A Compilation of Critical Components of Social Marketing
A Presentation by:
Robert J. “Bob” Vickers
Artful Askers, Founder and President
P.O. Box 1225
Warrensburg, MO 64093
(660) 747-6390
bob@artfulaskers.com
www.artfulaskers.com
1. What is Social Marketing? Social Marketing is “communicating with consumers about desired social behavior change and the process to affirm, educate, inspire, encourage, empower desire and abilities for change and motivation to occur. The planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change using concepts of commercial marketing. This is a new concept for most nonprofits and requires us to examine how wise business is done in this country.
The world of facilitating change is no longer the same-ole-same-ole–we cannot have a one-dimensional reliance on public service announcements that make a difference–rather, we must use a more sophisticated approach drawing from successful techniques used by commercial marketers. MY specific expertise is accessing funding–BUT the days of writing a proposal, sending it out, and receiving a check are OVER! In social change AND/OR funding, we must do things different and incorporate social marketing processes. Rather than dictating the way that information is to be conveyed from the top-down, we must learn to listen to the needs and desires of the target audiences we serve and building programs from there. This focus on the "consumer" involves in-depth research and constant re-evaluation of every aspect of our programs. In fact, research and evaluation together form the very cornerstone of the social marketing process.
The Social Marketing Movement is officially attributed to Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman (circa 1970's) who realized the same marketing principles being used to sell products to consumers could be used to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler, et al define social marketing as "differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to objectives of marketer and the organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit self, but to benefit target audience/population served and general society." Like commercial marketing, primary focus is on consumer–learning what people want/need rather than trying to persuade them to buy what we happen to be producing. Building a relationship with consumer, not about product. Social marketing looks beyond advertising and public relations techniques. It extends to things like community development, recruitment, training, infrastructure planning etc.
2. Key Elements of Social Marketing? The goal is to improve particular condition of public health or safety–marketing is operative word. We need not forget that social marketing works best when media of choice is combined with activity. Using traditional commercial marketing techniques, social marketing makes needed products available and affordable to low-income people, while encouraging adoption of healthier behavior.
3. How Does Social Marketing Work? Key to successful social marketing campaign is learning what will work with target population. This is more effective than simply telling people what they "should do." Program or campaign's ultimate outcome should be to establish social norms that promote and sustain healthy, safe behaviors. Seeks to incorporate aspects of affirmation, education, inspiration, encouragement, empowerment with abilities for change and motivation to actually cause change to occur. Effective channels of communications should be chosen including television, radio, newspapers brochures, proposals, and other print media, and bulletin boards throughout the community such as those found in churches, neighborhood centers and other places where people congregate. Also, vision casting and information management on the part of the organization: EVERY MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION must know the information and understand how it all works together to benefit the target population.
4. When Developing a Social Marketing Campaign, What are Key Components?
A. Communication Objective: What are you trying to do?
B. Target Audience: Who are you trying to reach?
C. Current Attitudes: What does your target audience believe to be true?
D. Desired Attitudes: What do you want them to believe differently?
E. Desired Action: What do you want the audience to DO as a result of your message?
F. Primary Selling Proposition: What's in it for them?
G. Support: What research, proof, other successes or evidence exists to support your message?
H. Personality: What tone to utilize? Humor? Suspense? Unity? Educational? Somber? Non-Condescend?
I. Success Indicators: How will you know you have succeeded?
J. Distribution Channels: How to make the "product" available?
5. Common Tips to Consider:
A. Raise awareness-High awareness brings support for prevention/helps change social norms.
B. Increase knowledge-Communication provides facts and help dispel myths/misconceptions.
C. Influence attitudes and norms.
D. Show benefit of behavior change.
E. Reinforce knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.
F. Suggest/Request/Require prompt action.
G. Increase demand for services-By making people more aware of problem/possible solution, communication can increase public demand and support for prevention and other services.
H. Refute myths/misconceptions - What communications cannot do, in most people, is bring about a long-term change in behavior. Additional strategies are needed to do this.
6. Changing behavior: what works?
–Keep it light, keep it positive. Don’t be negative, tentative.
–Sell the sizzle. Make relevant comments and build with emotion.
–Offer peer acceptance.
–Make it doable and immediate.
–Speak the audience's language.
–La familia importa. Value important values.
–Utilize the Web to do the work. UTILIZE INTERNET TECHNOLOGY!
