They know about us, who cares if they don’t buy? Would any company ever say this?? Hey, we spent $5M, and made $1M–but at least more people know about us–look at all the awareness we got. No, they would not. Better phrased, they would not be satisfied with that answer. They’d want more information. They’d look at the whole product cycle–from development, to placement, to price, to promotion and beyond.
So, why, fellow health marketing and do-gooders do we settle with “awareness-building?” To be frank, every time I’m in a meeting and I hear the word awareness, my skin crawls. Awareness is great–but there’s a time and place for it. I’m aware of Ritz crackers, but I buy Wheat Thins. I’m aware of Powerade, but I buy Gatorade. There are times I might know about your cause–but I won’t donate. Other times I might know you need help, but I won’t volunteer. I know exercise is healthy, yet I’m still sitting here typing this blog post. There is a reason to these behaviors and decisions. There are motivations, barriers, incentives, costs, and more.
If our friends in the private sector won’t settle, we shouldn’t either. Thus, in the comments, let’s suggest questions to ask when awareness fever strikes our next meeting. Ready, Set, Go.
Questions to Prevent Awareness Fever
- How do we turn awareness into action? submitted by Holly Grande
- How do we measure awareness? submitted by Holly Grande
- What does awareness mean for the campaign? submitted by Holly Grande
- So, what do we want people to do with all that awareness? submitted by Mike Newton-Ward
- Why do you want to increase awareness in the first place? submitted by Steve Radick
- Why does the general public need to know what your division/branch/organization is doing? submitted by Steve Radick
- Why should people care? submitted by Steve Radick
- When did awareness change anything? submitted by Craig Lefebvre
- How can we move people towards action? submitted Fard Johnmar
- What are you really offering people that’s new in exchange for the change you want in their routine? submitted by Peter Mitchell
- How are you so sure people don’t know this already? submitted by Peter Mitchell
- Are people seeking out this kind of information? submitted by Peter Mitchell
- Wouldn’t it be better to offer people something they already want? submitted by Peter Mitchell
- who is already aware, and what they need in order to move them along to the next stage on the path to taking action? submitted by Nedra Weinreich
- Is awareness given, but no action taken? submitted by Christiane Lellig
- Is awareness of the sender’s problem necessary for audience to take an intended action? submitted by Christiane Lellig
- Once we raise awareness in the room, what ACTIONS are the people in the room going to take in their lives? If we can’t answer the question, START OVER with a new plan. submitted by Mike Domitrz
- Your turn. Yes, you–the person nodding their head who’s frustrated with this very same thing. I know you’re out there. (I’ll update this list below with your questions and give you some link love.)
flickr credit: Leo Reynolds
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Excellent point–this is definitely something I have brainstormed on with previous employers and professors. (In fact, I was schooled by my sophomore-year mass com professor for daring to suggest an awareness campaign for a final project.)
Maybe simply: How do we turn awareness into action? This way, participants are forced to think about what that next step might be.
Building on that with a case study, one recent example might be the Red Cross campaign to help Haiti. The Red Cross has used television to raise awareness about communities that need help, but last month they took it a step further by asking cell phone owners to text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10. It was a simple, accessible task that was cross promoted on the Red Cross Web site, TV spots and more, and it simultaneously raised awareness and motivated action. Viewers and listeners weren’t simply asked to donate money, you know, when they had a chance, they could do something right now with their cell phone. The campaign ended up raising over $30 million.
Another question could be, How do we measure awareness? Is our goal a thousand tweets per day or a million YouTube views? Can you accurately measure offline awareness? What does awareness mean for the campaign?
Hmm, that’s more than one question. 🙂
I think it is very difficult to measure awareness beyond click-throughs and projected audience sizes. Awareness has its place but, like you say, it can’t be the only goal. It’s only half the story.
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Alex,
Boy, you are spot-on! This is a huge problem–and a huge pet peeve of mine!! So, here is my contribution to the medicine chest:
“So, what do you want people to do with all that awareness?!”
Thanks for raising this issue!
Mike
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Mike and Holly–these are great additions. Thanks for getting this conversation started.
Holly, I love how you phrase this: “Awareness has its place but, like you say, it can’t be the only goal. It’s only half the story.” Great point.
