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Paul White, Director, The Social Marketing Practice, looks at what social marketing is, and just as importantly, what it isn't |
During a period of deep self-reflection for the marketing profession, re-examining its relationship with consumer and society, social marketing has entered the debate, driven by government policy particularly in health and the environment.
What perspectives can social marketing offer the profession? After all, it was the techniques of commercial marketing that shaped the early development of social marketing in its formative years.
The term 'social marketing' has only recently come to our shores, but its guiding principle of customer orientation has been effective in many approaches to influencing behaviour, although not labelled as 'social marketing'.
Some of the best examples, from voluntary sector and social service design, draw on deep audience insight to drive their strategies. An excellent example is Activmobs, developed by Kent County Council, which encourages healthy lifestyle behaviours for the over 50s - soon to be replicated nationwide due to its success.
Its approach involves understanding what lifestyle areas motivate healthy behaviours; neighbourhood segmentation into lifestyle clusters or 'mobs', and providing motivational coaching to get them on their way. Most important was the concept of co-design - the target audience were deeply involved in developing the strategy for themselves. This approach embedded ownership which, in turn, led to sustained lifestyle change.
Reflecting on the social marketing experience from other countries, particularly the United States, there are relatively few quality examples - many 'campaigns' focus purely on social communications and do not generate measurable behaviour shift.
Communications alone, no matter how cleverly executed, will not change behaviour. The evidence is quite clear!
So what does?
Changing behaviour
We need to think about the internal psychology of our audience and the external barriers that can inhibit change. We need to think about the competing influences, which create mixed messages, and the stakeholders and partnerships which can help us in reaching our audiences.
It's often been said that you can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Yes, we can motivate, but we also need to make change easy - convenience and accessibility are key.
Sometimes we need to make major changes through government policies or market forces, and sometimes changes only need to be small. Amsterdam's Schipol airport found that by etching an 'insect' onto their urinals made huge saving on cleaning bills. Why? They found that if there was something in the urinal like a cigarette butt, men would aim at it! Less mess, less cleaning!
Ultimately, social marketing is about building a strong brand, an emotional connection with our audience. This is about building relationships rather than logos and strap lines. In this sense, social marketing has a deep connection with relationship marketing. We need to build trust and deep engagement with our audience to encourage change. The relationship which starts through building customer perspective and insight continues to develop throughout a social marketing project. Co-design approaches such as Activmobs, or community-based social marketing such as the Fairyland project in South Wales are effective relationship builders.
Fairy tale ending?
The Fairyland housing estate in Neath, Port Talbot, is located in an area that ranks among the fifth most disadvantaged in Wales. Several years ago, the high housing turnover in Fairyland would mean that people would often leave their rubbish behind. As a result, the estate had a very serious fly-tipping and arson problem. A survey of Fairyland residents showed that they wanted something done about the litter as well; they wanted more play areas and activities for young children and their street lighting improved.
In 2002, a partnership project, 'Pride in Our Communities', was developed with a zero tolerance attitude to fly-tipping. Local children were engaged in helping to design a mural for the centre of the estate and even helped the artist to paint it in the summer holidays. The results were impressive - there was a turnaround in how people viewed their estate and the reporting of litter and fly-tipping led to residents also reporting drug trafficking and other anti-social behaviours.
When the people of Fairyland began to realise somebody was taking an interest in them there was a real change in attitude. Residents now take great pride in their local environment. Three-quarters of residents are happy living on the estate and over 80 per cent think the area has improved thanks to the project. Achievements have led to similar projects in Wales. Crime and anti-social behaviour have reduced significantly - fire-brigade call-outs are down by 70 per cent.
This is a powerful example of how partnerships, building community relationships and applying cross-social goals (fly-tipping, crime, social inclusion) foster better lives for communities.
Commercial involvement
Partnerships with the public and voluntary sector provide real scope for commercial organisations to get active in social marketing. Aldi, for example, works with the Cheshire and Manchester public health network's Snack Right campaign to encourage healthier eating habits amongst the young children in deprived communities.
Beyond this, there is real scope for businesses to take on social marketing initiatives of their own. The increasing demand for socially responsible businesses in areas such as health and environment predicates that those companies who make the shift from traditional corporate social responsibility to corporate social marketing can influence their customers through promoting positive behaviour - this will increase customer loyalty and improve brand positioning.
Could the interaction of social marketers, with commercial marketers, lead to a re-emergence of the profession towards a more strategic and consumer focus within business practice? |
