Goals of this paper
1. To introduce the concept of social marketing.
2. To introduce tools and techniques used by social marketers.
3. To give examples of social marketing in action from the U.S.

A Bit about Commercial and Social Marketing
When you think about it, marketers of products and services face a daunting challenge. In a consumer marketplace made up of a complex array of products and brands, today's commercial marketer is charged with differentiating his/her particular market offering amid the clutter and noise. Simply stated, the individual responsible for introducing the 216th brand of breakfast cereal to a cereal-sated market does not have an easy job.

Yet, every year, dozens of new products and services are rolled out into the U.S. marketplace, many of them differing very little from what is already available. Obviously, not all new products and services succeed in the marketplace; in fact, in some industries, like retail grocery, the failure rate tops 75%. But, a substantial number of new products and services do succeed, seemingly against the odds. The message here is that some marketers are clearly doing something right. Those of us charged with marketing or communications in not-for-profit organizations or agencies can learn a great deal from commercial marketers.

Unfortunately, many not-for-profit marketers share a bias or prejudice against commercial marketers and their techniques. After all, it is due, in part, to the success of the tobacco marketers that organizations such as the cancer society or lung association have to work so hard to get people to give up tobacco. At the same time, by embracing the strategies, tools, and techniques of highly successful commercial marketers the public sector, NGO's and not-for-profit marketers or communicators are more likely to succeed in their campaigns.

In this presentation, the approach of commercial marketing is outlined and applied to non-commercial settings through examples and "how-to" guidelines. After all, both commercial and non-commercial marketers share a common goal. Both are attempting to convince a consumer or target market to change behaviour in a desired manner. For the commercial marketer, the desired behaviour is for the consumer to use a particular product/service or brand; this outcome typically leads to an increase in revenues for the sponsoring organization. Non-commercial marketers engage in a process known as social marketing, the goal of which is also to influence the target market or consumer to change behaviour. The difference, however, is that unlike the commercial marketer, the non-commercial, or social marketer, usually does not benefit financially from the behaviour change.

So, this presentation outlines an approach to social marketing. Social marketing is the practice of utilizing the philosophy, tools, and techniques of commercial marketing for health or social benefit. Social marketing sells a behaviour change to a target group of individuals or consumers urging them to:
- accept a new behaviour
- reject a potential behaviour
- modify a current behaviour
- abandon an old behaviour

In all instances, social marketing is trying to influence behaviour change in a direction beneficial for the consumer. Examples of social marketing campaigns include:
- Smoking cessation
- Eating at least 5 servings of fruits/vegetables a day
- Exercising daily for at least 30 minutes
- Recycling trash
- Wearing seat belts
- Take a folic acid supplement when pregnant
- etc
The real challenge, and what makes social marketing at least as difficult as commercial marketing, is that in all cases the consumer is being urged to give up a behaviour that he/she prefers or sees as desirable for some reason.

The Core Unit of Marketing - The "Exchange"
The core unit for all marketing is known as the "exchange." Exchanges are transactions which share certain, specific characteristics:
- The transaction involves at least two parties (you cannot have an exchange with yourself!)
- All sides give something and receive something in the transaction
- All sides of the transaction can deliver what they promise through the transaction
- All sides enter into the transaction voluntarily

The most familiar example of an exchange is known as a “commercial exchange.� In this instance there is a buyer and a seller who agree to complete a transaction. Typically, the buyer is giving the seller money, and the seller is providing a good or service in return.

The commercial exchange is just one type of exchange, however; there are many others, including those involving social marketing. Examples of other types of exchanges include:

Volunteer Charitable Organization
Exchange is: Volunteer gives time in exchange for recognition, gratification

Employer Employee
Exchange is: Employer provides salary/fringe benefits in exchange for productive services

Public Health Educator Public
Exchange is: Public health educator provides health information in exchange for healthy behaviour on the part of the public

Social marketing is represented best by the third example above.

Social Marketing Basics
Effective marketing requires the marketer to use an audience or market-centered approach. It is not the ideas, thoughts, preferences, etc. of the marketer or the sponsoring organization that are most important; rather, it is the perceptions, attitudes, preferences, and ultimately the behaviours of the market which take precedence. This market focus can be somewhat difficult for some in health and social services to achieve. After all, you - the communicator/health educator - understand what is best for the market. You know why they should stop smoking, or give up binge drinking, or wear a seatbelt, or whatever. This may well be the case. However, what you don't necessarily know is why the consumer acts the way they do. What are the benefits they perceive from their unhealthy behaviour? What an effective social marketer must do is to step back a bit, leave your role as "expert" for a while and find out why the market/consumer is doing what they do. Social marketing requires what's known as "formative research"?

It is usually not productive to enter a marketplace as a social marketer with the attitude that you know what is best for the market and “if they would only listen to me.� Actually, it is you who must do the listening – to them. Spend time learning what the perceived benefits are of the current (undesirable) behaviour, as well as the obstacles to behaviour change. For this reason, it is quite unlikely that a strategy of mass marketing will work in a social marketing situation.

