Authors : Anjani Nandan

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 8 - August

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/4rasszby

Scribd : https://tinyurl.com/muuup3df

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26aug222

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : Background: India’s public health system is experiencing rapid change through digital health platforms, universal health coverage initiatives, community-based services and technology-supported models of care. Programmes such as Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Yojna, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), Health and Wellness Centres, telemedicine, immunization services, tuberculosis elimination activities and other National Health Mission interventions have considerably increased the range of services available to the population. Nevertheless, making a service available does not automatically ensure that the intended beneficiaries will use it.  Objective: This conceptual review examines how marketing and social marketing principles can be incorporated into public health programme implementation to narrow the difference between planned programme performance and actual service utilization.  Discussion: Public health programmes are commonly designed around population-based targets, yet actual performance can remain below expectations. Reasons may include inadequate awareness, limited health literacy, social and cultural barriers, lack of confidence in institutions, inconvenient access or failure to recognize the value of a service. Social marketing offers a systematic way to understand audiences, divide them into meaningful groups, communicate benefits, reduce practical and psychological barriers and encourage voluntary health-related behaviour. Evidence from systematic reviews indicates that appropriately designed social marketing interventions can influence behavioural determinants and, in some settings, contribute to changes in health-related behaviour and outcomes. The paper proposes adapting the marketing mix—Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Evidence—to public health programmes. Particular attention is given to social media, communication of service value, programme presentation, location-specific promotion, audience segmentation by age and context, frontline health workers as trusted programme representatives, and continuous measurement.  Conclusion: Public health programmes need to progress from a predominantly supply-oriented service-delivery approach toward a combined model that also creates informed demand. Marketing in this context should not mean commercializing healthcare. Instead, it can serve as an ethical mechanism for helping publicly funded services reach the people for whom they were designed. Combining social marketing with health literacy, community participation and behaviour-change communication may help reduce the gap between expected programme achievement and actual utilization

Keywords : Public Health Marketing; Social Marketing; Health Communication; Health Literacy; Behaviour Change; Health Promotion; Ayushman Bharat; ABDM; Telemedicine; National Health Mission; India.

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