The Concept of Social Marketing - Term Paper Example

Social Marketing Introduction This essay discusses the concept of social marketing with the help of a case study. The case is analysed to check whether all the fundamental principals of social marketing are included in it or not. This essay also highlights the differences between social marketing and commercial marketing. It goes on to put forth another case study where a commercial enterprise promotes social marketing. Definition of Social Marketing: There are many ways of defining social marketing. One of them is given below: Social Marketing is the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behaviours of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society. (Andreasen, 1995, P.7) Most of the definitions have three principles in common. They are Customer Centric: All the decisions regarding the campaign are taken in interest of the customer. Customer and his interest are paramount to everything else. Voluntary Behaviour Change: The aim of the campaign is to bring about a voluntary change in the behaviour of the customer. Force and push strategies are not used in social marketing projects. Non-Profit: The behavioural changes occurring out of the campaign are aimed at the benefit of the customer and not for gains or profit of the members organising it. Case Study of ‘The Scottish Cancer Research Network (SCRN)’ The SCRN has the dual task of increasing number of patients’ to enrol for clinical trials and to provide quality cancer care and range of cancer treatments, for these patients. The West of Scotland Cancer Awareness Project began implementation in the year 2002. The details of the campaign are given below: Scope of the Program: This program was implemented in 5 Scottish health board areas. Audience Segmentation: Audience Segmentation is the identification and process of selecting audience for whom specifically designed programs are formulated. A single behaviour can bring about different changes in various group of people The audiences are thus grouped based on their shared and common characteristics. In this case-study the audience is segmented based on their socio-economic conditions and their symptomatic requirements. The Program was targeted at low income group people who were suffering from signs and symptoms of bowel or mouth cancer. Strategy: For any program to be successful an important pre-requisite is proper planning and a well defined strategy. A strategy helps in successful completion of the program. It takes care of the problems and spontaneous road-blocks that may arise to hinder the smooth functioning of the project. The SCRN team collaborated with many health professionals. They explained to the health professional about the extra consultative hours they will have to put in. Along with the primary and secondary health providers they outlined a strategy to take the program forward Implementation: A well chalked out strategy and proper audience segmentation should be coupled with a proper implementation process. Ideas that do not get implemented are as good as non-existent ideas. Thus any project is successful only when it is implemented by all the team members in the pre-determined manner. This part of the project is the toughest part. In this case-study, the Health care professionals and the team members worked together to promote this campaign. Training: People who are conducting projects have to be skilled. Lack of skill can result in failure of even well planned and strategize programs. Thus it is important to assure that all the people who work on such projects are well trained in their respective fields. If they are unaware of the latest developments and new researches in their field, they need to be updated. In this case-study over 2000 health professionals attended trainings to understand the signs and symptoms of bowel and mouth cancer. Public Awareness: A program has to reach the segmented audience. In order to do so the right medium of awareness need to be employed. For better reach and effective communication of the campaign public awareness is very crucial. In this case-study the campaigners used the medium of television to encourage symptomatic patients to enrol for check-ups. Result: 62% patients were admitted for bowel cancer and 68% for mouth cancer at the end of this project. Analysis of the tools used in the SCRN project. The 4 P’s of marketing are considered as effective tools in commercial marketing. These tools can also be used efficiently to achieve the social marketing objectives. A fifth P is also added to the other P’s of marketing. The use of P’s of marketing are elaborated as under: Place: This tool explains the place where the service or action will be performed. In the above case study this P was included by scoping the project and earmarking the 5 Scottish health board areas for implementation. By earmarking the place of operation, a lot of confusion gets reduced and one can plan for the resources that would be required to effectively carry out the required tasks. Price: This tool is used to minimize the barriers that can affect the desired behaviour change. The barriers could be monetary or non-monetary in nature. In the SCRN case study the barriers would arise if the health professionals had refused to put in extra hours to diagnose the patients. Due to initial planning and agreement with the health professionals this barrier was eradicated. Product: In social marketing, our Product is what we are selling, the desired behaviour and the associated benefits of the behaviour. It also includes any tangible objects and services developed to support and facilitate the target audiences behaviour