Keep in mind that factors motivating behaviour are very complex, and there are perceived benefits, disadvantages and barriers associated with virtually every behaviour. What marketers have learned is that an action, such as a change in behaviour will occur only when the perceived benefits of the change are greater than the perceived disadvantages or costs of change.

Social Marketing Process
The process of social marketing is relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, social marketers are frequently in a disadvantaged position in terms of available financial resources relative to organizations they are attempting to counter; e.g., the tobacco industry is far wealthier than the American Cancer Society. However, there is good potential for a meaningful (and measurable) impact from a well-executed social marketing campaign. The steps of a social marketing program are:

1. Define the Problem - Social marketing programs need to be focused on an issue or problem. There is no single campaign that is going to correct/right all wrongs. The particular problem to be addressed/targeted in the social marketing campaign should be based on sound analysis. That is, you should have evidence that the problem actually exists. Social marketing is not designed to identify problems; it is designed to attempt to correct them.

2. Identify the behaviour change or actions that are likely to reduce the problem. For example, if the identified problem is second-hand smoke, then an action that could reduce the problem might be to create laws banning smoking in public places, like bars or restaurants.

3. Identify a potential market/audience for the intervention or social marketing program. Not everybody is a good candidate for the proposed social marketing program. The challenge is to identify and “isolate� the best target, through a process known as segmentation and targeting.

4. Segment and Target. Groups of consumers or markets can be broken down into segments, based on a set of relevant characteristics, such as age, gender, ethnicity, incidence of a particular problem, such as smoking, etc. Then, the various segments must be analyzed by the social marketer to identify which particular segment represents the most promising target.

5. Identify the Perceived Benefits/Barriers. As stated above, individuals generally choose to behave in a particular manner because they perceive benefits from so doing. Marketers, including social marketers, need to determine what benefits are derived from behaving in a particular, and in the case of social marketing, undesirable manner. And, what are the perceived barriers to changing to the more desirable behaviour? This analysis is only possible based on actually completing research of the target market  - don't assume that you know the answers already - chances are, you don't. And keep in mind that in marketing, perception is everything. If the consumer perceives something to be the case, it is the case, for that particular consumer, whether or not the perception is accurate.

6. Establish goals/objectives for the program. It is important to set targets for the social marketing program. Ideally, these targets should be in the form of objectives which are quantifiable in terms of both outcome and timeframe. For example, a well-stated objective related to smoking cessation would be: to reduce the percentage of 15-18 year-old smokers in School XX by 5% within the next six months. Notice that this objective has a specific and measurable outcome (a 5% reduction), and a specified timeframe (this is going to be accomplished within the next six months). Objectives should be challenging, but hopefully achievable.

7. Design a Positioning Strategy. Marketers influence change by manipulating a small number of variables, known as "the 4 p's"? which stand for product, price, place and promotion. By changing these four factors, they are attempting to achieve a more perfect match between what they have to offer (known in marketing as an "offering"), and what the market is looking for. Each of the variables is important and should be considered separately, though as inter-related factors. Each of these four factors will be discussed in the presentation, giving examples, but briefly:

a. Product: it is generally more effective to think of the product in terms of the benefit to be derived by the market from consuming/using the product, rather than discussing the product itself. This is particularly important in social marketing where the product is often intangible, and is actually often more of a service, than a product.

b. Price: this aspect considers all the costs associated with the desired behaviour change, and goes well beyond the notion of financial cost. For example, some perceived costs frequently encountered in social marketing include: time, effort, prestige, physical discomfort, etc. The goal here is to design elements of your offering which reduce the perceived costs.

c. Place: this aspect considers the manner in which the offering is delivered to the consumer. The goal, of course, is to make the offering as convenient and easy to obtain/receive as possible.

d. Promotion: this is the area that most people think of when they think of marketing, but it is only one factor, albeit an important one. Promotion includes such issues as defining your message, deciding what style to use to convey your message (e.g., humour, fear, sex, evidence, etc), determining what language or tone you will use, and selecting the best mix of media.

8. Deliver the Program and Monitor. Social marketing programs demand your attention after they have been implemented. Environments and market conditions change, as do consumer preferences, so it is essential that your social marketing program be tracked in an ongoing manner.

9. Evaluate the Program. Finally, it is important to evaluate the program relative to the objective originally established - remember doing that? At a minimum, you should determine whether the program was successful or not relative to its original intent. This assessment, coupled with the ongoing monitoring should give you a good starting point to determine how to modify the program in the future, or perhaps whether to continue it at all.

Social marketing is difficult; motivating an individual to change his/her behaviour in a manner requiring them to give up a desired or preferred outcome is not easy. As a result, many social marketing programs will not succeed. Similarly, successes in social marketing are often measured in small increments that would not be likely to excite the manufacturers of Captain Crunch. But the stakes are so high in the arena of social marketing, and the impact of not changing people's behaviour is so deleterious, particularly in the long-term, that social marketing efforts must continue and evolve.