Mike, glad I’m not the only one gets frustrated with awareness fever. 😉
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Great post Alex – since most of my work is done for the federal government and therefore, not related to selling tangible products, I’m always dealing with the awareness issue. Every client wants to increase awareness of their program, initiative, organization, etc. One of the first things I ask is “why do you want to increase awareness in the first place?” Why does the general public need to know what your division/branch/organization is doing? Why should they care? Oftentimes, the answer that comes out is something like “because the senior leaders in our organization don’t know what we do so our budget keeps getting cut” or “because X agency gets all the positive media coverage and we don’t.”
Those aren’t reasons for general public awareness-building campaigns. They’re great reasons for campaigns targeted to specific stakeholders, but you’re going to waste a ton of energy building “general awareness” when in reality, you should be targeting specific stakeholders and moving them to action.
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Excellent additions Steve. Love how you re-frame the “challenge” and re-direct the conversation in the scenario you describe here.
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Wow Steve hit it on the head with identifying stakeholders and targeting them to action. I have to admit when I started out in the public health field I figured if people knew enough and were equipped with enough information, that might be enough to get their behavior to change. As I got more involved in social media, I began to see that in order to make lasting impressions you have to get people to DO something.
It’s funny that I’m reading this after watching a video from PATH on using interactive theater to prevent HIV in the global health setting. These weren’t just flyers put up somewhere, this got people to come together and DO something. Lasts much longer in your mind.
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Alex:
You’re right, awareness isn’t worth much. I wrote an article back in 2006 focusing on the importance of action to health marketing communications pros. I think what I said back then is even more relevant today: action = success, inaction = failure.
That’s not to say that getting people to be aware of something isn’t important. We all know how difficult it can be to capture people’s attention. However, once we have their attention, we should be putting their attentive energies to good use.
One other thing I’ll say about getting people to take action is this: some actions are worth more than others. In the social media context, measuring clicks, shares and other “social” actions is certainly fine. However, if people aren’t getting more deeply engaged in your effort, then you’re not doing very well. It’s hard to get people to WANT or take time to take that action, even if they are motivated.
What’s your take? How can we move people to action? How can we demonstrate that taking action will help them meet their personal and or professional goals?
Fard
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Awareness is a necessary, but usually not sufficient element in behavior change. We need to understand who is already aware, and what they need in order to move them along to the next stage on the path to taking action. And who currently has no clue that this is something they need to even think about? Have they heard about the issue but not realize that they are at risk themselves? Or do they think they know the facts, but perhaps have a lot of misconceptions that need to be corrected before they can move past awareness? There’s nothing wrong with building awareness as the first step, as long as you don’t stop there.
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This is so on target, Alex. And thanks to Mike for pointing folks here. In my own work, I’ve found that people are usually much more aware of stuff than we think at first. For example, who doesn’t know smoking is bad for you or seat belts can protect you in a crash? Yet, these themes continue to be the main theme of expensive media campaigns. (Note: yes, I know that a significant population believes belts can trap you in a car (see NHTSA surveys for more on this), but I don’t think telling them it protects changes that equation). One oldie-but-goody from smoking focus groups we did years ago: Teen smokers will often describe smoking as worse for them than it really is. Yet, they still light up.
Another case in point: Children’s health insurance programs that lose more than half of those they draw into their marketing funnel (that’s a real stat). People should always look first at their “product” .. their offer.
So here are some questions I’d shoot back:
– What are you really offering people that’s new in exchange for the change you want in their routine?
– How are you so sure people don’t know this already? I’m not talking about the specifics, like smoking causes heart disease, but the general, like smoking is bad for your health.
– Are people seeking out this kind of information? Wouldn’t it be better to offer people something they already want?
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This is becoming a great and useful list thanks to all of your contributions.
@Nedra: I like how you position awareness as “necessary but not efficient” for behavior change. I agree that awareness has a time and place, but I feel like in public health, it’s over relied on.
@Peter: I like that you brought the concept of exchange to the table. I also think you bring up a good point that people are often more aware than we realize. Perhaps, if we spent more time understanding what they are aware of and why they do what they do, then we could better address Fard’s question of: “How do we move people towards action?”
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Two terms banned from my marketing classes:
Raising awareness
General public sometimes referred to as “gen pop”.
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I am a little concern that many want to throw “raising awareness” out of the equation. I totally agree with Nedra that awareness has its place and purpose, but IS NOT the end all be all.
