Secrets of Changing for Good

Social marketing is defined by Kotler and Andreasen as "differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society."


Like commercial marketing, the planning process also addresses the marketing mix, which is often known as 4 Ps (Product,Price,Promotion,Place). This post is to share some interesting tips to improve the 4Ps in social marketing campaign planning that hopefully for lead to changes for good.


Product-Highlight the social norms.
Product of the social marketing is not always physical. It could be tangible (e.g.condoms,body check,healthy diet) and intangible ( equality and respect).People must first realize their problem to perceive the need for our product which in some cases can be effectively achieved by highlighting social norms.
Social norms are the group ‘rules’ that determine what is deemed ‘acceptable’ behaviour. Social norms can have a huge influence on our thoughts and behaviours. An experiment of hotel guests provides an illustration. Half the guests had signs in their bathrooms with a message about how reusing towels could benefit the environment. The other half had the same sign but with an extra message stating that most hotel guests reused their towels at least once during their stay. Guests exposed to the additional message were 26 per cent more likely to reuse their towels: a clear demonstration of the power of highlighting social norms and hence prompted actions.

Price- Make the behaviour seem easier to undertake than people perceive it to be.

"Price" refers to what the publics must do in order to get the product we are marketing. It could be monetary or intangible, such as time, effort. One human nature could be make good use of :We have a natural preference for the status quo (inertia). When faced with a difficult or complex choice, our tendency is to carry on doing what we’ve always done and avoid making a decision. A case in point is from 2012, all employers will have to automatically enrol their eligible employees into a good quality workplace pension scheme and provide a minimum contribution unless the employee chooses to opt out. By adjusting the ‘default setting’, it is believed that a positive change is coming.

Place-Media is just a tool,not the goal.

"Place" refers the way that the product reaches the consumer. It is easy to understand the tangibles. When it comes to intangibles, it can be channels through which consumers are reached with information or training such as media outlet. Remember, media coverage is only the path to the destination but not the destination yet. 

Promotion-I want it now.

Finally, promotion is about creating and sustaining demand for our product. Social psychology suggests that people tend to prioritise short-term reward over long-term benefit. More of us prefers to have more money now than to pay into a pension plan. This is an important implication for government communicators, as they often try to persuade people to make choices that bring a long-term benefit but little immediate gain.

References:

http://coi.gov.uk/documents/commongood/commongood-behaviourchange.pdf

http://www.social-marketing.com/Whatis.html