Partnering with the corporate sector on social marketing programmes

Background This research responds to a recognised gap in the social marketing partnerships literature relating to how social marketers can initiate and maintain long-term strategic partnerships with the corporate sector to support complex social change. Focus of the Article This research article provides an insider perspective of how Public Health England selected strategic partners from the corporate sector and the processes involved in maintaining long-term relationships with them from initiation through on-going development across a range of social marketing programmes. Research Question How are partnerships with the corporate sector created and maintained to support social marketing programmes? Program design/approach importance to the social marketing field. The proposed model provides a structured process for creating and maintaining partnerships with the corporate sector along with criteria for identifying and selecting prospective commercial partners. Methods Three qualitative methods were used in a longitudinal study – participant observation, documentary analysis and interviews with members of PHE’s marketing team, their partnership agency and corporate partners. Results The findings identified specific partner selection criteria and processes designed for initiating and maintaining social marketing partnerships with partners in the corporate sector. The findings have implications for commitment-trust theory as applied to social marketing partnerships with corporate partners by identifying the need to trust a commercial organisation prior to developing a partnership and the intervening processes between trust and relationship commitment. Recommendations for research and practiceFurther research can empirically test whether the identified partnership processes can also be used by non-governmental organisations’ social marketing partnerships with the commercial sector.