Controlling the Spread of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Evidences of Social Marketing Mixed Approach

Introduction: The spread of the unknown COVID-19 virus and its pandemic at the end of 2019 faced many countries a serious crisis. Following the outbreak of this pandemic news, many actions have been taken to control and prevent it throughout the world, including Iran. Many of these actions, incorporate the principles, strategies, and components of "social marketing", without being labeled social marketing. Methods: The present study is a non-systematic review of documents and evidences related to the strategies presented and steps taken to reduce and control COVID-19 in Iran. The information represented is gathered from two sources: three scientific and official centers including World Health Organization, National Headquarters for Corona, and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and Reports presented in widely published documents During 7 months after the outbreak of Covid-19 started (from 11 February to 11 September 2020). Results: Collected documents and evidences are classified into three sections: desirable behaviors, marketing concepts including segmentation, targeting and positioning, and social marketing mix. Conclusions: Findings show that despite the efforts to promote desirable behaviors to control Covidus19, many of these efforts are non-systemic and the lack of attention to macro-social marketing principles has created many inconsistencies in the implementation of downstream and upstream policies that thus has been jeopardized The effectiveness of these actions.