Social Marketing in Latin America: A Historical Overview

Abstract

Background

Although research about the trajectory of social marketing in the Global South has recently emerged, there is still limited scientific evidence exploring the past and current state of social marketing in Latin America. Understanding how social marketing has been used broadly in Latin America can help identify areas to prioritize and further advance social marketing research in the region.

Focus of the Article

This article provides evidence of the evolution of social marketing in Latin America from the 1960s. It offers a better understanding of the application of social marketing in this region, and focuses on identifying challenges and applications illustrative of its evolution.

Importance to the Social Marketing Field

This study provides a historical overview of the evolution of social marketing in Latin America. It explores how social marketing has been applied across time to drive positive social change in this region. Relevant studies identified during this study serve as valuable information for researchers and practitioners interested in studying and applying social marketing in Latin America and similar contexts.

Methods

This exploratory study presents a broad overview of the body of literature with a focus on illustrative examples that depict the trajectory of social marketing in Latin America across time. Evidence in English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages were collected through diverse sources including search engines, academic databases, social marketing journals, and consultation with researchers and practitioners from the region. This search was complemented with evidence from a selection of classic social marketing books.

Results

The evidence collected shows that social marketing has been used in Latin America for four decades but still has not achieved its full potential. Findings show a predominant use of downstream social marketing approaches as opposed to midstream or upstream approaches. Results also show that international funding was a key element for grounding the use of social marketing in Latin America between the 1970s and 1990s but it appears to be less predominant after these decades.

Recommendations for Research or Practice

Further research is required to provide a more nuanced understanding of the Latin American social marketing landscape. Scholars and practitioners are invited to share experiences and further investigate conceptualizations of social marketing from their unique contexts, realities, and native languages.

Limitations

This study was delimited to provide a historical overview of the use of social marketing in Latin America based on a synthesis of the existing literature. A systematic approach to evidence synthesis is recommended for future studies on this topic.

Keywords

social marketing Latin America América Latina behavior change public health

Introduction

The trajectory of social marketing globally has been explored in previous studies (Andreasen, 2003; Lefebvre, 1997). Discussions of the development of social marketing have presented some of its early uses (Andreasen, 2003; Chandrashekar, Patil & Kumar, 2015; Krisjanous, 2014; Lefebvre, 1997). In London’s East End, for example, there was a campaign between 1891 and 1901 to improve the limited working conditions of match industry employees and the alleviation of an occupational disease known as “phossy jaw” (Krisjanous, 2014), while in India, social marketing has been used to promote the use of contraception (Chandrashekar, Patil & Kumar, 2015). Social marketing has also been applied within the context of international development projects, largely designed and implemented by actors from the Global North to benefit populations from the Global South (Cairns, Mackay, & MacDonald, 2011; Deshpande & Lee, 2013). These experiences have contributed to mapping and understanding the evolution of the social marketing literature within a global context (Deshpande & Lee, 2013). However, limited evidence focused on the evolution of social marketing in the Global South exists (Mazzon & Carvalho, 2017; White, 2018).

New scholarly contributions accounting for the development of social marketing in the Global South have started to emerge in recent years, leading to a more diverse set of understandings of its application across different geographical settings (Alhosseini Almodarresi, Shahadati, & Ardekani, 2020; Truong, 2017; White, 2018). Truong’s (2017) study on social marketing in Vietnam, for example, points out that policy change should be considered as an important component of social marketing interventions and that practitioners should bear in mind the local context to foster behavior change. Alhosseini Almodarresi, Shahadati, and Ardekani’s (2020) study shows that social marketing in Iran is experiencing a development stage as demonstrated after conducting a systematic review on interventions with the objective to examine the use of social marketing components and their scope. Meanwhile, White (2018) explored how social marketing has been used in countries of the Caribbean. In his article, the author suggests that in these countries, an increasing presence of social marketing education and training mainly in areas related to public health and the environment are taking place. Although the experiences these scholars present may be similar to those of other Global South countries, differences in knowledge and applications are to be expected. Further research into the evolution of social marketing in other countries and regions is needed to broaden these understandings (Mazzon & Carvalho, 2017).