7. Seven Key Focus Elements:
1. Knowledge/awareness: People must 1) know there is a problem; 2) know there is a practical, viable solution or alternative. An awareness campaign aims to harness people's judgement. Know strengths and weaknesses. Know gaps. At EVERY organizational level–this introduces the need for collaborative efforts.
2. Desire: imagine a better/different future. Change involves imagination. People need to be able to visualize a different, desirable, future. This is different to being able to recognize rational benefits. Emotion. Warm Fuzzies.
3. Skills/knowing what to do: Being able to easily visualize the steps required to reach the goal. This is not ONLY about emotion–it is rational, too. A good mix. Best way to do this is to break the actions down into simple steps and use illustrations to make visualization easy. It's amazing how many social marketing campaigns forget this element. Is it Doable. Convincing, Compelling, and Concise.
4. Optimism/confidence: Belief that success is probable or inevitable. Is it really doable? Strong political or community leadership is probably an important ingredient of optimism.
5. Facilitation and collaboration–having outside support and efforts: They may need accessible services, infrastructure and support networks that overcome practical obstacles to carrying out the action.
6. Stimulation—having a kick-start: We are creatures of routine–can you really make a difference? Even with all the knowledge, desire, good will and services in the world, there is still the inertia of habit to overcome. Stimulate goodness–even as in pay it forward. Make a difference. Start with you, your staff.
7. Feedback and reinforcement: Effective social marketing is a continuous recruitment and reinforcement of messages–with regular communication reports back to people on success of efforts and next steps expected of them.
Like commercial marketing, the primary focus is on the consumer Learn what people want and need rather than trying to persuade them to buy what we happen to be producing. Marketing talks to the consumer, not about the product. The planning process takes this consumer focus into account by addressing the elements of the "marketing mix." This refers to decisions about 1) the conception of a Product, 2) Price, 3) distribution (Place), and 4) Promotion.
These are often called the "Four Ps" of marketing. Social marketing also adds a few more "P's."
P #1. Product: The social marketing "product" is not necessarily a physical offering. A continuum of products exists, ranging from tangible, physical products (e.g., condoms), to services (e.g., medical exams), practices (e.g., breastfeeding, or eating a heart-healthy diet) and finally, more intangible ideas (e.g., environmental protection). In order to have a viable product, people must first perceive that they have a genuine problem, and that the product offering is a good solution for that problem. The role of research here is to discover the consumers' perceptions of the problem and the product, and to determine how important they feel it is to take action against the problem.
P #2. Price: "Price" refers to what the consumer must do to obtain product. This cost may be monetary or it may require the consumer to give up intangibles, such as time/effort, risk embarrassment and disapproval. If costs outweigh the benefits for an individual, the perceived value of offering will be low and it will be unlikely to be adopted. However, if benefits are perceived as greater than their costs, chances of trial and adoption of the product is much greater. In setting the price, particularly for a physical product, there are many issues to consider. If the product is priced too low, or provided free of charge, the consumer may perceive it as being low in quality. On the other hand, if the price is too high, some will not be able to afford it. Social marketers must balance these considerations, and often end up charging at least a nominal fee to increase perceptions of quality and to confer a sense of "dignity" to the transaction. These perceptions of costs and benefits can be determined through research, and used in positioning the product.
P #3. Place: "Place" describes the way product reaches consumer. For tangible product, this refers to distribution system–including the warehouse, trucks, sales force, retail outlets where it is sold, or places where it is given out for free. For an intangible product, place is less clear-cut, but refers to decisions about channels through which consumers are reached with information or training. This may include doctors' offices, shopping malls, mass media vehicles or in-home demonstrations. Another element of place is deciding how to ensure accessibility of offering and quality of service delivery. By determining activities and habits of target audience, as well as their experience and satisfaction with the existing delivery system, researchers can pinpoint the most ideal means of distribution for the offering.
P #4. Promotion: Last "P" of standard marketing is promotion. Because of visibility, is often mistakenly thought of as comprising the whole of social marketing. However, it is only one piece. Promotion consists of integrated use of advertising, public relations, promotions, media advocacy, personal selling and entertainment vehicles. Focus is on creating and sustaining demand for product. Public service announcements or paid ads are one way, but there are other methods such as coupons, media events, editorials, "Tupperware"-style parties or in-store displays. Research is crucial to determine the most effective and efficient vehicles to reach the target audience and increase demand. The primary research findings themselves can also be used to gain publicity for the program at media events and in news stories.
