Nadine Henley

Social marketing and social change

Social marketing is just one ‘branch’ of marketing, where the branches reflect the area of application: for example, sports marketing; business to business or industrial marketing; not-for-profit marketing; religious marketing; political marketing and so on. However, social marketing is more than just the application of marketing to social issues : the key point of difference to all other branches of marketing, is that the social marketer’s goals relate to the wellbeing of the community , whereas for all others, the marketer’s goals relate to the wellbeing of the marketer (sales and profits, members and donations, political representation, etc.). If the wellbeing of the community is not the goal, then it isn’t social marketing.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Models of attitude and behaviour change

This chapter presents a number of models useful for developing campaign strategies. These models are generally known as ‘knowledge–attitude–behaviour’ change (KAB) models or ‘social cognition’ models (Connor and Norman 2005; Godin 1994). While each can be classified as either ‘motivational’, ‘behavioural’, ‘cognitive’ or ‘affective’ in emphasis, they all deal with conceptualising the influences on behaviour, and hence provide a framework for formative research, strategy development and campaign evaluation. In general, changes in the major components in these models, such as attitudes, norms and efficacy, have been found to be good predictors of changes in behaviours and intentions (Webb and Sheeran 2006). There are a number of such models [Darnton (2008) lists and describes over thirty]. We will briefly describe each of the models most frequently mentioned in the health promotion and social marketing literature, before presenting a synthesis of the major variables across all models. We include brief discussions on two concepts generally ignored by the KAB models: morality and legitimacy (Amonini 2001). A notable omission from this chapter is Prochaska and DiClemente’s ‘Stages of Change’ model, which will be discussed in Chapter 10.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Using media in social marketing

The availability and types of media channels today have expanded substantially since the first edition of this book in 2003. However, in keeping (at least somewhat) with that old saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same, recent global award winning advertising campaigns have been characterised by an emphasis on what people are now calling ‘traditional’ media channels: commercial television; commercial radio; print; and ambient media (Dawson 2009; Lannon 2008). For example, the Dove campaign we noted in Chapter 9 used viral ads and the Internet, but its major impact was via television advertising and the numerous well placed billboards – that were picked up by and publicised even further in mainstream news media.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Case study: the Act–Belong–Commit campaign promoting positive mental health

The Act–Belong–Commit community-based social marketing campaign targets individuals to engage in activities that enhance mental health. It simultaneously encourages community organisations offering such activities to promote their activities under the Act–Belong–Commit banner. The campaign provides a simple framework for mental health promotion professionals to communicate with, and gain the co-operation of, potential partners and stakeholders within and outside the health system. The campaign was developed as an upstream or primary prevention intervention. However, the campaign messages are also appropriate for at-risk individuals and groups (secondary prevention), and for people recovering from a mental illness (tertiary prevention). Hence, as it evolves the campaign is developing a number of programme components and partners for secondary and tertiary prevention. The campaign is conducted by Mentally Healthy WA, a group based within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Western Australia (WA). This chapter draws on a number of publications available from the website (e.g., Donovan, James and Jalleh 2007; Donovan et al . 2003a, 2006a; Jalleh et al . 2007).

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Principles of communication and persuasion

Social marketing is fundamentally concerned with bringing about behaviour change. However, in most cases this first requires bringing about changes in beliefs, attitudes and intentions. Furthermore, some components of an overall comprehensive campaign may have limited objectives, such as an increase in knowledge, or an increased belief that individuals’ conservation behaviours can make a real difference, or to create a positive predisposition to act in a certain way when a relevant situation arises. The desired behaviour may then occur some time later when an appropriate situation arises. For example, a campaign to change discriminatory racist behaviours may have a component that first increases people’s knowledge about a particular ethnic group, removes misperceptions about that group and creates a more positive predisposition towards that group. That might then be expressed in various ways, for example, in more friendly behaviours towards members of that group in social situations, or more positive word-of-mouth about that group in conversations with friends, or supporting anti-discriminatory legislation in a public opinion poll. That is, changes in beliefs and attitudes are usually a necessary precursor to these desired behaviours.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: The marketing mix

Perhaps one of the best known concepts in marketing is the ‘4Ps’, apparently first described by McCarthy (1960). The 4Ps have endured because they provide the four fundamentals of marketing planning and management. They refer to what the company is selling ( p roduct), where the products and services are made available to customers ( p lace, or distribution), how products and services are priced and paid for ( p rice), and where and how the products and services are made known to people and they are motivated to purchase them ( p romotion). In Chapter 2 we referred to the ‘principle of customer value’ as the sum total of the benefits provided by the ‘mix’ of these 4Ps.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Advocacy and environmental change

Following on from our discussion in the previous chapter about the need to address social determinants with upstream strategies, in this chapter we look more closely at how social marketers can use advocacy to achieve change, and, specifically, how advocacy can be and is being used to address the world’s challenges relating to environmental change. As Margaret Mead is reported to have said: ‘ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has .’ However, Hubert (2000) pragmatically reminds us that most successes by NGOs result from strategic alliances with positive governments or politicians.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Ethical issues in social marketing

Ethics is important in any area, but perhaps even more so in social marketing given the sensitivity of some issues in particular that social marketers are asked to address. Commercial marketers have long been criticised for using allegedly unethical methods to target vulnerable populations, or simply using deceptive tactics against consumers in general. Marketing as an activity has been accused of being unethical in a number of ways (Murphy and Bloom 1990): creating greed and dissatisfaction; misleading because it doesn’t give the full picture of a product; manipulative because it persuades people to buy things they don’t need; and a waste of valuable resources that could be spent in better causes (e.g., it is said that the global Coca-Cola marketing budget could make a real difference to worldwide child poverty). Marketing is accused of focusing on selected target markets, often those that are wealthy or privileged, and neglecting others. Conversely, other marketers, such as the tobacco companies and alcohol marketers, are accused of targeting vulnerable audiences such as children, teenagers and xadsocio-economically disadvantaged groups. Marketing is accused of being intrusive, in that television advertisements enter our homes, disrupting our leisure time, while billboards distract our attention on the road.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Social marketing and the environment

As noted in Chapter 2, commercial marketing has always been mindful of environmental factors that impinge on the consumer and on business in general. However, the regulatory and structural environment for commercial marketers is generally facilitative as governments tend to encourage commerce to maintain economic growth. However, that is not necessarily the case for social marketers who often have to lobby hard and long for regulatory and structural changes that enhance health and wellbeing.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing: Principles of marketing

As defined in Chapter 1, social marketing is the application of the concepts and tools of commercial marketing to the achievement of socially desirable goals. Marketing is characterised by things like a consumer orientation, segmentation and targeting, advertising and sales promotions, and much research with customers and potential customers to ensure that things like packaging and pricing are appropriate for the product, and that the advertising is believable, relevant and motivating. Research and negotiations are also undertaken with intermediaries such as retailers, and with stakeholders such as unions and government, to ensure that making the product attractive, available and affordable will be facilitated by distributors and not hampered by structural and regulatory restrictions. In all these areas, the notion of an exchange process between the ‘buyer’ (target) and the ‘seller’ (marketer) forms a platform of operation.