Interpretive Analysis of Social Marketing Interventions: Behaviour Change Techniques, Public Value, and SDG-Oriented Social Impact

Abstract

This study takes an interpretive approach to examining social marketing interventions in a global context marked by growing demands for sustainability, equity, and collective well-being. Based on a structured review of recent literature, the analysis explores how behavior change techniques, contexts of application, types of impact, their alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, and the generation of public value are connected—or remain fragmented—within the field. The research begins with the observation that the literature has made greater progress in describing techniques and impacts than in articulating public value as an integrative dimension. In response to this gap, the study develops a methodological strategy based on systematic review, bibliometric analysis, and interpretive thematic analysis, which allowed for the reorganization of the evidence into relational clusters and the proposal of an integrative framework. The findings show that contemporary social marketing can no longer be understood solely as a set of campaigns aimed at individual change, but rather as an intervention architecture where effectiveness depends on the interaction between mechanisms, environments, and public purposes. Consequently, the article proposes an analytical framework comprising techniques related to change, context, impact, the SDGs, and public value, which is useful both for strengthening the theoretical discussion and for guiding the design, implementation, and evaluation of socially relevant interventions.