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Introduction
The desire to stimulate social change is not new. Throughout history, there have been campaigns for social change, such as voting rights for women and child labour laws. Recently these campaigns have focused on health behaviours such as smoking, drinking and drug use, and commercial marketing techniques have been used to get the message across. This type of marketing campaign is called “social marketing”—it applies the concepts and tools of commercial marketing to achieve socially desirable goals.
Parents are an important target group for social marketers because of their influence on their children’s behaviour and environment. This fact sheet provides a definition of social marketing and explains the principles behind it.
What is social marketing?
Social marketing campaigns try to stimulate social change by encouraging individuals to change their behaviour. Social marketing campaigns use the same techniques as commercial marketing campaigns, but their aim is to improve the wellbeing of the community rather than benefit the interests of the marketer. The issues involved in social marketing are generally more complex than in other types of marketing and involve a number of other disciplines such as psychology, communication, economics and sociology.
Why is social marketing needed?
Social marketing is used to correct existing misconceptions within the community and to increase the acceptability of a social idea, or practice, among a large target group. It is important because its aim is to improve people’s lives by encouraging positive behaviours and discouraging anti-social behaviours.
Social marketing in the health sector complements the delivery of public and private health care services and products. By trying to influence people to adopt healthier lifestyles, social marketing programs lessen the pressures on existing services, allowing the health system to use limited resources more effectively.
Examples of social marketing campaigns that have targeted health behaviours are:
- Quit campaign
- drink driving
- SunSmart.
How does social marketing work?
A well-planned social marketing campaign motivates people to respond, removes barriers to responding, provides them with the opportunity to respond, and, where relevant, the skills and means to respond. Barriers that can affect the response include the social environment and legal requirements. Usually, social marketing campaigns aim to complement changes in legislation or reinforce existing legislation.
The marketing mix
Social marketing is based on many of the same elements used in commercial marketing, such as the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion. These elements are also known as the “marketing mix”.
Product
In order to have a viable product people have to feel that they are missing something or have a problem that needs to be solved. Social marketers have to offer people something of value in exchange for the recommended behaviour. The products of social marketing campaigns can include:
- physical products (sunscreen)
- services (health checks)
- behaviours (eating healthy food)
- ideas that have direct and indirect benefits (environment protection, staying out of the sun at certain times of the day).
Research allows the marketer to understand how important a particular product is and whether people will respond to the message.
Price
The price refers to what a person is willing to do to obtain the product. In a social marketing campaign the price may be:
- money
- time
- effort
- risk of embarrassment.
Social marketing campaigns use a variety of methods to stimulate people to act. Fear or threat appeals state that a negative outcome is likely if a person does not change their behaviour. Incentive appeals state that a positive outcome is likely if a person changes their behaviour.
If the costs outweigh the benefits it is not very likely that the target audience will try a product or change their behaviour.
Place
Place refers to the way that a product reaches the target audience. For a physical product this means the distribution system. For an intangible product this refers to decisions about how the target audience will be reached with information or training (for example, through advertising or conferences). It also means making sure there is a way for people to act when they are motivated to do so.
Promotion
Promotion refers to advertising, public relations and media support. The focus is on creating and sustaining demand for the product. Research is very important in determining the most effective way to reach the target audience.
Social marketers have started to use mass media campaigns because they can reach a large and diverse audience. The use of film, television, radio, information brochures, billboard advertising and the Internet allows them to reach and influence large groups of people.
Parents as a target group
Many of the psychological characteristics that are associated with poorer health are set in childhood and can be difficult to change. Apart from individual characteristics like resilience, intelligence and personality, there are many factors that protect children from adopting risky behaviours, such as:
- strong bonding to school
- strong bonds with family and friends
- healthy beliefs and expectations of success
- clear standards against criminal behaviour
- clear standards against early sexual activity.
Social marketing campaigns have targeted parents because they are able to influence some of the factors listed above. By adopting specific parenting strategies, modelling good behaviours and encouraging a positive environment in the home, parents can have an enormous impact on the development of their children.
A number of parenting programs have been developed to help parents improve their parenting skills. A list of available programs can be found at the Parenting Research Centre website.
More information
For more information about social marketing, drugs and drug prevention contact the DrugInfo Clearinghouse on tel. 1300 85 85 84, email druginfo@adf.org.au, or see our website www.druginfo.adf.org.au.