Abstract
Responding to calls for greater inclusion of service thinking in social marketing (Luca et al., 2015; Russell-Bennett et al., 2013), this study qualitatively examined the experiences of 25 Australian residents who were users of support services designed to improve and maintain wellbeing, but who then decided to stop service use. Guided by value theory, we examined the value destruction processes within these service experiences that led to termination of service use. We also explored the impact of this value destruction on subjective wellbeing. Our initial findings suggest that the cumulative effect of a series of denigrating incidents within the participants’ service experiences contributed towards value destruction and led to the decision to terminate. This decision is often enacted by choice and with agency in an otherwise disempowering situation. However, agency is influenced by a participant’s personal resources, which are determined by both personal characteristics, and their socioeconomic status. The findings also suggest that value destruction and subsequent service termination, did not necessarily negatively impact wellbeing in ways expected. These insights challenge a number of assumptions that operate within many social change efforts, especially in the context of health and wellbeing. These assumptions first include that there is a “best way” that we should be living our lives through the performance of specific behaviours and through the use of specific services. A second assumption is that if we do not comply with these recommendations, that our wellbeing will suffer.