In this article, an overview of the trajectory of social marketing in Latin America (América Latina in Spanish and Portuguese) is presented. The limited evidence available shows that in some countries of this region, different conceptualizations and uses of social marketing exists (Muñoz Molina, 2001; Mazzon & Carvalho, 2017). Mazzon and Carvalho (2017), for example, found that there is scant knowledge about social marketing in Brazil, as well as a limited number of practitioners and programs using this approach for social change in the country. Similarly, a study by Muñoz Molina (2001) shows that in Colombia, the term social marketing is not exclusively used to describe behavior change programs, but rather any use of marketing for social causes, including social responsibility initiatives. The presence of many understandings of what social marketing entails has also been discussed among Latin American social marketers, for example, during social marketing conferences and meetings. Latin American countries share trajectories and values, but they are also different, complex, and largely unequal (Aya Pastrana, Ponce-Lucero, Alonso Vázquez, Besada, & Carvalho, 2019). Understanding how social marketing has been used broadly in the region could help identify areas to prioritize to further advance social marketing in Latin America, and to address the myriad of problems affecting countries of this region.

The purpose of this article is, consequently, to advance knowledge about the development of social marketing in Latin America as a region, including its challenges and contributions. This knowledge would help to gain a better understanding of the current state of the field in this region. First, to contextualize the study reported here, we provide background information about Latin America as a region; this is followed by a description of the methodology applied. Findings are then presented chronologically. Finally, considerations about the development of social marketing as a field of study in Latin America are showcased in the discussion and conclusion.

Latin America (América Latina)

In this paper, the term Latin America refers to more than geography as it encompasses countries with a shared historical, cultural, linguistic, political, and socio-economic legacy (Aya Pastrana, Ponce-Lucero, Alonso Vázquez, Besada & Carvalho, 2019). The identities and world visions of the populations of these countries are shaped in part by historical processes of colonization by the European expansion in the American continent led by Spain, Portugal, and France in the 15th century (Larrain, 2013; Mignolo, 2009). Processes of decolonization and other political transitions (e.g., from dictatorships to democracies) have also shaped the political, social, and economic organization of countries of this region (Aya Pastrana et al., 2019; Levitsky, 2018). Indicative of the contested nature of the term Latin America (Espinosa, 1918), some of these are also characteristics of countries from the Caribbean that are often presented together with Latin American countries as a group (i.e., LAC—Latin America and the Caribbean) (World Bank, 2019; United Nations, 2020). Some regional classifications include as Latin American countries, those from the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance language (e.g., Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti) (Pallardy & Cunningham, 2017). Consequently, language plays an important role in the categorization of Latin American countries and is used to classify countries as part of Hispanic America, Portuguese America, or French America. Geographically, Latin American countries are subdivided into three regions: North America, Central America, and South America (Table 1). Although Belize, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname are geographically located in Central and South America, these countries are considered part of the Caribbean region by the UNESCO and the Caribbean Community (UNESCO, 2020; Caribbean Community, 2017); therefore, they were not considered as part of the current study. Table 1 presents the countries which constitute the Latin American region, as considered in this study.

Table 1.

List of Latin American countries categorized by geography and population.

Country	Population (Millions) (2020)
North America
Mexico	129.2
Central America
Guatemala	17.9
Honduras	9.9
El Salvador	6.4
Nicaragua	6.6
Costa Rica	5.9
Panama	4.3
South America
Brazil	212.5
Colombia	50.8
Argentina	45.1
Peru	32.9
Venezuela	28.4
Chile	19.1
Ecuador	17.6
Bolivia	11.6
Paraguay	7.1
Uruguay	3.4

Adapted from Worldometers (2020).

Rationale for the Study

Overall, the history of social marketing has been reported mostly from a global perspective (Andreasen, 2006; Lefebvre, 2011). Similar to marketing, social marketing conceptualizations and literature have largely been developed by scholars and practitioners from the Global North, particularly Anglo-Saxon (Gordon, 2011; Gordon et al., 2016; Jafari et al., 2012). To have a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of social marketing, it is important to study how it has been used in different regions. This encompasses examining evidence that incorporates the perspectives of actors from various regions and countries. Collecting data in various languages and through channels relevant to the contexts of interest is, therefore, required. There are evident gaps about how social marketing has been conceptualized and applied in Global South settings in general and in Latin America in particular. Understanding the trajectory of social marketing in Latin America as a region is important to better comprehend its evolution worldwide, as well as to identify areas of priority to advance social marketing research and practice in the Global South and globally. This exploratory study intends to fill these gaps by tracing the evolution of social marketing in Latin America, identifying literature in English, Spanish, and Portuguese using a combination of diverse data sources.

Methods

This exploratory study examines existing literature available on social marketing in Latin America. Following a methodology similar to that of scoping reviews, used when the emerging evidence is still unclear (Munn, Peters, Stern, Tufanaru, McArthur, & Aromataris, 2018), this study presents a broad overview of the body of literature on social marketing in Latin America.