change (Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto and Nancy Lee, 2002, P.195). In the above case study there is no mention of a special object or service to facilitate the audience behaviour. A toll free hotline or an informative pamphlet on symptoms and consequences of malignant cancer could have been circulated to increase awareness. A web-site can be arranged to provide symptomatic information and availability of doctors. Promotion: This tool helps in promoting the desired behaviour with the use of effective communication techniques. Advertisements, message boards, information brochures and all such materials help in propagating the benefits of the desired outcome. The SCRN team used the medium of television to promote their campaign. They could use compelling photos and stories of people struggling with mouth and bowel cancers in the promotional material. They could organise a speakers-kit with a 5 minute video or power-point presentation to be given to play at workstations. Policy: This is the fifth P of Marketing. This involves the policies that will affect the individuals after adopting the desired behaviour. In this case there is no scope for forming policies. The above case study does not have a formal evaluation process. As a social marketing manager it is necessary to evaluate the campaign and document the results for further replication of the model. Evaluation process: The manager could have followed the following evaluation strategies. Assessing the development of partnership. The SCRN team partnered with health professionals to provide consultative and diagnostic services. This partnership was successful. However they could have considered partnering with the department of health ministry for support and message dissemination. Government partnerships in such initatives give access to a variety of people. Assessing the leverage of Resources: The team used their own resources to diagnose the people who came for check-up. Overload of people could have been managed by extra camps and more centres working in different shifts. Tracking Message Dissemination: The number of people who attended may not necessarily show how many sections of society were penetrated with the message. It is important to track the extent of the message that was conveyed. This could be done by survey samples and feedback on random basis. Evaluation of radio and television distribution: The promotional campaigned based on television was successful. However, the radio as a medium was not explored. Since the target audience was low income group, it would be fruitful to disseminate information through the medium of radio. News and Consumer Affairs Coverage: The promotional drive could have been advertised through news and print media since it was for social good. Dissemination of Paid Advertisement: There was no effort to hire a professional advertising agency to handle the promotional campaign. Monitoring Print Distribution: There was no monitoring of written informational material. Messages should be monitored to avoid communication gaps. Documenting Distribution: It is necessary to document the message distribution methods for further replication in other locations. If distribution is done through kiosks or interactive information systems, the process should be documented. Document Information Request: There was no process to document the number of enquiries that came following the campaign. The number of information request and the data on those people should have been recorded for future follow-up Document community activities: In this case there were no community activities as a result of the campaign. In case there were some, they should be noted. Assessing cost-effectiveness of the information channels. Communicating information to the public is time consuming as well as a costly affair. Thus it is very important to track the costs involved in using various channels of disseminating information. Competition: This feature refers to the behaviour and related benefits that the target audiences are accustomed to or may prefer over the behaviour you are promoting. The competition may also include the enterprises or people who offer or promote alternatives to the desired behaviour. In the above case study, the SCRN team is competing against lack of knowledge of potential patients. They are also competing against lazy behaviour. People are wary of meeting doctors and diagnose their symptoms. Generally people prefer to ignore signs and symptoms and stay in a comfort zone. This false feeling of comfort is the biggest competitor to the campaign. The team members should make efforts to be more reachable and easily available. The following steps can be taken to facilitate patient consulting. A phone number should be organised which will be manned 24-hrs to give appointments Coordination with doctors to avail appointment quickly Appoint health professionals in various shifts to cater to patients coming at odd hours Schedule special weekend camps for working people Decrease waiting time by performing minor check-ups by trained nurses and staff. Make processes for delivering immediate pathological lab results Tie-up with different laboratories to receive and deliver samples on time. Exchange: This is a concept where new behaviour is incorporated in place of the old behaviour, for benefits which are far better than the old one. In the above case-study the team could clearly point out the benefits of diagnosing cancer at the right stage. The team could communicate the following points to replace old behaviour. Cancer can be treated in the initial stages. Thus early diagnoses can kick-start recovery process. Symptoms when not