A Case Study on Social Marketing, Awarness Cretion for Safe Water and Behabiour Change in India
By Amanda Amman
Abstract
Globally, around 780 million people lack sustainable access to safe drinking water sources resulting in serious water-borne diseases. In India, more than 97 million people drink unsafe water. Because the provision of safe drinking water is essential to enhance sustainable growth in developing countries and reduce poverty, continued collective efforts by the public and private sector are necessary.
One company that has just recently entered the water supply market and seeks to solve the problem of inadequate drinking water supply in India is the social enterprise Spring Health. The objective of Spring Health is to sell affordable safe drinking water to people living at the bottom of the pyramid in rural villages through a network of local entrepreneurs and village kiosks. While the company has already set up a stable supply-chain, it carried out only a few demand-side interventions. In order to ensure continued use of safe water and achieve long-term behavior change, additional social marketing interventions and basic hygiene and health education are necessary. This thesis analyzes the company’s current activities and outlines the findings from a field study to make recommendations and develop effective social marketing strategies to change the behavior of the target population at the bottom at the pyramid and increase the adoption rate of Spring Health water.
Springhealth is a social enterprise created by Paul Polak and aims at setting up a profitable delivery model for safe water in Rural India. The study by Amanda Ammann is a master thesis of the University of St. Gallen and focuses on social marketing, awareness creation for safe water and behaviour change. It shows how innovative strategies of marketing and social marketing activities must be linked and inter-twined.