to the number of deaths coupled with a lack of access to quality health care, and an increase in interpersonal conflict. The latter aggravated by the mandatory isolation measures imposed by the governments, which made it practically impossible for civil society organizations (CSOs) to intervene. This article presents a case of social marketing oriented to the development, implementation, and evaluation of a people-centered protocol (EduQualitas SM) for the digitalization of empowerment and positive personal development, based on interpersonal relationships and reflexiveness. Through qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the study analyses the impact of its application in a social marketing campaign (Orientación Familiar Digital - OFD) that aimed to improve the quality of life of women in the area of greatest social exclusion in Argentina. The implemented campaign sought to digitalize the formative processes of an international CSO and develop empathy, a fundamental capacity for the quality of life and the reduction of both structural poverty and violence against women. The impact assessment of EduQualitas SM was of a mixed design that included a quasi-experimental intervention without a control group, based on the Argentine adaptation of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). This research presents one of the first Latin American cases of CSO digitalization strategies for the development of empathy of women in situations of social exclusion.
Highlights
The women live in the same geographical area, the coordinators and participants pertain to different socioeconomic levels: the coordinators are upper-middle and middle class, while the beneficiaries are of low socioeconomic status
The investigation of the processes and impact of the implemented social marketing strategy show the positive effect of digitalization of training programs on the empathy of women in situations of social exclusion
The design and use of a protocol based on a theoretical reference model allowed the participation and training of personnel of an international civil society organizations (CSOs), and allowed the identification of a marketing mix and, a service design based on microlearning that proved to be effective in empowering the beneficiary women through a social network (H1)
Summary
The increase in violence against women in Argentina, especially in the Buenos Aires conurbation, prompted the authors of this research to design a social marketing strategy for the digitalization of family orientations programs designed for developing empathy. Considering the theoretical framework described and previous research (Rivera, Castro Sanchez, et al, 2019), the marketing strategy would focus on the design and validation of a protocol that aims to increase empathy and the quality of life of women at risk of exclusion. This would make it possible to identify predictive factors of impact, guide public policies, and strengthen the stability and positive development of families. The present research’s objective is to analyze the characteristics and impact of the social marketing strategy implemented and evaluated by two CSOs and an Argentine university in two cities of the Buenos Aires conurbation during the first phase of the mandatory isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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