This thesis presents the findings of a systematic literature review addressing the use of social marketing indicators within studies directed towards tobacco cessation that self-identifying as social marketing. Globally, smoking rates have seen a decline from 33% in 2000 to 24.9% in 2015 (WHO, 2019). Therefore, the topic of smoking interventions is often viewed as an example of successful social marketing. The review aims to identify the extent to which each social marketing indicator is used as well as the contexts in which these studies occur. Similar reviews have previously been undertaken in the contexts of healthy eating (Carins & Rundle-Thiele, 2014), alcohol consumption (Kubacki, Rundle-Thiele, Pang, & Buyucek, 2015), and tobacco cessation (Almestahiri et al., 2017). These reviews, however, utilize the benchmark criteria as an examination tool whereas this systematic review uses the indicators for social change, a framework proposed by Fry et al. in 2017 which addresses criticisms of the benchmark criteria’s downstream focus.

This research was informed by a literature review identifying the history of smoking and interventions to combat it as well as definitions and developments of key social marketing features. Using a predefined systematic review methodology, 34 qualified articles were included within this review. These articles were then classified based on their social marketing orientation and then examined against each of the indicators for social change. The relevant findings relating to indicator use were then applied to identify areas for growth and improvement within the field of social marketing. The discussion concludes with a comparison between the benchmark criteria and the indicators for social change framework, highlighting the fact that the indicators for social change prove to be a more modern and relevant tool to aid the design and implementation of social marketing programmes. The value of this research lies in its identification of the need for a social marketing template to be consistently used within the planning of programmes in order to ensure that all social marketing features are applied, thereby potentially maximizing programme effectiveness. It also provides a foundation for future research focusing on the outcomes of social marketing studies and the correlation between these outcomes and their use of the social marketing indicators.