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Jeff French, Director of the National Social Marketing Centre, looks at what social marketing is and how its techniques can be applied to effect behaviour change |
Defining social marketing
The term 'social marketing' was used for the first time by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in 1971. There has been a lively debate about definitions and practice but it has recently been defined by the National Social Marketing Centre (NSM Centre), as: '…the systematic application of marketing alongside other concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioural goals for a social or public good' (2006).
Social marketing draws not only on marketing principles and techniques, but also upon knowledge that has been accumulated in other disciplines such as behavioural psychology, sociology, anthropology, health promotion, community development and regeneration. In this respect social marketing is a field of study much like marketing, a form of 'Technick' rather than a pure theory-led discipline.
The NSM Centre, a strategic partnership between the National Consumer Council and the Department of Health, is at the forefront of the development of social marketing within the UK. As well as providing the current definition and theoretical base for social marketing it plays a key role in building capacity and skills.
Social marketing's key features
Focusing on people
Social marketing begins and ends with a focus on the individual, within their social context. The main concern is to ensure that all interventions are based around and directly respond to the needs and wants of the person, rather than the person having to fit around the needs of the service or intervention.
Clear behavioural goals
Social marketing is driven by a concern to achieve measurable impacts. Establishing behavioural goals requires going beyond the traditional focus on behaviour change and instead recognising the dynamic nature of behaviour within a whole population.
Behaviour Theory
Social marketing interventions should actively assess and draw from theory across different disciplines and professions, focusing on identifying those theories that offer the greatest potential for understanding the influences on behaviour.
Developing insight
Social marketing is driven by actionable insights that are able to provide a practical steer for the selection and development of interventions once the issue is understood from the perspective of the audience. To develop such insight means moving beyond traditional information and intelligence gathering that has characterised much of past public sector communications programmes to look more closely at why people behave in the way that they do.
The exchange
Exchange theory recognises that if people are going to change their behaviour or collectively work for social change they need to believe that the reward for such action is worth the price paid. Social marketing puts a strong emphasis on understanding what is to be 'offered' in terms of the payback or reward, based upon what they value and consider important.
The competition
Social marketing uses the concept of competition to examine all the factors that compete for people's attention and willingness or ability to adopt a desired behaviour. It looks at both external and internal competition.
Segmentation
This goes beyond traditional 'targeting' approaches commonly used in the public sector that may focus on demographic characteristics or epidemiological data, by considering alternative ways that people can be grouped and profiled based on behaviours.
Intervention and marketing mix
Social marketing recognises that in any given situation there are a range of intervention options or approaches that could be used to achieve a particular goal with different groups of people. Single interventions are generally less effective than multi-level interventions and it is also important to consider the relative balance or mix between interventions.
How is social marketing being applied?
Social marketing concepts and principles can be used strategically to ensure that a strong customer focus informs the identification and selection of appropriate interventions. Operational social marketing is undertaken as a planned process and worked through systematically to achieve specific behavioural goals.
At the centre of all of the NSM Centre's work is the National Benchmark Criteria; eight key features that should be present in a social marketing campaign. These are highlighted in our customer triangle (below) and are available in full here.
Social marketing has the potential to be a key tool for convincing decision-makers and individuals who are in a position to influence overall health determinants and risk conditions to make significant changes.
Conclusion
At a time of declining trust in civic institutions, fragmentation of society and rising consumerism, social marketing offers a more relevant, acceptable, evidence-based and systematic way to develop state-led interventions. Through its focus on insight, competition and exchange, social marketing seeks to understand and to balance the rights of individuals and the rights of wider society through the provision of incentives that maximises both personal advantage and the wellbeing of our communities.
Social marketing is not about telling people what to do; it is the art of understanding what will help people to make choices that lead to better lives for them and all of us. In short, public sector marketers have to learn how to make the positive social choice the easy and rewarding choice and not be seen as agents of a nanny state. The growth in social marketing that is likely to occur in coming years represents a huge opportunity for commercial sector marketers. Marketing skills are in short supply in many public sector organisations and there will be many opportunities for those with the right skills to assist public sector organisations develop their behavioural programmes in the future.
The National Social Marketing Centre, in association with The Chartered Institute of Marketing, is holding the World Social Marketing Conference in Brighton on 29 and 30 September 2008. For more information please see: www.tcp-events.co.uk/wsmc or telephone 01323 637 722. |
