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A social marketing approach could complement the usual enforcement strategies

11. 1. 2017 | Mosa | news

Journal of Social Marketing (Vol. 6 Iss: 2, pp.104 - 120)  recently published the paper entitled Midstream social marketing intervention to influence retailers’ compliance with the minimum legal drinking age law authored by Tanja Kamin of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia and Daša Kokole, No Excuse Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The study aimed to examine social marketing’s response to concerns about retailers’ noncompliance with the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) law by proposing and evaluating a social marketing intervention directed at sellers in off-premise stores. The study was based on a non-randomized quasi-experimental design, focusing on an evaluation of the implementation of the “18 rules!” intervention in four cities in Slovenia. Two waves of underage purchase attempts were conducted pre- and post-intervention in 24 off-premise businesses, following a mystery shopping protocol. Main findings include:

The initial rate of retailers’ noncompliance with the MLDA law in off-premise establishments was high. After the social marketing intervention, an increase with compliance with the law was observed; the proportion of cashiers selling alcohol to minors after the intervention decreased from 96 to 67 per cent. Qualitative insight suggests an existence of retailers’ dilemma in complying with the MLDA.

Authors conclude that a social marketing approach could complement the usual enforcement strategies and contribute to a better understanding of the social working of the MLDA law, and encourage deliberate retailers’ compliance with it while developing valuable exchanges among people and stakeholders. The paper conceptualizes retailers’ dilemma in complying with the minimal legal drinking age law and offers social marketing response to it. Results of the study show that also solely non-coercive measures have the potential in increasing retailers’ compliance with regulations.

Correspondence to: Tanja.Kamin@fdv.uni-lj.si

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