Key social marketing terms

SM Lite Key social marketing terms

Below are important terms used in social marketing. Many of these elements are borrowed from the field of commercial marketing.

Audience orientation Social marketing planners take time to learn what the target audience currently knows, believes and does. All decisions are made with the audience’s perspective in mind. The program is designed to fulfil the audience’s needs and wants. Often, those who are already working in the field of ICM for their municipalities or cities think they already know a lot about their target audience and have some general ideas about activities that worked in other municipalities. It can be tempting to “copy” or start planning based on these preconceived ideas, but social marketing requires that these notions are first tested with the target audience first. These assumptions may be right, but as have been found by those who have implemented SM Lite, they were surprised at what their target audience actually thinks and says. For example, in Suyac Island of Sagay City, the SM Lite planners composed of the Tourism Office and Museo Sang Bata initially had assumed that the coastal residents of the Island were aloof regarding the Sagay Marine Reserve’s rules and regulations, but results gathered from their Pre Knowledge, Attitude, Practices survey revealed, and they did not expect, that the coastal residents’ ‘aloofness’ was deeper than just lack of awareness on MPAs. Upon hearing of the SM Lite intervention, their attitudes were highly resistant to any government programs as they assumed that being involved in one would lead the local government to tell them to evacuate and take away their island from them. The process of orientation is iterative, and not a one-time deal, as several visits back to the island meant deepening the interpersonal exchanges between the LGU and the residents to clarify doubts and translate negative perceptions into a shared vision to enable them to be part of the protection and conservation efforts for the Sagay Marine Reserve.

Audience segmentation and selection Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target audience into more homogeneous subgroups, called audience segments. The purpose of dividing up an audience into segments is to make the SM Lite program more effective and to use resources wisely. The formative research will enable the SM Lite planners to determine who among the concerned audiences to prioritize, and select accordingly with considerations also of what are the current capacity and resources of the SM lite planners.

A program developed for the “general public” will likely not be really effective for any one person or group. But, by tailoring efforts to a particular

segment, effectiveness can greatly improve because the SM Lite campaign can use the programming, communication channels, and messages that are most relevant to a particular segment. This way, they are more likely to be reached and are likely to pay more attention, creating a more effective program.

To illustrate, completely different audiences evolved from the SM Lite pilot experience:

Local fisherfolks. SNCDMC, Cadiz- City Agriculture Office (CAO) piloted their campaign for fisherfolks of two barangays where their respective MPAs were located. Diwal divers. When Angel Wings “Diwal” was rehabilitated thru the MPAs in CENECCORD, resource population grew as expected. Not all diwal divers however have knowledge of the MPA and the rehabilitation efforts. Some of them welcome the idea of rehabilitating the resource

Diwal divers were the target audience for CENECCORD’s SM Lite campaign in the municipality of Pontevedra and San Enrique

while others stick to their belief that the resource grow naturally in the area. A social marketing campaign for Diwal MPA was then launched to increase awareness specifically among diwal divers about the MPA. Elementary students. For the SM Lite Campaign in Suyac Island, the primary audience identified was 30 students from the Suyac Elementary School, to increase appreciation of marine ecosystem and promotion for the love of the sea to these children.

