Can we 'market' the use of research evidence in maternity care

Social marketing uses proven marketing techniques to promote socially beneficial behaviours. Predominately used in the field of public health research, it has features suggesting it could be a useful tool in the field of knowledge mobilization:
* It focuses heavily on understanding the needs and motivations of ‘consumers’ (i.e. those whom you would wish to mobilise knowledge) and their understandings of your ‘product’ (i.e. the knowledge you wish to mobilise).
* It requires an understanding of the context within which knowledge is mobilised (e.g. the influence of powerful stakeholders).
* Established theories (e.g. sociological, psychological, organisational) are used to guide the design of context specific strategies which capitalise on the factors most likely to encourage ‘consumers’ to want to mobilise knowledge. We are testing the use of social marketing principles in a UK based knowledge mobilization project, aimed at improving the use of high quality research evidence in one aspect of maternity care. Using social marketing we have identified attributes of research evidence valued by pregnant women and the clinicians providing their care, as well as a complex combination of factors influencing how these two groups seek, use, and exchange information (e.g. where care was routinized, choices were not obvious to pregnant women, suppressing their motivations to demand detailed information). This analysis underpins the design, implementation and evaluation of our knowledge mobilization strategy, which focuses on making choices explicit and supporting decision-making. This project will investigate social marketing’s value and effectiveness in guiding knowledge mobilization activities