Data Sources and Search Strategies

As the nature of the current research is explorative, several sources of data were used. The searches were conducted in PubMed, EBSCO, JSTOR, LatAM-studies, Science Digest, Wiley Interscience, the Center for Research Libraries Global Collections Initiative, Google, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate. An individual search was also conducted in specific social marketing journals, namely, Social Marketing Quarterly and the Journal of Social Marketing. Records containing journal articles, case studies, books, magazine articles, and white papers in English, Spanish, and Portuguese that focused on social marketing practice in Latin American countries were retrieved. The sources used for collecting data and search keywords used are summarized in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Data sources and search strategies.

As Figure 1 shows, several sources were used to identify publications reporting the use of social marketing in Latin America. The data collected via search engines and other data sources (sources of information 1–4) were complemented with the literature provided during consultations with 10 Latin American social marketing researchers who were contacted via email. They were asked to recommend literature related to applications of social marketing in Latin America as well as names of other researchers or practitioners in the region including works in progress or recently published. Five out of the 10 responded with recommendations (source 5). In addition to these, searches were also conducted in classic social marketing books such as Social Marketing by Kotler and Roberto (1989) and Social Marketing and Social Change: Strategies and Tools for Improving Health, Well-being, and the Environment by Lefebvre (2013) to track other Latin American studies or articles (source 6).

Selection Criteria and Data Extraction

Inclusion criteria comprised studies published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese reporting uses of social marketing in Latin America. No restrictions in the year of publication were made. The process of selecting the studies included making an initial assessment of their titles and abstracts, followed by a review of their full texts. This was done by one reviewer (MAV) who also led data extraction and analysis. The data extraction phase included identifying (a) applications of social marketing that illustrated its evolution and presence in Latin America, (b) at what levels (i.e., upstream, midstream, and downstream) social marketing approaches were, and (c) the focus and general characteristics of the applications.

Results

A total of 64 publications related to social marketing in Latin America were found. Out of these, 35 were written by at least one Latin American author, with the remaining 29 publications written by non-LatinAmerican authors. The origin of the authors was identified by a combination of criteria such as authors’ surnames, biographies, and reading the entire article. Twenty-three out of the 35 publications were written in English, nine in Spanish, and three in Portuguese. After examining these studies, the results show that most of the studies where Latin American authors have been listed as first authors have focused on downstream-level approaches, while studies with first authors from outside this region, and predominantly written in English, have incorporated downstream and upstream approaches (Table 2).

Table 2.

Number of publications found by authorship and social marketing approach.

Authorship versus Level of Focus	Downstream	Midstream	Upstream	Total
At least one Latin American author	10 interventions	1 strategy implementation evaluation	9 public policy	35
	8 campaigns
	3 evaluation of interventions
	2 projects
	2 programs
Absence of Latin American authors	5 interventions	5 strategy implementation evaluation	16 public policy	29
Absence of Latin American authors	3 programs	5 strategy implementation evaluation	16 public policy	29
Total of publications	33	6	25	64

Note. These results are limited to including the term “Latin America” AND “social marketing,” “mercadeo social,” “marketing social,” “mercadotecnia social” in the article.

The results of reviewing this literature suggest that in the early 1960s, social marketing techniques were applied in the field of public health to mitigate pandemics in Latin America (Illanes, 1993; Tovar Guzmán & Bustamante Montes, 2000). From the 1970s until the present day, these techniques have continued to be applied to tackle various health-related issues such as sexually transmitted diseases (Parker, 1996; Rico, Bronfman & del Río Chiriboga, 1995), family planning (Robinson & Ross, 2007), non-communicable diseases such as cancer (Carrillo, 2010), and diabetes (Stoddard, He & Schillinger, 2010) in harm minimization strategies such as reducing tobacco consumption (Thrasher et al., 2011; Triunfo, Harris & Balsa, 2016) and excessive salt consumption (Ponce-Lucero et al., 2020). Through the 1990s and the 2000s, social marketing techniques were also applied to tackle social issues such as conceptions of manhood and gender equality (Barker, Nascimento, Segund & Pulerwitz, 2004).

Findings also show that from the 1960s to early 1990s, Latin American policymakers appeared to be supportive of social marketing applications (Rezende, Sousa, Pereira & Rezende, 2015), while most recently in the second decade of the millennia, competing approaches to behavior change linked to governmental programs, such as behavioral economics, seemed to be preferred (Cardozo Brum, 2006; Garcia-Abreu, Noguer & Cowgill, 2003; Kamakura & Mazzon, 2015; Mazzon & Carvalho, 2017).

A more detailed review of current research is presented chronologically in the following section to illustrate the evolution of social marketing as follows: the precedents: 1960–1979, the beginnings: 1980–1999, and the millennia: 2000–2020.

