4.6 Targeting population groups

This part of the module introduces the use of geodemographic neighbourhood classification for the purposes of health care planning. The activity requires the assessment and discussion of two external presentations which advocate the use of this approach.

Dr Foster Intelligence (2006) uses the term ‘social marketing’ as ‘the use of marketing techniques to achieve a benefit to people rather than a profit’. Conventionally, measures such as deprivation indicators such as the UK government’s Index of Deprivation 2004 (ODPM, 2004) have been constructed as a means of identifying populations with likely needs for health care, while geodemographic neighbourhood classification has tended to be used by the marketing industry to characterise small areas in which individuals are likely to have high propensities to respond to marketing of specific goods and services. The Dr Foster report contains a range of case studies of health care organizations using targeted marketing techniques in health promotion and delivery. Longley (2005) discusses a range of options for the use of geodemographic classification in the public sector, including health care applications of the Experian product, while Vickers and Rees (2006).

‘Social marketing is the use of marketing techniques to achieve a benefit to people rather than a profit’

(Dr Foster Intelligence, 2006)

 

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