The fundamentals of social marketing have been used successfully in community
development and public health campaigns throughout the world (e.g. Grier & Bryant, 2005;
O'Reilly, Freeman, Ravani, Migele, et al., 2008). Social marketing uses the fundamentals of
commercial marketing and modifies them for the purpose of social change (Kotler &
Zaltman, 1971). Target marketing, positioning, product, price, place and promotion,
traditionally commercial marketing concepts are repurposed to create positive behaviour
change instead of merely selling products (Leo, 2013). This case study focuses on a personal
hygiene and sanitation project from five rural provinces in the Mekong Delta in the south of
Vietnam. It is an example of social marketing in practice in a rural context, providing the
results of the intervention and finally shows the lessons learned which are applicable for
those considering similar interventions in the greater Mekong region.