The Precedents: 1960–1979

In the 1960s, social marketing campaigns were limited to initiatives that created awareness about improving hygiene habits to control diseases caused by unhealthy sanitary systems and bacterial infections spread by animals and insects (Cueto, 2007). These awareness campaigns contributed to the development of further successful interventions against the propagation of cholera, yellow fever, typhus fever, and bubonic plague (Illanes, 1993; Oliver, 1986; Ramacciotti, 2006; Tovar Guzmán & Bustamante Montes, 2000). The campaigns also led to the creation of social communication campaigns seeking social participation in the control of air and water pollution (Cueto, 2007).

The Mexican campaign to eradicate malaria is a notable example of a public health effort that utilized product (e.g., the health cause or social good), place, promotion, and partnership as mechanisms to influence behavior through the use of social marketing. The success of this campaign can be credited to the collaboration among the ministry of health, public clinics, laboratories, and centers to promote sanitary habits among the population (Cueto & Palmer, 2014). This partnership was strong, in part, due to the government’s autonomous capacity for designing, implementing, and evaluating its health system (Germani, 1971; O’Donnell, 1973). According to Cueto (2007), the main aims of the malaria campaign were to eradicate mosquitoes that were spreading the infection; foster awareness of the malaria illness via the local communities; and propagate control methods, such as adopting hygiene habits and improving housing conditions, to reduce morbidity and mortality. This campaign used mass media for promoting health education and managed distribution channels to deliver dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane insecticide (DDT) as well as bed nets in remote places. Due to criticism about this campaign’s lack of cultural sensitivity, the government applied marketing techniques such as segmentation of the population (Walsh & Warren, 1980) to disseminate awareness in a manner that was more culturally appropriate for the different ethnic groups located in the tropical areas where this disease was predominant (Cueto, 2007).

Another example of evidence-based social marketing during this period was the large-scale public health campaign that aimed to mitigate Chagas disease in Brazil, which was later replicated in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela between 1966 and 1976 (Dias, Silveira, & Schofield, 2002). This campaign focused on controlling the spread of the disease by spraying insecticide to eliminate the Triatominae bug, advocating for improving housing conditions and by supervising blood transfusion systems (Dias et al., 2002). This campaign faced frequent changes in management and fluctuations in funding that affected its continuity (Converse, 1945).

A stronger articulation of national social marketing-based programs was possible after 1970 (Dias et al., 2002). At this time, projects related to improving the living conditions of economically disadvantaged families and reducing infant mortality in diverse Latin American countries were funded by international organizations such as the World Bank, Canada’s International Development Agency (CIDA), The Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (Cook, McAnany, & Hollister 1979; Fox & Kotler, 1980). Overall, these organizations supported projects related to four areas: (1) growth monitoring of infants via nutrition programs, (2) oral rehydration techniques, (3) breastfeeding, and (4) immunization programs (Cueto & Palmer, 2014; Robinson & Ross, 2007).

Two other notable examples of projects successfully utilizing social marketing during the period, between 1960 and 1979, were the “Cali Project” and the “Latin American Family Planning Programs” (Cook et al., 1979; Robinson & Ross, 2007; Fox & Kotler, 1980). The “Cali Project”, undertaken in Colombia (1971–1974), included a multidisciplinary intervention package of 6 hours of integrated health, nutritional, and academic activities to investigate whether giving food supplements to disadvantaged preschoolers improved their intellectual performance (Cook et al., 1979). Results showed that intellectual gains were greater the longer a child had been treated; even 1 year of multidisciplinary treatment had a greater effect on younger children than on older children, and the longer the treatment, the closer the gap in the level of intellectual performance that separated economically disadvantaged children from those from more advantaged families (Cook et al., 1979). Relying on the importance of integrating complementary elements to support behavior influence during an intervention, the study undertaken by Cook et al. (1979) found that behavioral change was evidenced through the improvement of infants’ intellectual performance.

