Social marketing mix versus induced demand

Abstract

Introduction: Social marketing mix is a set of controllable tools that can have a wide range of applications in the field of healthcare. Due to the necessity of controlling induced demand, this study aims to use social marketing mix to reduce induced demand in health-care sector. Materials and Methods: This survey study was carried out using keywords “induced demand,” “social marketing,” and “social marketing mix” to search in books, scientific websites, journals, and dissertations. Using these keywords, a total of fifty Farsi and English articles were retrieved and investigated. After investigating the abstract and method of the articles, the irrelevant articles were eliminated leaving 33 journal articles, dissertations and books to be used in this study. It is worth noting that there is a possibility of mistake in eliminating the articles or lack of access to relevant articles. Databases such as MagIran, Google Scholar, NoorMags, SID, IranDoc, Science Direct, PubMed, Springer, and Emerald were the sources for the majority or the articles. After investigating the full text of the relevant articles, relevant information was extracted and used in the study. Results: Based on the results of this study, the components of social marketing mix including suggestion instead of product, cost of participation instead of cost, accessibility instead of location, social contacts instead of promotion and creating partners, policies and guidelines can be used to reduce induced demand. Conclusion: Using the aforementioned methods along with planning and careful evaluation and informing the audience, it is possible to achieve great results in reducing induced demand.