Scared Topless: Why Social Marketers Need to Encourage Marketing-Like Activities in Avoidance-Service Workers

Abstract

Catherine Ford’s recounting of her breast screening experience in a Sydney Morning Herald new story (2012) reveals an interesting insight into a health customer’s reaction to the marketization of health services. As government decision-makers attempt to find market solutions to the increasing costs of today’s health system and make health services convenient and appealing to target audiences, social marketers are being called upon to deliver innovative strategies to encourage positive health behaviours (French 2007). BreastScreen Australia’s venture into the ‘retail emporium’ is an example of an innovation in service design to make access to a health services easy and desirable for consumers.