detected and cured in time can lead to malignant cancers which could prove fatal. Malignant cancers are very painful and at times not curable. Questionable motives of social marketing Enterprises are catching on the benefits of social marketing. The intentions of such efforts may be questionable. Some companies are genuinely interested in the social good of people and thus earmark some funds for social causes. There are some companies who use social causes as an excuse to reach vast audiences. Their final aim is to gain visibility and thus strengthen their brand. Applying the branding concept to social marketing, suggests that successful social marketing brands are change-oriented, competitive, compatible, caring and culturally appropriate. (Weinreich, Nedra Kline). Brands which portray a social conscience develop a soft corner in the hearts of consumers. Following is an example of a food retailing company that used social marketing to create awareness on healthy eating habits. They partnered with the government and carried out a campaign to promote healthy food. Sainsbury case study Sainsbury is a food retailer that serves 16 million customers each week in 747 stores. They stock 26,000 food and drink products. Since 1994 this company is promoting healthy eating habits. They partnership with the nations department of health helped them to spread the message of healthy habits on a large scale. They got access to six million customers whom the department of health issued messages. They followed the following process to spread awareness. They organised a get-together of government professionals, parents and food industry experts. They generated ideas on how to promote healthy eating habits They arrived at the conclusion that parents perceive healthy food as being costly. As a result of this feedback they gave 6 fruits or vegetables at half the cost once in a year. They promoted healthy products along with their less healthy product range. They launched a ‘Big 5 drive game’ programme. They gave the winner of this programme, free fruit and vegetables and offered tips to increase intake of healthy food. They introduced the wheel of health to help consumers decide which products were healthy. They came up with a traffic-light colour coded food labelling device. This label mentioned the nutritional content of all products at a single glance. Over 4000 labels carried the wheel of health. As a result of this process 94% customers found wheel easy to understand 90% found it useful in decision making. The company realised that their “all day breakfast” sandwich sales decreased by nearly 50% after introducing the wheel which pointed out the sandwich as a less healthy option. This was a case of an enterprise using social marketing for public benefit. Commercial Marketing vs. Social Marketing: The primary motive of commercial marketing is to increase sales and make profit for the company whereas, for social marketing the objective is to give benefit to a section or group of people for their benefit and not for profit of the organiser. Acquisition of funds for commercial marketing is easy as compared to collecting funds for social marketing campaign. In commercial initiatives, there is the “what’s in it for me” factor for most of the people involved. In social marketing, the people conducting the campaign may or may not get any incentives. Commercial marketing focuses more on brand building whereas social marketing focuses more on bringing about desired behaviour changes. Conclusion: The above case studies and their analysis show that commercial and social marketing have different motives. However, commercial marketing can be masked as social and used to meet desired ends. It is up to the management’s ethical principles to take decisions on these issues. Some companies believe in serving the society. These companies take initiatives and promote social marketing in the interest of greater good. Ethical marketing is yet another issue which needs honest following. It is noted that generally companies that are ethical also have social conscience. There is information overload everywhere. So many social marketing as well as pharmaceutical marketing activities are centered on human benefits. These campaigns have multiplied dramatically. Getting peoples attention to yet another message is a daunting task. Campaigns with creative ideas will have a better rate of success. References Andreasen A R, 1995.Marketing Social Change, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Department of Health, Social Marketing, 2007 http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Choosinghealth/DH_066342 Gerard Hastings, Laura McDermott, Putting Social Marketing into Practice, 2006, http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7551/1210 Nedra Kline Weinreich, Weinreich Communications, Building Social Marketing into your programme, http://www.social-marketing.com/building.html Nedra Kline Weinreich, "Branding for Social Marketers - Part 2 http://www.social-marketing.com/blog/2006/09/branding-for-social-marketers-part-2.html Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto and Nancy Lee, Social Marketing: Improving the Quality of Life, Second Edition, Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications 2002 P. 195 Social Marketing Wiki, Definitions of Social Marketing. http://socialmarketing.wetpaint.com/page/Definitions+of+Social+Marketing?t=anon Sonya Grier & Carol A Bryant, The University of Pennsylvania, Social Marketing in Public Health, October 12, 2004 http://www.toniyancey.com/is19/110706a.pdf Yorkshire & Humber Public Health Observatory, Social Marketing, http://www.yhpho.org.uk/social_marketing.aspx Read More