A peep into social marketing

To begin with, I cannot claim to be very familiar with social marketing in its broadest sense. But a presentation by Shaun Kidney about a fortnight ago on “Winning Cause Campaigns” gave me even a clearer and more precise idea.

For those who believe in starting from the basics, social marketing was "born" as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors. The duo defines social marketing as "differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization.

So social marketing can be said to be the systematic application of marketing along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good and hence seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society."

This technique, according to Kotler and Zaltman, has been used extensively in international health programs, especially for contraceptives and oral rehydration therapy (ORT), and is being used with more frequency in the United States for such diverse topics as drug abuse, heart disease and organ donation.

This means that marketing itself can influence above and beyond the marketing department, into people’s lives. For example to bolster its social marketing activity, Drinkaware sought the services of a PR/advertising agency to “help provide strategic counsel in addition to creative implementation” to help it move from general awareness campaigns to driving behavioural change among binge-drinkers. As a result, alcohol consumption was recorded to continue to fall, with 2009 the sharpest year-on-year decline since 1948, according to figures from the British Beer & Pub Association.

This is in tandem with the fact that social marketing calls for behaviour change, and not just attitude change. Consequently, persuasion approach is promoted and this props up change by creating opportunities for self-persuasion; and makes the audience feel good about change.

So just like PR practitioners, marketers have the opportunity to use their skills to influence throughout and beyond business. This can help them be seen as more than the department that spends money and it can encourage CEOs to use their skills more broadly. Additionally, marketers can be working for the benefit of society and not solely towards commercial gain.

Justin Basini: Make a fair return on your activities

For Justin Basini, who has held senior marketing roles at Capital One and Deutsche Bank, [social] marketing should focus on how business behaves in society, which he claims is a broader and more influential role than it currently is.

“Businesses need to make a fair return on their activities, but they also have a responsibility to drive positive social outcomes as a byproduct of their activities. Through this they can act for the common good,” said Basini in the Marketing Week of 10 September, 2010.

Examples to substantiate this are numerous. Marketing expertise helped oil company Shell reduce the accident rate of its drivers in Pakistan by using internal insight to create interventions to get its truck drivers to be more careful on the road; the NHS to reduce the number of women smoking when pregnant by focusing on their well-being and not just of the unborn baby, and Sainsbury’s to more than halve the number of plastic bags given out in its supermarkets. Significantly, none of these projects used paid-for media, rather the skills of marketers were enlisted to change behaviour.

So just like commercial marketing, the primary focus in social marketing is on the consumer--on learning what people want and need rather than trying to persuade them to buy what we happen to be producing. Marketing talks to the consumer, not about the product. The planning process takes this consumer focus into account by addressing the elements of the "marketing mix." This refers to decisions about 1) the conception of a Product, 2) Price, 3) distribution (Place), and 4) Promotion. These are often called the "Four Ps" of marketing. Social marketing also adds a few more "P's" in the name of publics, partnership, policy and purse strings.

Talking of publics, we should always remember that there are many publics including Latent publics- low in problem recognition and involvement; Aware publics- high in problem recognition, varying involvement and constraint and Active publics- high in problem recognition and low in constraint, hence planning, understanding and then segmenting the audience will always remain of paramount importance.

With partnerships, we should always be aware that coalitions trump solo acts hence partnerships are inevitable if cause campaigns are to be won using social marketing.

The model below may also help understand social marketing.

Additional reading:

http://www.social-marketing.com/Whatis.html

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/

Of NGOs, Activism and PR

When the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer rightly revealed that NGOs remain the most trusted institution and that across all regions of the Western world trust in this institution has increased overtime, it did not come as a huge surprise to me. This third sector is inevitably becoming large and diverse. It is no longer a secret that Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played a major role in pushing for sustainable development at both local and the international level.

Campaigning groups have been key drivers of inter-governmental negotiations, ranging from the regulation of hazardous wastes to a global ban on land mines and the elimination of slavery. The list is endless.

Helped by advances in information and communications technology, NGOs have tremendously assisted to focus attention on the social and environmental externalities of business activity. Examples are numerous where multinational brands have been acutely susceptible to pressure from activists and where NGOs have successfully challenged a company's labour, environmental or human rights record. Even those businesses that do not specialize in highly visible branded goods are feeling the pressure, as campaigners develop techniques to target downstream customers and shareholders.