In public health, what many health marketers/social marketers fail to understand is marketing alone will not lead to behavior change in many populations. There are various things that need to happen in conjunction with marketing/communication. Many times access to care, health systems, legislation, etc. are factors that must me address to move someone into action.
For example, we can market walking as a great way to increase physical activity, but if my neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks, safe lighting, law enforcement, etc. the chances of me (and many like me) walking in the neighborhood is slim.
Or promoting healthy eating when there isn’t access to fruits and vegetables within my neighborhood.
The presence of “inaction” doesn’t mean we failed, it means other factors need addressing. When they are, then action can take place.
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@AT Thanks for adding to the conversation here–you bring up some great points. I don’t think anyone wants to throw awareness out of the equation–we just want be more strategic, smarter and more effective. To elaborate on your last statement, the presence of “inaction” may not mean we failed, but it also doesn’t necessarily mean that awareness is the answer–there are many other factors and solutions which you allude to that may be more effective.
Currently, it feels like “raising awareness” is too often a default, and it’s being over-relied on. We must do go beyond and do better.
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Alex: I thought that I’d bring the group’s attention to the Text4Baby initiative. It’s a project designed to encourage underserved women to engage in better pre- and post-natal behaviors. It certainly has an awareness phase, but what is fascinating is how they are working hard to turn awareness about the initiative into action by linking people to services at the local level. Folks can read a case study on Text4Baby here: http://pbeye.info/3Ac
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Love this discussion and agree with many of the points already made. Peter’s comment about seat belts and smoking were particularly resonant. I’m of the belief that awareness raising has its place in the pantheon of what we do to promote health, but that meaningful change will stem from deeper levels of engagement around individual preferences, and also taking a systems view (much as A.T. advocated)–promote walking all you want, but if the streets are unsafe, or there are no sidewalks, or no one to watch the baby, etc. then that simply isn’t going to happen. We need to attend more to the contextual barriers and facilitators, from education to public transportation.
And though this may feel like Atlas pushing the boulder up the hill, we might also contemplate how to encourage more discernement and critical thinking so that people make reasoned choices, vs. responding to media sound bites about breast cancer screening or Big Macs.
Lastly, I think we need to encourage localism. Earlier today, I heard Reed Tuckson, CEO at United Health Group speak persuasively about health equity, urging us to connect health and public health with the realities of daily life, and that mobilizing community assets is an essential part of that. We’re aware of what goes on in our neighborhood, our workplace, our children’s schools, and our church. Those may be important and under-utilized touchpoints to move the needle from awareness to action. In his words, “Community organizers are as important as the oncologists.” And there is a growing literature on the role of peer influence on choice.
It’s key to get people’s attention (awareness), but holding their attention and persuading them to make appropriate choices is the crux.
Thanks for this terrific post and discussion!
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Sarah–you get a gold star. As soon as I read the word “localism,” my blood starting pumping. I think this is going to be big. We have so much health content–lots of it is duplicative across agencies. Thus, where I see great opportunity is at the local community level, even county and perhaps state level as well. My heads been churning with this a lot lately, so I’m glad you brought it up.
All: If the national government health agencies are the content (aka awareness) providers [not saying this is always true–just curious for insight here], how do we feel about the opportunity for state and local health departments to be able to go “beyond” as we’ve been saying?
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Interesting discussion and many points I can only fully agree with. My concern with the awarness question is, that many of our clients want people to understand that the problem they are focussing on is also their problem (e.g. noise). It seems to be extremely difficult for them to switch to the perspective of their target audience, namely what is their problem and what would make them take an action (e.g. health, stress, money spent on gas). The urge to raise awareness springs from personal conviction on one hand and political need to show that the tasks are fulfilled (“see our superbe posters and commercials – we are doing s.th. for the sensibilisation of the tax payers who are funding us”). So, I wouldn’t completely abandon the awareness question, but try to give it an appropriate priority/rank corresponding to the issue in question (is awareness given, but no action taken? is awareness of sender’s problem necessary for audience to take intended action? etc.)
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The problem occurring is too many people are making Awareness their GOAL. Awareness is the BEGINNING. The goal should be to create change. I can walk up to someone on a sidewalk and ask, “Should everyone have a choice before someone does something with their body sexually?” and almost everyone will say, “Of course. Otherwise it is rape.” Next ask the person HOW they give their partner choices before engaging in sexual activity and they get stuck.
