Social Marketing: Improving Policy Implementation

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Social MarketingImproving Policy Implementation

• Professor Susan Dann
• National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre

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Introduction and overview

• Marketing
• Social marketing
• Behavioural change model
• Improving Policy Implementation
• Efficiency and Effectiveness
• Defending the Spend

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Definitions

• Social marketing the adaptation of commercial
  marketing technologies to create programs
  designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of
  target audiences to improve their personal
  welfare and that of the society of which they are
  a part.

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Framework of marketing

• Client focussed
• Evidence driven
• Operates at three levels
• Tactical
• Strategic
• Philosophical

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Framework of social marketing

• Client focussed in the design of campaigns
• Research and evidence driven
• Aims to achieve mutually beneficial exchanges
• Social marketings bottom line is voluntary
  behavioural change
• Implemented through the marketing mix
• Socially beneficial outcomes are subjective
• Adapts to external environments

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Some characteristics of social marketing

• Public scrutiny
• Extravagant expectations
• Targeted at non existent or negative demand
• Target unresponsive audiences
• Focus on sensitive issues
• Behaviours often have invisible, delayed or non
  guaranteed benefits

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Marketing in the public sector

• Fundamental mismatch between the ideal of the
  public sector of serving the public interest
  and marketings basic tool of segmentation
• Segmentation strategies are essential for good
  marketing but vulnerable to public criticism for
  favouritism, cronyism, political favours etc
• Public sector marketers have less control of the
  whole of the marketing program than their private
  sector colleagues

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Social Marketing

• Changing attitudes and behaviours by using
  marketing tools and techniques

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Behaviour change model
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Stages of behavioural change
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Marketing mix

• The marketing mix is sometimes called the 4 Ps
  and consists of the following elements
• product,
• price,
• place,
• promotion
• Extended marketing mix also includes
• people
• processes
• physical evidence

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Marketing mix Product

• The bundle of benefits that the organisation is
  offering to the public
• what are you selling to the market?
• what aspect of the product needs to be
  communicated?

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Social product
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Sunsafe product
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Competition

• Behaviours and associated benefits of the
  competing behaviour
• Behaviours that are habits
• Organisations and individuals that promote a
  counter behaviour

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Competition

• Think broadly about competition
• The major competition is often not the obvious
  direct competition but more insidious indirect
  competition
• Be open to strategic alliances with direct
  competitors to overcome indirect competition
• Not all competition is bad

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Competition Example

• Behaviour objective encourage after school sport
• Competing behaviour homework
• Competing messages/messengers school
• Social marketing message make time for exercise
  healthy body healthy mind

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Competition Water consumption

• Behaviour objective drink 8 glasses a day
• Competing behaviour drinking coffee
• Competing messages/messengers Coffee Club
• Social marketing message drink water with / or
  instead of coffee in social situations

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The biggest competitor in social marketing

• is the target client

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Improving Policy Implementation through Social
Marketing
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Components of successful social marketing

• The marketing mix consists of price, product,
  promotion, place, people, process and physical
  evidence.
• Each element of the marketing mix consists of sub
  components for example, price consists of both
  financial and non financial costs.

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Social marketing for effectiveness and efficiency

• Targeting
• Segmentation
• Market research or understanding the consumer

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Problems for social marketing

• Unrealistic expectations
• Funding, Expenditure and Sponsorship
• Uncertain outcomes
• Limited timeframes political influence

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Unrealistic expectations

• Coca Cola
• Total market share 45
• 55 of the market not supporting Coke
• Top outcome for Coke dominating the market
• In social marketing terms
• 55 of drivers drink driving (unacceptable)
• 55 of teenagers smoking (unacceptable)

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Funding issues

• Funding for social marketing tends to be limited
  by both amount and timeframe
• Social marketing has not fully embraced the
  concept of spending to stop a reversal of
  behavioural change in the same way that
  commercial enterprises spend massively on
  retaining customers and on reminder advertising
• Difficulty in measuring outcomes and the high
  risks involved in social marketing also
  contribute to the uncertainty

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Countering funding

• Defending the spending
• Explaining the purpose of the expenditure
• Pointing out the costs of inaction
• Publicise the cost of alternative less effective
  delivery mechanisms
• Ask the critic to suggest alternative solutions
  that meet the same proactive goals.

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Uncertain outcomes

• Uncertain campaign outcomes
• Not smoking today means
• Possibly not contracting a smoking related
  illness
• Unless theres been any exposure to secondary
  smoke
• Unless you have a genetic predisposition towards
  cancer
• Unless you have exposure to other carcinogenic
  materials
• Putting your child through the trauma of
  immunisation means
• Reducing the likelihood of contracting a disease
  they may or may not come into contact with
• Risking side effects from the immunisation process

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Limited timeframes

• Reality for social marketing in the public sector
  is that governments have limited terms and
  ministers have limited tenure
• Therefore plans are usually in 3 year (max)
  cycles
• 3 years is rarely enough to achieve a fundamental
  shift in attitude and behaviour

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Political issues

• Government/ minister represents the public
• The public is not always rational in its demands
• A fully researched rational social marketing
  campaign can (appropriately) be derailed by
  apparently irrational public/media pressure

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Risk takers

• For every campaign there will be a hard core
  group of resisters (aka the chronic know
  nothings)
• In commercial marketing this group is called
  laggards and ignored
• In social marketing they are usually the primary
  target market hence the difficulty in proving
  social marketing effectiveness

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Commercial marketers target the people most
likely to respond to the campaign

• Social marketers target the people in most need
  who also tend to be those who are least likely to
  respond

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Current controversies in social marketing

• Upstream v downstream perspectives
• Downstream focuses on changing the individual
• Upstream focuses on changing the environment
• Social marketings pedigree
• How much influence should developments in
  marketing have on the current practice of
  social marketing

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Summary

• Social marketing is derived from managerial
  marketing and therefore uses commercial marketing
  tools and frameworks
• The ultimate aim of social marketing is to change
  behaviour
• Social marketing communications use traditional
  marketing communication methods and include the
  full range of marketing mix and promotional mix
  elements