CACOVID Response to COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: The Social Marketing Approach

Abstract

Social marketing is a discipline that combines ideas from commercial marketing and the social sciences to influence people's behaviour in a sustainable and cost-effective way. It is defined as the design, implementation and control of programmes, calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involves consideration of product, planning, pricing, communication, distribution and marketing research. The goal of social marketing is always to change or maintain the behaviour pattern of people, and it does not focus on how people think or are aware of the social situation. Predominantly applied in public health, social marketing has thrived over the years in health promotion, injury prevention, environmental protection and community mobilisation.

The paper examines the application of social marketing principles on the formation and operations of the Coalition of Private Sector against COVID-19 (CACOVID) by the Central Bank governor with bankers, industrialists and other business leaders to support the presidential task force set up by the Federal Government in its response to COVID-19 in Nigeria. It also examines the planning processes involved, such as the purpose statement or the social situation of the study, situation analysis, target audience, marketing objectives, barriers or benefits and positioning statement. The paper is anchored on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which explains that intentions to perform behaviours of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward such behaviours and their perceived behaviour control.

The CACOVID programme approach was effective because it led to the harvesting of humongous resources to support governments’ efforts to tackle the pandemic in all areas of intervention.