The “Latin American Family Planning Programs” were implemented in several Latin American countries during the 1960s, 1970s, and continued in the 1980s. One significant example from this initiative is the Mexican Family Planning Program (1974), which utilized a well-structured marketing mix and multidisciplinary approach (Fox & Kotler, 1980). The Mexican Government, via its National Population Council, was able to coordinate the marketing mix of product, price, and place through the promotion of contraceptives to encourage family planning and to influence the use of contraceptives (Fox & Kotler, 1980; Walsh et al., 1993). To implement this, the council developed promotional materials in printed and visual mass media for the specific target population and facilitated the distribution of free contraceptives through specific distribution channels such as hospitals and health clinics. In this campaign, a total of 1880 hospitals and clinics run by the Ministry of Health and the International Planned Parenthood Foundation were engaged (Wille, 1975). It also provided incentives for the general population, such as special prices for contraceptives and free health check-ups (Fox & Kotler, 1980) to generate awareness and encourage people to use products and services related to contraception (Walsh et al., 1993). This program illustrates a meticulous social marketing campaign because it also included micro- and macro-level evaluations. The latter measured, for example, the sales of contraceptives, the number of distribution systems, and the number of individuals with changes in knowledge and attitudes (Fox & Kotler, 1980; Walsh et al., 1993). On the other hand, the macro-level evaluations included measurements of national fertility and birth rates (Bogue & Tsui, 1979). This family planning project was of high national relevance because it involved multidisciplinary collaboration before, during, and after the campaign from policymakers, marketing practitioners, social communicators, visual designers, clinicians, social workers, and managers (Fox & Kotler, 1980). Nevertheless, not all the Latin American family planning projects were successful as was the case in Guatemala. Issues related to resistance to adopt international policies from leading social, religious, and academic communities, as well as civil unrest, were factors that limited the implementation and the achievement of favorable outcomes in the use of contraceptive measures and the reduction of the population (Santiso-Gálvez & Bertrand, 2007).

The Beginnings: 1980-1999

In the literature available in Latin America between 1980 and 1999, there is evidence of the existence of a more specific definition of social marketing separating its meaning with marketing for a social cause and social communication (Quintanilla Pardo, Berenguer Contri, & Díaz Sánchez, 1988). The Anglo-Saxon literature from Canada, the United States, and Europe available from the World Health Organization, Medline, and The Lancet was still the main source of scientific information related to social marketing programs and campaigns, suggesting with this that social marketing was still predominantly applied within the public health sector (Cueto & Palmer, 2014). The discussion in the literature during this decade also suggests that social marketing-related projects relied on funding from governmental agencies or international organizations (Aya Pastrana et al., 2020; Rico, Bronfman, & del Rio Chiriboga, 1995). In Peru, for example, 80% of the expenditure on family-planning projects where social marketing activities were applied was covered by international funds such as those provided by USAID (Angeles, Guilkey, & Mroz, 2005). Therefore, without this funding, the programs could not be sustainable and independent in the long-term (Angeles et al., 2005).

This economic dependence on international funds was also seen in projects addressing other health issues that were controversial in the region. For instance, social marketing projects related to sexually transmitted diseases caused social disruption among diverse segments of the population due to its strong conservative religious beliefs (Rico et al., 1995; Parker, 1996). Projects addressing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), between 1983 and 1984, for example, faced backlash from Latin American conservative communities who disagreed with the presentation of sexual messaging in mass media (Garcia-Abreu et al., 2003). Human rights activists were similarly perturbed by the messaging, arguing that the messages further stigmatized the homosexual community, sex workers, and sex workers’ clients because these messages suggested that HIV/AIDS were mainly present within this sector of the population (Garcia-Abreu et al., 2003).

Similar social distress, rooted in prejudice and discrimination, was experienced by the Brazilian population. In 1988, the Brazilian National Health System set up a strategy to prevent the spread of and promote solidarity with people at risk or living with HIV, which included asking the sex work communities to participate in distributing contraceptives, while also opening Centers for Guidance and Serological Support and providing patients’ anonymous tests for detection of HIV (Oliveira-Cruz, Kowalski & McPake, 2004).

At the end of the 1990s, the Latin American civil population was getting directly involved with certain social good causes such as those related to the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. For instance, during the HIV/AIDS campaign implemented in Mexico, in 1992, two independent civil organizations launched their version of prevention advertising campaigns with a conservative tone, manifesting their concerns and suggestions to modify promiscuous sexual behavior (Rico et al., 1995). These organizations struggled to be sustainable in the long-term due to continuous cuts in public funds and the high costs of implementation and evaluation (Lefebvre, 2011; Nunn, da Fonseca, Bastos, & Gruskin, 2009). However, this was not the case for other campaigns, such as those tackling iron and folic acid deficiency supported and led by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (Freire, 1997; Shaw, Golding, & Girard, 2012) which was still receiving funds.

