Theoretical guidelines to support patient-centred health campaign messages within an integrated marketing communication (IMC) approach: a case study

Abstract

Health campaign messages used for health promotional purposes have always served a vital role to educate communities on issues that concern their health. However, social and cultural aspects need to be catered for adequately, to ensure that messages are adequately understood and accepted by targeted communities. By considering the above, the aim of this study was to propose theoretical guidelines by adopting an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach, to support patient-centred health campaign messages, which was applied to a single case at a regional hospital. In doing so, this study adopted an interpretivist research paradigm using a qualitative, single case study research design, which made use of three data collection methods namely, an interview guide, a moderator’s guide, and coding scheme. A purposive sample method guided the selection of participants and social artefacts. The findings indicated that patient centred health campaign messages which also consider the cultural and social context, will benefit the hospital to achieve the intended health outcomes per health campaign message communication. Consequently, the proposed theoretical guidelines were adapted for the healthcare setting.