In this study the impact of social marketing campaign as a tool for reducing the financial costs of HIV/AIDS on people in Nigeria is explored. This was motivated by the excruciating financial, social ostracization and psychological burdens of stigmatization (costs), people living with HIV (PLIs) and their families are saddled with in the country. The study objectives were to: ascertain the effect of social marketing campaign messages of abstinence for reducing the financial costs of HIV/AIDS on people in Nigeria; determine the impact of social marketing campaign tools of counselling for reducing the social ostracization of people living with HIV (PLIs) by their families in Nigeria; and assess the effect of social marketing campaign tools of Africa traditional media (oramedia) for reducing the stigmatization of people living with HIV (PLIs) in Nigeria. The area of study was three big cities in Nigeria: Calabar, PortHarcourt and Enugu, reputed as having very high students and youths’ population, considered as endemic group. A sample size of 300 was purposively determined and proportionately allocated to the 3 cluster cities. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire in Likert’s 4-points scale, which was also used in analysing the data. Results obtained indicate that: Social marketing campaign messages of abstinence was significantly effective for reducing the financial costs of HIV/AIDS on people in Nigeria; social marketing campaign tool of counselling was significantly effective for reducing the social ostracization of people living with HIV (PLIs) by their families in Nigeria; social marketing campaign tools of Africa traditional media (oramedia) were significantly effective for reducing the stigmatization of people living with HIV (PLIs) in Nigeria. Based on these results, governmental agencies, health marketers and behaviour-change agents in the country were advised to emphasize the use of these tools in other to reduce the costs of the HIV/AIDS burdens on the PLIs.
Keywords: Abstinence, Financial Costs, HIV/AIDS, Social Marketing, Stigmatization