Much of the literature reviewed examined the applications of social marketing in a selection of public health campaigns. Literature examining social marketing within academic discourse began circulation in Spanish and Portuguese in the early 1990s. Kotler and Roberto’s social marketing book, for example, was first published in English in 1989 and translated into Spanish and Portuguese in 1992 (Kotler & Roberto, 1992). Despite increased access to literature focused on social marketing, much of the literature available in Spanish at the time, focused on marketing for social good (Moliner Tena, 1998) which focused mostly on ways corporations could increase their social responsibility (Moliner Tena, 1998). Labeled as “corporate social marketing” or “corporate social responsibility” (Vives, 2011), these texts explored the ways social causes could be incorporated into corporate advertising strategies (Back & Quaade, 1993; Tinic, 1997), and how social causes could be supported through financial support or in-kind donations. In return, it was anticipated that the brands would improve their image, be able to differentiate themselves within the market, and overall, build a positive reputation (Alonso Vázquez, 2006; Guardia Masso, 1999).

The Millennia: 2000–2020

Come the beginning of the new millennium, social marketing continued to be used in public health campaigns surrounding HIV/AIDS (Oliveira-Cruz, Kowalski, & McPake, 2004); however, other social issues—such as gender stereotypes and child nutrition—also began to be addressed using social marketing approaches. “Program H,” for example, was developed by various organizations and applied in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru in collaboration with public health associations (Barker et al., 2004). This program aimed to foster changes in social norms around masculinity and to promote positive attitudes toward women. This program was informed by previous research on social marketing and exploring men’s perceptions as well as attitudes toward manhood and the stereotypes applied to both men and women. Baker Nascimento, Segundo, and Pulerwitz’s (2004) evaluation of the program showed positive attitudinal and behavioral changes in the targeted populations. Program H was supported by non-profit organizations such as the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, Joint United Nations Programs on HIV/AIDS, and Horizons Programme by USAID, and was developed by the Instituto Promundo, Instituto PAPAI, and ECOS in Brazil, and Salud y Género in Mexico. It also received financial support from private partners such as John Snow Brazil (a consulting firm) and SSL International, and several condom manufacturers.

Similar to the previous periods already discussed in this paper, in the new millennia, social marketing has continued to play a strong role in public health projects focused on improving the health outcomes of Latin American children. For example, the Mexican program “Oportunidades” (1997 ongoing) focused on indigenous communities in the states of Veracruz and Chiapas (Escalante-Izeta, Bonvecchio, Théodore, Nava, Villanueva and Rivera-Dommarco, 2008). During this decade, however, there were advancements in the study of social marketing and public health focused on how social marketing techniques could be used in preventive medicine programs and not only on infectious disease transmission control. Table 3 lists some examples of these studies and associated focuses.

Table 3.

Examples of Latin American publications during the Millenia by theme.

Theme	Authors
Prevention of diseases	Aya Pastrana et al. (2020), Firestone et al. (2014), Stoddard, He, & Schillinger (2010)
Prevention of unhealthy lifestyle	Fernández Lorenzo et al. (2020), Nuño-Gutiérrez, et al. (2008), Olshefsky, Zive, Scolari, & Zuñiga (2007), Wei et al. (2011)
Promotion of healthy lifestyle	Dourado Martins, Finisterra Do Paco, Wagner Mainardes, & Gouveia Rodrigues (2014), Khalig et al. (2019), Ponce Lucero et al. (2020), Sánchez-Lezama, Cavazos-Arroyo, & Albavera-Hernández (2014)
Promotion of regulations to support healthy lifestyles	Hernández, Cedillo, González, & en Nut (2010), Inchaurraga (2003),Thrasher et al. (2011), Triunfo, Harris, & Balsa (2016), Villalobos et al. (2010), Juárez & Gayet (2015)
Evaluation of interventions on safety	Híjar et al. (2013), Ojeda, Hiller, & Estrada (2009)

Interventions related to people’s food and drink choices are illustrative examples of uses and applications of social marketing during this decade (Fernández Lorenzo et al., 2020; Nuño-Gutiérrez, Álvarez-Nemegyei, & Madrigal-de León, 2008). These studies aimed at fostering healthier food choices to further develop strategies considering product, place, price, promotion, partnership, and community participation (Carriedo et al., 2013; Rocha Balbino & Souza Barboza, 2019), as well as at identifying the perceived motivations and barriers to adopt healthier eating habits (Caichac et al., 2013). Findings of these studies suggest that taste, affordable price, convenience, and social influence from family and friends to consume unhealthy options were barriers to choosing healthier choices.

