SOCIAL MARKETING WORKSHOP:

LESSONS LEARNED

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Stakeholders Advisory Group Meeting

September 8th, 2011

Aida Negrón

San Francisco Bay Fish Project

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Social Marketing Workshop Overview

TOPICS:

• Elements of a persuasive appeal

• Effective tools of behavior change.

• Basic understanding of how to design, implement, and evaluate a behavior change intervention

• Prepared for the Environmental Protection Agency (Region 9)

• By Wesley Schultz, Professor of Psychology, California State University, San Marcos, CA

• Community –Based Social Marketing website: http://www.cbsm.com

- A workshop for CDPH staff and funded groups-

BEHAVIOR CHANGING ATTEMPTS

Information campaigns

(education campaigns)

Messages are intended to inform people about a behavior, program, or problem.

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Awareness campaigns

Messages are intended to convey to

people the severity of a specific

problem or issue.

Community-based Social

Marketing

Messages are intended

to remove barriers and

enhance benefits.

THE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

• Knowledge will correlate with behavior.

• Educational efforts will cause an increase in knowledge.

• BUT increase in knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean change in behavior.

• People engage in behaviors for reasons, and knowing more is not a reason for action.

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• Highlight the seriousness of the

problem by giving incidence rates

• Alarmist: “Look at this big problem”

approach

• Awareness campaigns can produce

boomerang effects (can cause the

reverse intended effect as some may

want to fit in with a perceived social

norm)

THE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

How many 8th graders are

thinking “Hey, I am missing out? I

need to do this”

COMMUNITY-BASED SOCIAL MARKETING

• “Community” based: centered in and around a particular community

• Origins in behavioral science research

• Effective approach to behavior change

• Five step, data-driven process

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CONCLUSION

• Information & Awareness campaigns are common

practice in behavior change programs across the

nation but numerous studies show that these

type of campaign have limited effect upon

behavior.

• The Community-Based Social Marketing is

suggested as an alternative to fostering

sustainable behavior.

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FIVE STEPS TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE

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1. Select the target behavior – evaluate impact, penetration,

probability of success, and an end result that is a non-divisible

result (cannot divide into further behaviors /

End-state behavior -refers to the behavior that actually produces

the desired environmental outcome) example: do not consume

certain fish from the SF Bay

2. Identify barriers and benefits to a specific behavior –

examples: cultural barriers (fish is important for target

population), low- literacy (not able to read a warning sign)

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3. Design program to address barriers – i. e. use more

images than text if your audience has low-literacy, use

health care professionals to deliver messages, peer

education (“promotoras”)

4. Pilot test the program elements – testing a warning sign

a the piers

5. Evaluate your program – focus groups, interviews with

staff and stakeholders

FIVE STEPS TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE (CONT.)

IDENTIFYING BARRIERS

Definition of barrier

Anything that reduces the probability of a person engaging in the desired behavior

Each behavior typically has its own set of barriers

Internal barriers (i.e. knowledge, motivation, perceptions)

External barriers (i.e. language)

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Tools to identify barriers:

• Literature review and “best

practices”

• Observations

• Existing data

• Focus groups

• Surveys

• - Mail, web, telephone, intercept

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Principles of Behavior Change

ROUTES TO PERSUASION

Central route to persuasion

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PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Peripheral route to persuasion

The peripheral route persuades people by

association with incidental cues that are

pleasing to the senses.

The central route persuades by using direct

arguments and pertinent information.

analytic, high

effort, cogent

arguments

Can produce

durable, long-term

changes in

behavior and

agreement

intuitive, low

effort, use

heuristics

Can produce

bigger

changes in

behavior, but

not agreement

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Behavior Change Tools

The old give and take

- We feel obligated to return favors

- The rule: We should try to repay

what another person has

provided us

- This rule is found in all cultures!

- Examples: mailing labels, free

food, give-aways

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1. Reciprocation

• We feel the need for our

attitudes and behaviors

to be consistent

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2. Commitment and Consistency

• Targets a specific barrier

(structural or psychological)

• Identifies target audience

• Medium for reaching the

audience

• Message content

• Duration of the intervention

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3. Persuasive Communication

• Psychological reactance

• Whenever our free choice is limited or

threatened, the need to retain control

• leads us to reassert ourselves

• We want what we can’t have

• Economic models

• Limited supply and high

demand=increased value

• Examples: limited supply, numbers, or

time

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6. Scarcity

• The tendency to see an action as

more appropriate when others are

doing it

• Normative beliefs and behavior

• Canned laughter -- it works!

• TV commercials

• fastest growing

• best-selling

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5. Social Norms

• We are more likely to comply

with a request from

someone we like (or know)

• Examples:

• - Tupperware parties

• - AMWAY

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4. Positive Connection

• We are more likely to

comply with the request

• of a perceived expert

• Dentists, doctors, athletes,

professors

• Scientists

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7. Authority and Expertise

• Noticeable

• Self-explanatory

• Proximal to the behavior

• Positive in wording

• Simple behaviors

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8. Prompts and Signage

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Questions?