The person knows he/she is “suppose” to get consent, but too many people do not believe it is “realistic” to always get consent or they act according to “assumed consent” (which is an oxymoron). Why do they have this struggle? Too many programs teach Awareness of consent without teaching HOW to take the proper steps and motivation to having consent (in a realistic manner people believe they can utilize in their own lives). You start by insuring you have awareness and then follow-through by teaching HOW to implement the awareness in daily life (taking action).
As we travel teaching these concepts, people always ask why no one is teaching this as part of school curriculum. Most students share they only learn “awareness.” The goal must be to have people take positive actions to create change!
Please add to your list of questions the following:
“Once we raise awareness in the room, what ACTIONS are the people in the room going to take in their lives? If we can’t answer the question, START OVER with a new plan.”
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I often face this situation where clients to raise awareness. The problem with awareness is that you cannot bank it and by itself it does not solve problems. Embedded in each awareness raising campaign should be a call for a very specific and measurable call for action.
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What!! 🙂 Aren’t we “aware” of the Transtheoretical Model, Prochaska and the stages and processes of change? . . . haven’t read here that anyone’s mentioned that model.
Go to http://www.uri.edu/research/cprc/transtheoretical.htm and http://www.csupomona.edu/~jvgrizzell/ttm to learn more. Allen Andreasen and other of our leaders in Social Marketing mention stages of change often.
To move the precontemplative/unaware to the next stage, contemplation, we need to use the awareness processes of change:
• consciousness raising,
• dramatic relief, and
• environmental reevaluation.
Thus, get the unaware precontemplaters to not just have a lot of cons for the behavior change. The number of pros must increase and overcome cons. See the figure on page 3 of the 2nd link above.
Using only awareness assumes everyone is unaware which isn’t true. For those in contemplation, preparation and action stages we need to use the other processes of change and social marketing strategies to help them move to their next stage.
Jim
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Christiane and Mike–Went ahead and added your questions to the list.
Bob–Thanks for your addition here and for continuing this conversation on your blog too.
Jim–Thanks for opening the gates of understanding by introducing some sound theory to the conversation to help guide and direct us.
I feel awareness fever isn’t just limited to health and social marketers, but also to many mid-level and even national non-profits. In these cases, again, awareness is just a piece of the puzzle. (One reason why I think social marketing offers such a valuable framework across many fields and endeavors).
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Mike Domitrz said it….awareness is the beginning, not the goal. We have come some way in creating increased awareness of things like domestic violence and rape in the last 4 decades, but awareness is not an end in and of itself. It must lead to a huge increase in prevention education, funding for it, and support for it by school boards, state legislatures, and parents. Going beyond awareness means changing attitudes, behaviors and beliefs. Awareness of sexist advertising doesn’t transform it. Awareness of the sexualization of girls in our culture ends when we don’t tolerate it anymore. The objectification of women ends when women and men say no more. And speaking of awareness, we have so much still to do to make men sufficiently aware of the culture of men’s own violence for them to actually recognize its awful nature and do something to end it. Too many men still don’t think it amounts to much.
Awareness is the first tiny baby step. If we don’t act in concrete ways, our awareness is meaningless. I wear the purple and teal combo ribbon on everything I wear not because I know I am going to create significant social and cultural change, but because I occasionally get the chance to explain to someone what they are and raise their awareness. Will they immediately join a pro-feminist movement against violence? Almost certainly not. Do I stop wearing the ribbon? No.
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Really love point #1 – how to turn awareness into action.
That point alone takes it out of the marketing/PR world and into the operational and customer service improvement world.
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Campaigns are never conducted in a vacuum, as many other organizations, advocates, media outlets and the community contribute (for better or for worse)to a person’s awareness, attitudes and behavior. Are 100 campaigns informing me that smoking causes cancer more effective than 10? There is a time and place for an awareness campaign, but there needs to be an understanding of your audience’s place or stage of change, depending on the health issue. Awareness is part of an on-going process when addressing the public’s health over a period of time, and with an individual, awareness usually rests before behavior change or action. We must also keep in mind that there are several steps on the bumpy road between awareness and action.
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Awareness fever ,but I shall prefer to call it awareness mania is actually responsible for the creation of an advertising society and creation of surplus and superfluous needs .This mania has gripped the society so much that people has ceased to be human and have become ,monstrous consumers .
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