Grey literature from the Latin American public health sector during the millennia comprises social marketing manuals which suggest applications for stakeholders and practitioners. Examples of these are Mercadeo social en salud (Social Marketing for the Health Sector) by the Ministry of Public Health in Costa Rica (Castro, Gomez, Monestel & Poveda, 2014) and Marketing social: Manual práctico (Social Marketing: A pragmatic manual) by the Argentinian practitioner, Mendieve (2008). In addition, two of the social marketing practitioners contacted via email also mentioned that a new social marketing guide in Spanish is being produced in Uruguay. These manuals provide frameworks to apply social marketing in Latin America, with a special emphasis on improving public health. These tools, however, were mostly informed by literature from the United States (e.g., Kotler and Zaltman, 1971; Kotler and Keller, 2012; Kotler and Lee, 2008).

Discussion and Contributions

This study found that social marketing has been applied predominantly in public health campaigns in Latin America as early as the 1960s, with the focus and scope of these shifting to address emerging health concerns and needs. The research studies reported in the literature have contributed to developing the knowledge of practitioners and enabled them to adopt and apply social marketing techniques and tools with communities and on behalf of not-for-profit organizations and relevant governments. Many of the studies examined, however, lack details and clarity around the evaluation processes undertaken. Some of these evaluations, for example, are often not shared publicly.

Findings show that the implementation of programs incorporating social marketing led by multilateral, bilateral, and international organizations was not as prominent between the late 1990s and 2020s, as it was in the late 1970s to early 1990s, except for the presence of the Pan American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO) founded by Population Services International (PSI) in Central America. Possible reasons for this include (a) shifts in the global development priorities in terms of regions (e.g. more focus on Africa) (World Health Organization, 2001; United Nations, 2000) and (b) changes in the political environment in many Latin American countries and consequently in their relations with funding agencies (Miranda, 2011). Other reasons include the funders’ assumption that countries that receive funding should be aligned to the donors’ beliefs, and the limited timeframe of internationally funded programs which prevents them to be sustainable in the long-term (Cairns, Mackay, & MacDonald, 2011). The growing interest in other approaches to behavior and social change, and the lack of positioning of social marketing among social change agents in the region are other possible reasons for the decrease in the use of social marketing in programs of multilateral, bilateral, and international organizations operating in Latin America. International funders such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank, for instance, have adopted behavioral economics as a key approach to give access to their funding (Calvo-Gonzalez & Zoratto, 2017; Gneezy & List, 2006). All these aspects underline the importance of having more national and international organizations promoting social marketing in Latin America.

Results from this study show that downstream social marketing approaches are more frequently used by Latin American authors. This is consonant with findings from other global studies highlighting that downstream approaches are more commonly used by social marketing activities (Almestahiri et al., 2017; Carins & Rundle-Thiele, 2014). A possible explanation for the focus on downstream approaches in Latin America could be that, similar to marketing, social marketing in the region is still seen more as a managerial and operative tool, rather than policy-oriented (Sierra, 2017; Tadajewski et al., 2014). This could be explained, partially, by the stagnation in the use of social marketing in Latin American countries after the end of the 1990s. The evolution in the conceptualization of social marketing as more strategic at the global level did not necessarily permeate Latin American societies, and Latin American actors may not have actively participated in these developments. This raises the importance of having a more direct and bidirectional exchange of social marketers from Latin America with those of other regions.

Looking at the results of this study in light of other scholarly contributions focused on the trajectory of social marketing, we can attest that much needs to be done to better position the discipline in Latin America. Similarities with the evolution of social marketing in the Caribbean (White, 2018) were identified, for example, in the prominence of donor-funded programs and the focus on public health issues in early applications of social marketing. However, an aspect highlighted by White (2018) that cannot be directly comparable with Latin America is the institutionalization of social marketing through the offering of academic courses. This is something worth exploring in future research. Furthermore, the evidence examined in this study suggests that varied understandings of the definition and uses of social marketing still exist. This is similar to what Andreasen (2003) reported about the early phases of social marketing globally, which indicates that the current status of social marketing in Latin American countries is different from that of other parts of the world. This has implications for generalizations about the state of social marketing globally. These generalizations should be made with caution as they often reflect the experiences or perceptions of actors from some countries where social marketing has evolved more continuously and not necessarily with the influence of international funding agencies. More involvement of actors from the Global South is needed to better portray the evolution of social marketing globally, as well as to incorporate new ways of thinking and acting to drive social good. This is consistent with calls from social marketing scholars about the necessity to include voices and perspectives from the Global South in social marketing (Aya Pastrana et al., 2019; Gordon, et al. 2016; Gordon, 2019).

This study reveals that although there have been social marketing studies in the last 40 decades in Latin American countries, social marketing as a field is yet to reach its full potential. Further studies and actions are needed to foster social marketing research and practice in this region. This could be led by the social marketing organizations operating globally and regionally. The mission of these organizations is to create networks of scholars and practitioners interested in advancing knowledge and practice of social marketing. These efforts would contribute, among other things, to identify variations in the conceptualizations of social marketing by region and how these have been shaped by the local contexts, cultures, and values. Similar actions are necessary at the national level, but an initial focus on the region is commended. Regional and national social marketing organizations could help address these needs (Mazzon & Carvalho, 2017).

