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Can social marketing really change attitudes and behaviour? Dr Anne Smith, Reader at the Centre for Strategy and Marketing at The Open University, looks at how VICS can help
Introduction
Social marketing aims to achieve social goals predominantly through the adoption and adaptation of the tools and techniques of commercial marketing.
The emphasis is on voluntary acceptance, consideration of a wide range of stakeholders, and recognition of the ethical dimension in programme development and implementation.
One way of looking at how social marketing can achieve attitudinal and behavioural change is through a focus on four inter-related factors (VICS):
- Creating a Value exchange
- Achieving Insight
- Developing effective Communications
- Delivering quality Services
Value
One of the major challenges for social marketers is the development of a value product (or proposition) which will form the basis for meaningful exchange with consumers (and other stakeholders). Creating value requires an understanding of the target markets motivation for consumption and non-consumption.
For example, why do people 'binge drink' and what would persuade them to drink more responsibly? The benefits might include improved health, enhanced self image and cost savings. There is however always a price (or sacrifice) which may include perceived loss of fun and peer group esteem. Beliefs about the value of adopting a particular behaviour are the basic building blocks of attitude formation.
Insight
An insight into how attitudes are formed is essential to the development of effective social marketing programmes. Knowledge and beliefs about various behaviours, for example, exercise, recycling and healthy eating, and the belief that adopting these behaviours will result in a particular outcome, form our attitude toward that behaviour.
For example, if we expect that stopping smoking will result in health, wealth and happiness, and this is important to us, then we will develop a positive feeling towards the behaviour of stopping smoking.
Other factors also play a part, in particular the norms of other persons, groups or society and our desire or motivation to conform (or not to conform) to these norms. Social marketers need to understand these influences and in particular the importance of peer group pressure.
Lack of insight has led to some famous mistakes, particularly with social advertising campaigns. Anti-heroin campaigns in the 1980s and more recent anti-drug and binge drinking campaigns both in the UK and US have been accused of increasing the very behaviour which they aimed to reduce.
Communications
Communication plays a vital role in influencing consumers' beliefs, leading to attitude formation and behavioural change. Communication creates awareness of the attributes and consequences of adopting (or not adopting a particular behaviour), for example the benefits of early presentation for the detection of many cancers. Moreover, communications are crucial to brand building and brand loyalty - vital to both commercial and social marketers.
The HELP campaign built on an extensive programme of research and insight aimed at smoking prevention and cessation through changing attitudes. For young people, a motivation to smoke is often the image of 'cool', 'rebelliousness' and of course 'fitting in with one's peer group'. This integrated communications campaign aimed to change attitudes by portraying smoking as 'being absurd'. The main theme was to show people in typical smoking situations, but instead of a cigarette they were blowing a paper party-whistle.
Between the launch in 2005 and mid-2007 over four million people had visited the web site at least once and on average stayed there for 8-10 minutes. To date, 91,000 smokers have signed up and are using the email cessation coaching service. This figure is currently growing at 11,000 per week.
Services
Services have an important role to play in both changing attitudes and ensuring that the attitude change leads to behavioural change. They not only provide a credible source of communication (e.g. medical staff with respect to preventative health care), and means of distribution, but also provide an important element of the value proposition described earlier.
Consider changing behaviour for a healthier lifestyle. This may involve becoming a member of a gym or a sports club; visiting the GP for advice and health-check; changing lunchtime habits from the fast food outlet to the health food restaurant. If these services do not provide the required level of quality, then the consumer may switch service provider and ultimately drop the behavioural change.
A final role for services is in supporting behavioural change and in convincing the individual that they have power and control over their behaviour - a further crucial element in attitude formation. Much of the eventual success of the HELP communications campaign ultimately depends on the range of services that are available to consumers to support their attempts to stop smoking.
Conclusion
Social marketing can change attitudes and behaviour, but requires an in-depth understanding and insight into the way in which attitudes are formed; the relationship between attitudes and behaviour; and the various factors that influence behaviour. |
