Using social marketing to increase community resilience

Abstract

This paper looks at how emergency planners can use social marketing to help build community resilience, thus reducing the need for external assistance in the event of an emergency. In turn, this benefits an external response by minimising pressures on already stretched finances, staffing and resources. Increased community self-reliance also means that in the event of a situation occurring, any community response can be launched immediately, without waiting for the external response to arrive, thus helping to minimise community losses in the longer term. This paper examines the benefits of community resilience, and discusses how social marketing can be implemented within emergency planning and preparedness initiatives as an effective framework to encourage community self-reliance.