A social marketing approach to value creation in a well-women's health service

Understanding consumer value is imperative in health care, as the receipt of value drives the demand for health care services. While there is increasing research into health care that adopts an economic approach to value, this paper investigates a non-financial exchange context using an experiential approach to value, guided by social marketing thinking on behaviour change. An experiential approach is deemed more appropriate for government health care services that are free and preventative rather than for treatment purposes. Thus, instead of using an illness paradigm to view health-services outcomes, the researchers applied a wellness paradigm. Data from 25 depth interviews have been analysed by the authors to demonstrate how social marketing thinking has guided the identification of six themes that represent four dimensions of value (functional, emotional, social, and altruistic) evident during the health care consumption process of a free government service.