A Social Marketing Approach to Value Co-Creation in a Well-Women's Health Service: Breastscreening

Customer perceived value is concerned with the experiences of consumers when using a service and is often referred to in the context of service provision or on the basis of service quality. The experiential approach in understanding value considers the consumption experience of the consumer which extends beyond the service exchange and includes pre- and post-consumption stages. In addition, a number of sources of value have been identified in the literature (e.g. information, interaction, environment, service, customer co-creation and social mandate).

Understanding customer perceived value has benefits for social marketing and allows scholars and practitioners alike to identify why consumers engage in positive social behaviours through the use of services. Understanding consumers’ use of wellness services in particular is important, because the use of wellness services demonstrates the fulfilment of social marketing aims; performing pro-active, positive social behaviours that are of benefit to the individual and to society. As consumers typically act out of self-interest, this research posits that a value proposition must be made to consumers in order to encourage behavioural change.

This PhD research program employed a two-study mixed method approach to identify how value is created for consumers of wellness services in social marketing.

This research was conducted using a wellness service context, specifically breast cancer screening services. The primary target consumer of these services is women aged 50 to 69 years old (inclusive) who have never been diagnosed with breast cancer.

This research offers several contributions to theory and practice; (1) used social marketing theory to provide an alternative method of understanding individual behaviour in a domain that has been predominantly investigated in public health, (2) clarifies the concept of value and offers empirical evidence to show that value is a multi-dimensional construct, and (3) identifies a framework that is the value creation process and offers health service organisations a diagnostic tool to identify aspects of the service process that facilitate the value creation process.

Guiding Theory:

• Experiential Customer Value
• Service Quality