What Behavior Are You Selling?

In the halls of doing good, many of us are dealing with change–which means we are dealing with behaviors. Surrounding behavior is knowledge and beliefs coupled by environmental factors, assumptions and noise. To make an impact, we need to know what kind of behavior we are selling.

For experienced social marketers this might seem like a review–but we can all use a review sometimes. People leading change often “sell” one of the following:

Accepting a new behavior (i.e. Wear a helmet when biking)
Rejecting a potential behavior (i.e. Don’t drink and drive)
Modify a current behavior (i.e. Wear sunscreen with an increased SPF)
Abandon an old behavior (i.e. Quit smoking)

Some say that selling behavior versus a concrete product or service comes with increased challenges–for one, it’s harder to measure. Two, it’s hard to deliver. Three, we’re talking about deeply rooted, often value-based, behaviors and decision making. Hard? Yes, historically. But, it doesn’t mean that is has to stay true.

We can do better–for example, HHS recently launched its Community Health Data Initiative–freeing up data, making it accessible, drawing out understanding, making connections–this can help us in our efforts to achieve behavior change by working to address that measurement issue.

Challenge

Think about a current project that you or your organization is working to achieve. Can you pinpoint the type of behavior you are driving? If so, tell us about it in the comments. Perhaps we can brainstorm some ways to make it “easier.”

(Hint: Look into the approach and framework of social marketing–lots of good research and case studies!)

Flickr Credit: trawin

Reference: P. Kotler, N. Roberto, N. Lee. Social Marketing, Improving the Quality of Life. USA: Sage Publications, 2002. Print.

5 thoughts on “What Behavior Are You Selling?”

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Tampa Internet Marketing May 7, 2010 at 3:45 am

You know what? You made me ponder for awhile. This is great! At least I have to re-asses my social media marketing efforts. Thanks

Andrew Conard May 8, 2010 at 7:35 pm

Alexandra – I appreciate your post. As a pastor serving in a mainline church, I find that that nearly all my time is spent in selling a behavior. I have found that one of the most effective ways of measuring is through hearing stories of lives that have changed. This is an encouragement to the leaders and encourages those who are considering simliar change.
A couple behaviors that I seek to sell include: regular worship attendance, reading the Bible and praying regularly and inviting others to the faith community.

Alex Post authorMay 9, 2010 at 11:16 am

Andrew–Thanks for your comment here and especially for the work you do in spreading His kingdom.

When it comes to behavior, I would look into Beth Kanter’s Ladder of Engagement–and see if you can list the behaviors from a lower level of effort (praying) to those taking a higher level of effort and commitment (witnessing). It might spur some good ideas.

With our clients, we call this the acquire-convert-and-retain method. How do we acquire interest, what then leads to the conversion, and then, how can we retain and re-purpose that engagement/interest and empower people to become an ambassador’s of the organization or mission to help acquire others. Let me know how the exercise goes.

Andrew Conard May 9, 2010 at 4:59 pm

Alex – No problem. I really appreciate the Beth’s Ladder of Engagement. That will be helpful to consider in regarding engagement with worship attenders. Thanks for pointing me in that direction. I will follow up after I’ve had some time to work on it. Thanks!

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5 thoughts on “What Behavior Are You Selling?”