I’ve heard that before, and it does offer I guess a line for “success.” But, I’m slow to live by it as 1) I don’t generally like to apply the word “campaign” to behavior change or use the word “campaign” nowadays, 2) I think initiatives should focus on both short-term and long-term goals. Three years is a bit short-term for me. …and 3) I would also offer to further define “success” beyond an 8% data point. What about qualitative benchmarks? Additionally, sustainable behavior change takes time…sometimes you might not get your data back for years after implementing an initiative, which is one reason why real measurement and evaluation of behavior change is a sticky subject that continues to frustrate many of us practitioners.
I think there’s much more that could be said on this topic. In the meantime, I encuorage one to read “Up and Out of Poverty.” Not only does it look at the issue of poverty, but it also lays out the purpose of social marketing and offers some insight into what and how we might want to re-define “success” when it comes to behavior and social change.
]]>I apologize for my the delay in my response. You probably won’t like my answer but it depends….on objectives, timeline, resources, audience, barriers, etc. I will say that many social marketing efforts are sometimes focused on the short term behavior change or too much on awareness and promotion, rather than implementing strategies and tools that will empower the audience to make lasting, long-term behavior changes.
]]>However, from your perspective and experience, what are some of the best case studies or initiatives to help others gauge what truly is and what truly is not, social marketing? Are there any benchmarks that you see people using to define social marketing that you would disagree with?
]]> 1. Do I understand and have an insight into what motivates my priority audience to engage (or not) in healthier, more environmentally-conscious, and more socially productive behaviors?
2. Am I focusing on behavior as my product (what am I encouraging a large number of people to adopt or sustain)?
3. Does my program influence or try to alter the relative balance of incentives and costs for either maintaining the current behavior or adopting a new one?
4. Do we attempt to increase access and opportunities for the audience to try the new behavior and then sustain it?
5. Are communication and other promotional techniques used to assure that we reach and engage our audience in ways that are relevant, attention-getting, tap into existing motivations and aspirations and have sufficient frequency to be remembered and acted on?
Action on changing the answer to any one of these questions, let alone all of them, would bring more programs closer to what we call social marketing.
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