Additional Social Marketing "P's" that Nonprofits MUST consider:
P #5. Publics–Social marketers often have many different audiences that their program has to address in order to be successful. "Publics" refers to both external and internal groups involved in the program. External publics include target audience, secondary audiences, policymakers, and gatekeepers, while the internal publics are those who are involved in some way with either approval, funding, or implementation of program.
P #6. Partnership–Social and health issues are often so complex that one agency can't make a dent by itself. Nearly everything requires that you team up with other organizations in community to be effective. Figure out which organizations have similar goals to yours–not necessarily same goals–and identify ways you can work together.
P #7. Policy-Social marketing programs can do well in motivating individual behavior change, but that is difficult to sustain unless the environment they're in supports that change for the long run. Often, policy change is needed, and media advocacy programs can be an effective complement to a social marketing program. Learn the policy process. Learn to write effective letters and engage the political and policy process.
P #8. Purse Strings–Most organizations that develop social marketing programs operate through funds provided by sources such as foundations, governmental grants or donations. This adds another dimension to the strategy development-namely, where will you get the money to create your program?
Where to Go for More Information/Resources on Social Marketing. . . If you're looking for manuals about Social Marketing, don't go to a bookstore. There are quite few available free, online.
A Short Course in Social Marketing: On Novartis Foundation website http://foundation.novartis.com/social_marketing.htm
Making Health Communication Programs Work-A Planners Guide: 131-page crash course in how to plan/execute social marketing campaign, by HHS in 1992. On National Cancer Institute website: http://oc.nci.nih.gov/services/HCPW/HOME.HTM Also found at http://cancer.gov/pinkbook
Seven Step Social Marketing Approach (and, “On Making Social Change”): At http://media.socialchange.net.au/strategy/
Social Marketing-A Synopsis: At http://www.marketing.strath.ac.uk/csm/about/synopsis.htm (From UK)
Health Canada has collection of papers about Social Marketing in health promotions at
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/socialmarketing/resources/somarhpe/smhp01e.htm
Canadian Tools for Change project has guide at http://www.toolsofchange.com/english/introductions/social.asp
Sutton Social Marketing has PDF on 'Consumer-based Health Communications’ At http://www.suttonsm.com/publications.html
Weinrich Communications, California-based social marketing company, provides useful introductory papers by Nedra Kline Weinreich at http://www.social-marketing.com/building.html Weinreich has also published full length book on topic, 'Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide', Sage Publications, June 1999.
A fact sheet about Social Marketing is available on Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Agriculture web site http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/rural/facts/92-097.htm
A Variety of Definitions of Social Marketing: http://www.social-marketing.org/sm.html and http://www.social-marketing.com/whatis.html
Pages of Social Marketing links and resources:
http://foundation.novartis.com/atoz/social_marketing.htm
http://www.social-marketing.org/papers.html
http://www.social-marketing.com/SMLinks.html
A more academic paper on Social Marketing:
http://www.social-marketing.org/papers/intersectortransfer.html
The following NGO sites were suggested by the National Center for Children In Poverty:
Benton Foundation: Seeks to shape emerging communications environment in public interest. Benton Foundation demonstrates and promotes use of digital media to engage, equip, and connect people to alleviate social ills.
Berkeley Media Studies Group: Works with community groups, journalists, and public health professionals to use power of media to advance healthy public policy.
Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC): Public interest media center dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations use media and new telecommunications technologies for public education and policy change.
Fenton Communications: Strategic communications firm that works to help clients achieve vast array of communications goals, including message development, media outreach, issue advertising, and design and graphics.
FrameWorks Institute: Advances nonprofit communications by identifying, translating, and modeling scholarly research for framing public discourse about social problems. FrameWorks Institute designs, commissions, manages, and publishes communications research to prepare nonprofit organizations to expand constituency base, build public will, and further public understanding of specific social issues.
The Southern Institute on Children and Families: Regional partnership organization that spotlights health, social, education, and economic issues of regional significance to 17 southern states and District of Columbia. It works to encourage public/private sector collaboration on behalf of children and families.
SPIN Project (Strategic Press Information Network): Provides media technical assistance to nonprofit public interest organizations that want to influence debate, shape public opinion, and garner positive media attention. SPIN offers public relations consulting, including comprehensive media training and intensive media strategizing and resources to a broad range of social policy, advocacy, and grassroots organizations across the country.
Other links about Social Marketing that may be of interest:
Social Marketing magazine - subscription is US$30 a year
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/socialmarketing/
http://www.mkt4change.com/adventures.htm
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