Building Partnerships to Build the Best Bones Forever: Applying the 4Ps to Partnership Development

Government, nonprofit, and corporate partners can be critical to achieving national, state, or local social marketing goals. Yet, partners are often underutilized by social marketing programs. Managers of a national bone health campaign targeting girls ages 9–14 in the United States avoid this problem using marketing principles and the marketing mix to involve partners in developing and delivering campaign components and to manage mutually beneficial partnership efforts. The approach has resulted in a campaign that attracts an ever-increasing number of partners and activities that provide girls with opportunities, motivation, and ability to engage in bone healthy behaviors.