Categories of adoption of new behaviour or idea Adoption of a new idea, behaviour, or product (i.e., “innovation”) does not happen simultaneously in a social system; rather it is a process whereby some people are more apt to adopt the innovation than others. Researchers have found that people who adopt an innovation early have different characteristics than people who adopt an innovation later. When promoting a new behaviour to a target population, it is important to understand the characteristics of the target population that will help or hinder adoption of the desired behaviour. When promoting an innovation, there are different strategies used to appeal to the different adopter categories. There are five established adopter categories, and while the majority of the general population tends to fall in the middle categories, it is still necessary to understand the characteristics of the target population. • Innovators - These are people who want to be the first to try the innovation. They are venturesome and interested in new ideas. These people are very willing to take risks, and are often the first to develop new ideas. Very little, if anything, needs to be done to appeal to this population. • Early Adopters - These are people who represent opinion leaders. They enjoy leadership roles, and embrace change opportunities. They are already aware of the need to change and so are very comfortable adopting new ideas. Strategies to appeal to this population include how-to manuals and information sheets on implementation. They do not need information to convince them to change. • Early Majority - These people are rarely leaders, but they do adopt new ideas before the average person. That said, they typically need to see evidence that the innovation works before they are willing to adopt it. Strategies to appeal to this population include success stories and evidence of the innovation’s effectiveness. • Late Majority - These people are skeptical of change, and will only adopt an innovation after it has been tried by the majority. Strategies to appeal to this population include information on how many other people have tried the innovation and have adopted it successfully.

Laggards - These people are bound by tradition and very conservative. They are very skeptical of change and are the hardest group to bring on board. Strategies to appeal to this population include statistics, fear appeals, and pressure from people in the other adopter groups.

The behaviour continuum SM Lite went through exercises to understand Rare’s Theory of Change to depict an “equation” of how to get to the desired outcome of the social marketing campaign.

To Rare, its Theory of Change (ToC) is the guiding formula of all Pride Campaigns. It tries to create a commonly understood vision of how behaviour change will lead to environmental threat reduction. The ToC is formulated by identifying the problem, the threat, the behaviour that needs changing, the enabling environment needed, what people can talk more about and what the campaign wants people to think and know.

Influencing behaviour (not just awareness or knowledge) is the bottom line of any social marketing program. Therefore, the SM Lite campaign’s goals should be designed to influence behaviour instead of only increasing knowledge or awareness of a problem. An SM Lite campaign may want the target audience to adopt a new behaviour, stop a current behaviour, or refrain from starting a new behaviour. To do this, understanding the following is important:

Current behaviours of the audience Ideal behaviours Reasonable steps to move the audience from the current behaviour towards the ideal behaviour What determines their behaviour

The behaviour change continuum is a hierarchy of the target audience engagement with the campaign: Pre-Contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Validation and Action.

The initial behaviour change an SM Lite campaign asks for may not be to adopt the ideal behaviour. The audience may need to start with smaller changes that move them towards the ideal behaviour. In this light, it helps to be aware that the social change the campaign is aiming to achieve will take time, as people generally move along this behaviour change continuum if there is, among others strategies to remove barriers such as sufficient and continuous communication interventions in place.

The end point is always action. Ask this question: “What do we want the target audience to do as a result of our intervention?”

Competition Social marketing, like commercial marketing, takes place in a competitive environment. Competition is defined as the “behaviours and related benefits that the target audience is accustomed to—or may prefer—to the behaviour being promoted.” The target audience is doing something instead of the behaviour asked of them to do. Why does the audience prefer the competing behaviour over the behaviour promoted? In social marketing programs, competition should be acknowledged, explored, and addressed by the strategies of the program.

Exchange For every choice people make, there is an exchange that occurs: one gives one thing up in return for something else. In the commercial marketing world, this exchange can be tangible (pay an extra few pesos and get more in a bigger bottle of shampoo), or it can be intangible (buy a brand-name pair of shoes and get the image that goes with the brand). While the exchange can be tangible in social marketing (e.g., not fishing for Diwal shells during close season, for bigger harvest during open seasons), the exchange is often intangible, such as giving up illegal fishing in No-Take-Zones to improve the MPA’s health. The target audience will compare the costs and benefits of performing a behaviour before choosing to adopt it. What the target audience values and what costs they perceive to create an exchange that persuades them to adopt the flagged positive behaviour of the campaign over the competition must be determined. The exchange should increase the perceived benefits of the target behaviour and minimize its costs. Or it could increase the perceived costs of the competing behaviours and minimize their benefits.

SM Lite SM Lite Planning Process • Main costs estimate • Results •