Social marketing organizations and networks in Latin America are not as prominent as in other regions and countries such as Europe, North America, and Australia. Through this analysis, only two organizations focused on Latin America were identified. The first was the Pan American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO), founded in 1996 and led by PSI, a non-profit organization from the United States. PASMO focuses on the following countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic (PASMO, 2020). They implement projects, following social enterprise models; related to contraception, sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and post-abortion care (PASMO, 2020). The second organization identified was the “Asociación Latinoamericana de Mercadeo Social (2019)” (LAMSO), Associação Latino-Americana de Marketing Social in Portuguese or Latin American Social Marketing Association in English (LAMSO, 2020). The development of this association started in 2017 at the time this study was initiated. LAMSO is an initiative led by and for social marketers from Latin American countries that aims at developing knowledge and skills in social marketing in the region, fostering collaboration, and promoting social marketing research and practice (Aya Pastrana, et al., 2019).

Strengths, Limitations, and Further Research

This is the first comprehensive study examining the evolution of social marketing in Latin America as a region. It synthesizes evidence from various sources, in three languages, and from the period from 1960 until 2020. Collecting data using the official languages of the countries of focus helped to obtain relevant and more representative evidence that could otherwise be missed if using English exclusively. This study also helps to bridge knowledge gaps by bringing to the forefront evidence in Spanish and Portuguese languages that could be, until now, unnoticed by the social marketing community. Another strength of this study is the fact that its authors are Latin American; this facilitated having context understanding in terms of culture, political/societal norms, and the implications of using social marketing in the region.

The main limitation of the study is related to its scope, as it did not intend to provide an exhaustive and systematic report on the history of social marketing in Latin America. Instead, it provides a broader examination of what has been done in this region chronologically. Latin American culture is characterized by its oral communication, which means that evidence about the history of social marketing in this region might have been missed simply for focusing this study mainly on published evidence. Consequently, future studies incorporating both written and spoken narratives from actors of various sectors are suggested. Another limitation of the study is related to the search terms used, primarily of the word “social marketing.” We recognize that some studies reported here were awareness efforts only, while others may not label their interventions and programs as such, despite having social marketing characteristics. However, we decided to use this term specifically because previous Latin American studies have shown that social marketing is conceptualized differently in countries of this region when compared to the global social marketing community (Mazzon & Carvalho, 2017; Muñoz Molina, 2001). Further research focused on how social marketing is conceptualized in Latin American countries is guaranteed. This includes comparisons of the definitions used among Latin American countries, as well as contrasts with the conceptualizations of social marketing in other countries and regions.

Conclusion

This paper provides evidence of the use of social marketing in Latin America. Innovations in the use of social marketing in the region are needed. These should respond to local contexts and perspectives rather than replicate what has been done in other regions or in the past. Positioning social marketing as an approach to behavior and social change in Latin American countries is important. Providing evidence of its impact in addressing a broad variety of problems in the region is needed to better position it among organizations operating at the regional and national levels. This could be done in parallel to building local capacities in research and programming. Knowledge exchange among local actors fostering behavior and social change in Latin America and other Global South countries could help promote social marketing research and practice beyond the Global North. Further research about the current conceptualizations and applications of social marketing in Latin America and other Global South countries would be useful to demonstrate the continued relevance of using social marketing in these contexts. Incorporating the perspectives of social marketers from these countries would help advance social marketing as a discipline, as well as to foster a more diverse and inclusive social marketing community in the pathway toward fostering social change.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the assistance provided by the editorial team Sameer Deshpande, Ryan Hollm, and Tina Robinette. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. Special thanks to the Latin American social marketing researchers Patricia David, Hamilton Carvalho, and Inés Besada Paullier for providing information during the preparation of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Marisol Alonso-Vazquez

Author Biographies

Dr. Marisol Alonso Vazquez is a senior academic with research interest in social marketing and corporate social marketing. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Latin American Social Marketing Association (LAMSO). Contact email: malonsov4@gmail.com

Dr. Nathaly Aya Pastrana is the Founding Director of IMEK Research Center in Marketing & Development in Colombia, and co-Founder of the Latin American Social Marketing Association (LAMSO). She conducts research and collaborates in projects at the intersection of social marketing and international development. Contact Dr. Aya Pastrana at aya.nathaly@imek.org.co

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