Taking it from the top in case you are not very sure, the term NGO, ubiquitous as it may sound, is used to describe a bewildering array of groups and organizations - from activist groups 'reclaiming the streets' to development organizations delivering aid and providing essential public services. Some are research-driven policy organizations, looking to engage with decision-makers, while others see themselves as watchdogs, casting a critical eye over current events

As Edelman rightly suggested, the surge in trust may be attributed to a growing affluence and the resulting demand for environmental responsi­bility, education, and public health. This therefore, makes them useful but maybe not always sufficient.

However, it is their relationship with corporate companies in both private and public sector that begs more questions than answers.  It is common knowledge that not all NGOs are amenable to collaboration with the private sector. While, many are showing a willingness to devote some of their energy and resources to working alongside businesses in order to address corporate social responsibility, some will prefer to remain at a distance, by monitoring, publicizing, and criticizing in cases where companies fail to take seriously their impacts upon the wider community.

No wonder some people like Kristin Demetrious (2006) have said that activists have ignored the constructive practices of the PR industry and … the PR industry has ignored the constructive practices of activists while well know PR gurus like Kevin Moloney have described issues-based PR as a ‘cottage industry’




Morgan Spurlock's documentary

This brings us to release of ‘Super size me’ a 2004 American documentary film by Morgan Spurlock who explores McDonalds’s and in general fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. The reason for Spurlock's investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared "epidemic.

When we were asked as PR practitioners-in-the-making what we could do if we were head of communications at McDonalds, the majority of us came with ‘typical PR answer’s that we would make it plain that the food clearly stipulate all nutritional contents; that there are lots of healthy options available and it all boils down to individual choices (to eat McDonalds food daily).

While McDonalds CSR office chose to ignore Spurlock by not answering him, I like a response from one of the officials who after being quizzed in the documentary said “We are part of the problem but we are also part of the solution”. This scenario certainly confirms that activism is the dynamic new edge of the newly defined area of public communication. I should also hasten to agree with Tench and Yeoman (2006) by concluding that activists are regarded as a challenge to PR practitioners working for corporations but it should also be borne in mind that activist organisations employ PR practitioners too.

The following is part of Morgan Spurlock's documentary

Additional reading:
Tench, R. & Yeomans,L. (2009). Exploring Public Relations (2nd ed.), Prentice Hall
http://www.iisd.org/business/ngo/roles.aspx

Opportunities brought by crises

An issue ignored is a crisis ensured, Henry Kissinger rightly put it. When Toyota was faced with a crisis in 2009 which forced them to recall over 8million cars, they did many things to respond to it. Its spokespeople filled the media with messages of reassurance, its PR people blogged and tweeted non-stop to fill the information vacuum; its website was full of details about the recall and its call centre was working flat out to deal with customer enquiries.

Nevertheless, this still proved a losing game as the company still incurred more than US$ 30 billion loss, faced multiple lawsuits and a 11% drop in share prices, among others. Toyota’s hard-won reputation faced and perhaps is still facing the biggest challenge in its corporate history. Catastrophic.

And just like many companies and organisations, Toyota’s main problem lied primarily in what happened before the crisis erupted, rather than its response to it. Thus, central to Toyota's problem was its perceived delay in identifying and addressing the situation in the first place. As Jonathan Hemus of The Guardian rightly reported, corporate denial appeared to have been the order of the day, with the company following the advice of the Japanese proverb: "If it stinks, put a lid on it." What a mistake.

Toyota could have done better to avoid the recall

Most effective crisis management takes place before the problem escalates out of control during the "incubation" phase. Unfortunately, Toyota, like many companies, missed the first crucial first step: understanding that perceived risk is potentially as damaging and costly as actual risk. They ignored the problem until they were forced to take action.

Toyota should have known better that some of the biggest potential crises have been identified and addressed before they ever escalated out of control. And this is crisis management at its best.

This action, however, requires an organisational culture that is vigilant for potential crises; an organisation that puts communications on every agenda; has open lines of communication from staff to management and all stakeholders; and has a willingness to address unpleasant truths.

Toyota’s issue should certainly serve as an example to many companies, especially with the advent of New and Social Media today when the world is freer, and everyone has free opinions and information and everyone is an expert and a publisher.

Granted, managing a crisis is more complex. But companies ought to realise that today there is more knowledge, there’s zero tolerance to risk and inevitable greater demands for transparency.

Crises certainly bring with them dangers and opportunities. But by often thinking the unthinkable and preparing and rehearsing a contingency plan, crises bring PR practitioners opportunities to demonstrate their value and hence raise the profile of organisations and companies.

The following slide and video  is perhaps helpful to PR practitioners facing crisis and are still in the dark oh how best to deal with them.

Crisis Management

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