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Office of Research

Overview

USF Center for Social Marketing logo

The USF Center for Social Marketing uses Community Based Prevention Marketing (CBPM) to design, implement, evaluate, and disseminate evidence-based approaches to disease prevention and health promotion.

Mission Statement

To develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based approaches to strengthen community capacity for sustained disease prevention and health promotion.

What We Do

We use Community-Based Prevention Marketing (CBPM), a program planning framework using social marketing, to advocate for program, policy, and systems level change. We conduct applied research and provide training and technical assistance to community-based organizations and partners.

Research Focus

Our current research focuses on COVID-19 prevention among minority communities, cancer prevention activities (e.g., screening, immunization), adolescent obesity prevention, workplace health, and more. Social marketing is the common thread in all these diverse areas.

What is Social Marketing?

Social Marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good. 

International Social Marketing Association

Our goal is voluntary adoption of beneficial behaviors. Social marketing seeks to make the behavior change “fun, easy, and popular,” (as social marketing guru, Bill Smith, says), often new products or services (called ‘offerings”) need to be created, along with ways of promoting their benefits to the community. In marketing, the intended users drive development of offerings and promotional strategies by participating in research or co-design activities. Social marketing has been used to promote public health, environmental sustainability, social justice, and reduce injuries, illness, and deaths.

USF is a World Leader in Social Marketing

USF faculty and students help communities in Florida, across the United States, and around the globe to use social marketing principles to improve their lives. You can join us by: