Social Marketing Campaigns

Belief objective

those related to attitudes, opinions, feelings, or values held by the target audience. The target audience may have current beliefs that the marketer may need to alter in order for them to act, or you may find that an important belief is missing, such as they will personally experience the benefits for adopt the desired behavior, they are at risk, they will be able to successful perform the desired behavior. etc.

Surveys

use a variety of contact methods and include mail, telephone, online/Internet, intercept, and self-administered surveys, asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and behaviors. Findings are quantitative in nature.

Pretest

with whom will the survey instrument (e.g., questionnaires, focus group discussion guide) be presented? Who will conduct the research, and when?

Barrier

Barriers are revealed in audience responses to a variety of questions. What concerns do they have regarding the behavior? What do they think they will have to give up in order to perform the behavior? Do they think they can do it? Barriers may be related to a variety of factors, including knowledge, beliefs, skills, abilities, infrastructures, technology, economic status, or cultural influences. They may be real or perceived.

competition focused positioning

Because consumers typically choose products and services that give them the greatest value, marketers work to position their brands on the key benefits that they offer relative to competing brands. A benefit-to-benefit superiority appeals to values higher than those perceived for the competition. A cost-to-benefit superiority focuses on decreasing costs of or barriers to adopting the desired behavior and decreasing the perceived benefits of the competition. A benefit-to-cost superiority emphasizes the benefits of the desired behavior and the costs of the competing behaviors. A cost-to-cost superiority relies on a favorable comparison of costs of the desired behavior relative to those of the competition.

Identify Target Audience Barriers, Benefits, The Competition, and Influential Others

By this step you should know who you want to influence and what you want them to do. You even know how many, or what percentage, of your target audience you are hoping to persuade. Before rushing to develop your marketing efforts, you must take the time to understand what your target audience is currently doing or prefers to do (the competition) and what real and/or perceived barriers they have to this proposed behavior., what benefits do they want in exchange, and what would motivate them to "buy" it. What are some reasons they are not currently doing this or don't want to (barriers)?

Theory of Diffusion and the planning model

Diffusion is a process by which (a) an innovation (b) is communicated through certain channels (c) over time (d) among members of a social system. Research suggests that different types of adopters accept an innovation at different points in time. Five groups have been identified: • Innovators are motivated by a need for novelty and a need to be different • Early adopters are drawn by the product's intrinsic value • Early majority perceive the spread of a product and decide to go along w/ it out of their need to match and imitate • Late majority jump on the bandwagon after realizing "most" are doing it • Laggards finally follow suit as the product attains popularity and broad acceptance

Demographics

Divides the market into groups on the bases of variables common to census forms: age, gender, marital status, family size. They are the best predictors of needs, wants, barriers, benefits, and behaviors. This info is more readily available than it is for other variables.

Energy Star

Efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to encourage households to use energy-saving appliances seems a great example, where communications regarding ENERGY STAR appliances and fixtures stress the link between home energy use and air pollution and at the same time provide detailed info on how these options can both save taxpayer dollars and lower household utility bills

Generation X & Y.

Generation X: 27-29: cynical, self- starters, independent, resourceful, media savvy. Generation Y:20-26: edgy, focused on urban style, more idealistic than Gen-X.

behavior adoption

Impact: if your audience adopts the behavior, will it make a difference relative to the purpose of your campaign (e.g., decreasing teen pregnancies)? How does this compare with other behaviors being considered? Willingness: Has your target audience heard of doing this behavior? Do they perceive it will solve some problem or concern they have/ satisfy some unfulfilled need? Measurability: can the behavior be measured? Market opportunity: How many in the target audience are not currently doing the behavior? A behavior that few have adopted would garner a high score in terms of market opportunity. Market supply: does the behavior need more support? If some other org is already "doing all that can be done" to promote this behavior, perhaps a different behavior would be more beneficial to the social issue.

Systematic approach

Only through the systematic process of clarifying your plan's purpose and focus and analyzing the marketplace are you able to select an appropriate target audience for your efforts.

The Social Norms Theory

People's behavior is influenced by their perceptions of what is normal or typical. Most commonly thought of as the rules that a group uses to determine appropriate and inappropriate behaviors as well as values, beliefs and attitudes. Injunctive norms are behaviors a group perceives as being approved or disapproved of by others in the group. Descriptive norms are perceptions of what behaviors others are actually engaged in regardless of whether or not these are approved of by others. Explicit norms are those that are written or openly expressed. Implicit norms are those that aren't openly stated, but understood to be the norm for a group. Subjective norms are expectations that individuals think valued others will have about how they behave. Personal norms are an individual's standards for his/her own behavior.

Rigor of the technique

Sometimes a research project is characterized as either a qualitative or a quantitative study.

Cognitive Theory/Social Learning Theory

States that two major factors influence the likelihood that one will take preventative action. First, a person believes tat the benefits of performing the behavior outweigh the costs. Second, the person must have a sense of personal agency or self-efficacy w/ respect to performing the preventative behavior and must believe that he/she has the skills and abilities necessary for performing the behavior under a variety of circumstances.

Target goal

Target goals establish a desired level of behavior change as a result of program efforts. To establish this target for the amount or percentage of change, you will need to know current levels of behavior among your target audience. They may also be set for knowledge and belief objectives.

Diffusion of Innovation

The ability of social marketers to plan and manage the diffusion or spread of adoptions to the largest possible target-adopter population requires an understanding of both individual behavior and the mechanisms by which new ideas and practices spread to the larger group or population of target adopters. Different types of adopters accept an innovation at different points in time. Innovators- early adopters- early majority- late majority - laggard.

Knowledge objective

The audience must have some knowledge and/or belief before they are convinced that the action is doable and/or worth the effort. Knowledge objectives are those related to statistics, facts, and other info and skills your target audience would find motivating or important. They provide direction for developing subsequent strategies.

Beneficiary for social marketing efforts

The beneficiary for social marketing efforts is society. They are the ones who benefit from the social change desired by the marketing program.

Behavior objective

The competition is most often the current or preferred behavior of the target audience and the desired benefits associated with that behavior, including the status quo.

benefits to barriers

The name of this marketing game is to change the ratio of benefits to barriers so that the target behavior becomes more attractive. 4 ways (tactics) to accomplish this: • Increase the benefits of the target behavior • Decrease the barriers (and/or costs) of the target behavior • Decrease the benefits of the competing behavior(s) • Increase the barriers (and/or costs) of the competing behavior(s)

Stages of Change Model and the planning model

The pre-contemplation stage: People at this stage have no intention of changing their behavior, and typically deny having a problem. Relative to the behavior you are selling, you could think of the market as "sound asleep." The contemplation stage: People acknowledge that they have a problem and begin to think seriously about solving it. Or they may have a want or desire and have been thinking about fulfilling it. They are "awake" but haven't moved. The preparation stage: Many people in this stage are not planning to take action and are making the final adjustments before they begin to change their behavior. They are sitting up or maybe even have their feet on the floor. The Action stage: Is one in which people most overtly modify their behavior and their surroundings. They stop smoking, remove all desserts from the house, pour the last beer down the train, etc. In short, they make the move for which they have been preparing. They "left the bed." The Maintenance stage: During this, individuals work to consolidate the gains attained during the action and other stages and struggle to prevent lapses and relapse. Individuals in this stage have not had a cigarette in 6 months or a year and remain committed to not smoking, however, at times they have to remind themselves of the benefits and distract themselves from temptation. The termination stage: is the ultimate goal for all changers. Here, a former addiction or problem will no longer present any temptation or threat. This segment is not tempted to return to smoking. They are now "nonsmokers" for life.

Changing the campaign

What happens when your program has a current position that you feel is in the way of your achieving your behavior change goals? You might need to attract new audiences to sustain your growth. Three words focus program managers on how to change behavior by giving people what they want along w/ what we feel they need. Fun, easy, popular.

Crowdsourcing

a technique that taps online communities for formative, pretest, and evaluative research efforts.

Exchange theory

for an exchange to take place, target audiences must perceive benefits equal or greater than the perceived costs. They must believe they will get as much as they can give.

Stage of change categories

also referred to as transtheoretical model, has been tested and refined over the past decades. The pre-contemplation stage: People at this stage have no intention of changing their behavior, and typically deny having a problem. Relative to the behavior you are selling, you could think of the market as "sound asleep." The contemplation stage: People acknowledge that they have a problem and begin to think seriously about solving it. Or they may have a want or desire and have been thinking about fulfilling it. They are "awake" but haven't moved. The preparation stage: Many people in this stage are not planning to take action and are making the final adjustments before they begin to change their behavior. They are sitting up or maybe even have their feet on the floor. The Action stage: Is one in which people most overtly modify their behavior and their surroundings. They stop smoking, remove all desserts from the house, pour the last beer down the train, etc. In short, they make the move for which they have been preparing. They "left the bed." The Maintenance stage: During this, individuals work to consolidate the gains attained during the action and other stages and struggle to prevent lapses and relapse. Individuals in this stage have not had a cigarette in 6 months or a year and remain committed to not smoking, however, at times they have to remind themselves of the benefits and distract themselves from temptation. The termination stage: is the ultimate goal for all changers. Here, a former addiction or problem will no longer present any temptation or threat. This segment is not tempted to return to smoking. They are now "nonsmokers" for life.

Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET)

an in-depth interviewing technique that seeks to tap the right brain and unconscious and explore what deep metaphors reveal about the minds of consumers. Usually asked to collect a set of pics that represent their thoughts and feelings about the topic of interest and then discuss these in an interview.

Focus groups

are a very popular methodology for gaining useful insights into target audiences' thoughts, feelings, and even recommendations on potential strategies and ideas for future efforts.

Motivators

are ideas your target audience shares with you, ones they think would make it more likely that they would adopt the desired behavior. Their answers to four questions will provide insight regarding strategies (4Ps) 1. What could someone say to you that would make it more likely that you would consider adopting this behavior. 2. What could someone show you that would make it more likely that you would adopt this behavior. 3. Is there anything someone could give you that would help you adopt this behavior. 4. Is there anything someone could do for you that would help you adopt this behavior.

Ethnographic

considered a holistic research method, the idea that in order to understand target audiences, the researcher will need an extensive immersion in their natural environment.

Psychographic categories

divides the market into different groups on the basis of social class, lifestyle, values, or personality characteristics. You May find that your market varies more by a personal value, such as concern for the environment, than by some demographic characteristic, such as age.

Behavior-related categories

divides the market on the basis of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors relative to the product being sold. Several variables can be considered within this approach: segmenting according to occasion (when the product is used or decided on), benefit sought (what the segment wants from using the product), usage levels (frequency of use), readiness stage (relative to buying), and attitude (toward the product/offering).

Mobile technology

efforts that use mobile phones to conduct surveys.

External Forces

groups outside the org. other than current partners and alliances, including potential new partners, that could have some impact on your efforts (good or bad) and/or your target audience.

Key informant

interviews are conducted with decision makers, community leaders, technical experts, and others who can provide valuable insights regarding target markets, competitors, and potential strategies. They can be useful in helping to interpret secondary data, explain unique characteristics of the target audience (e.g. in a country other than where you live), shed light on barriers to desired audience behaviors, and provide suggestions for reaching and influencing targeted populations.

Observational research

involves gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations.

Midstream Audience

many believe that to date we have been placing too much of the burden for improving the status of social issues on individual behavior change and that social marketers should direct some of their efforts to influencing upstream factors and midstream influential. Midstream audiences include: • Family members • Friends • Neighbors • Colleagues • Health care providers • Pharmacists • Teachers • Librarians • Community leaders • Church members • Checkout clerks at retail stores

The 'Production Concept'

oldest philosophy and holds that consumers will prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive, and therefore that the org.'s focus should be to keep costs down and access convenient.

Experimental research

or controlled experiments, involves the gathering of primary data to capture cause-and-effect relationships, by selecting matched groups of respondents (similar on a variety of characteristics), giving them different treatments (exposing them to alternative marketing strategies), controlling related factors, and checking for differences in group responses. Some might even call it a pilot, where you measure and compare the outcomes of one or more potential strategies among similar market segments.

Mystery shoppers

pose as customers and report on strong or weak points experienced in the buying process.

Qualitative research

refers to studies where samples are relatively small and the findings are not reliably projected to the greater population. That isn't their purpose. The focus is on identifying and seeking clarity on issues and understanding current knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of target audiences.

Benefit

something your target audience wants/needs and therefore values and that the behavior you are promoting has the potential to provide. What social marketers will need to address are any doubts their audience has that they will experience these benefits.

Quantitative research

studies conducted to reliably profile markets, predict cause and effect, and project findings. This reliability is created as a result of large sample sizes, rigorous sampling procedures, and surveys conducted in a controlled and organized environment.

Behavior Objective

the primary objective is the very specific behavior you want to influence your audience to accept, modify, abandon, reject, switch, or continue. "coupling behaviors" are also encouraged. The audience needs to know or believe in order to "act"

Factors of Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses

• Resources: how are your levels of funding for the project? Is there adequate time available? Do you have access to expertise related to the social issue or target populations that you can easily tap? • Service delivery capabilities: Does the org have distribution channels available for current products/services or ones you might develop? Are there any concerns w/ the current/potential quality of this service delivery? • Management support: does management suppor this project? Have they been briefed on it? • Issue priority: Within the org., is the social issue your plan will be addressing a priority for the org.? Are there other issues you will be competing w/ for resources and support, or is the one high on the list? • Internal publics: within the org, who is likely to support this effort? Who might not? Are there groups/ individuals whose buy-in will be needed for the campaign to be successful? • Current alliances and partners: What alliances/partners does the sponsoring org have that could potentially provide additional resources such as funding, expertise, access to target pops, endorsements, message delivery, and/or material dissemination?