Community Based Social Marketing

In today class Dr. Rick Kool talked about the concept of Community Based Social Marketing. This is a concept of reaching the community, not just by feeding them information for change, but for actually engaging the community in a systematic application of marketing way along with other concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing is a great concept, but with any outreach to a community there are advantages and disadvantages that need to be dealt with. The advantages of doing social marketing in a community are that it is most effective when it activates people, it targets those in the community that care and are ready for a change, it’s a strategic and requires efficient use of resource, and its integrate and works on the installment plan. Social marketing is not just another advertisement as a clever slogan or message is portrayed strategically so that it reaches everyone throughout the community. To strategically plan out your concept, you must first know who your audience is and put them at the center of ever decision that is made. Show that audience some action, don’t just walk the walk, but talk the talk. If someone is willing to change their behavior or accept a new one there must be an exchange by you making an offer that is appealing to them.

The making of a new concept is sometimes hard to start and there are ten important questions that must be asked in the initial stages. The ten questions to a successful plan are as follows:

1. What is the social and environmental problems that need to be addressed

2. What actions can be taken to address these problems properly

3. Address who your audience is and how you are asking them to take action

4. What kind of exchange does the audience want for adopting the new behavior

5. How will you make the audience believe what you are offering is real and true

6. Who is your competition and what are they offering opposed to your concept

7. What is the best time and place to reach and intrigue your audience

8. How often and from who does the concept have to be presented

9. How can I integrate the audience to influence their behavior

10. Do I have the resources needed to create this concept alone; and if not, where can I find useful partners

After these ten questions have been answered thoroughly, taking every situation into mind, then the planning for your community campaign can be started. The 5 steps of constructing a meaningful campaign are to identifying barriers and benefits such as literature, focus groups, community surveys, stakeholder meetings and by doing market research. The second step is to develop a strategy plan by selecting tools to address these barriers by making commitments, introducing incentives, and by persuasion. The third step is to run a pilot test, evaluate it and adapt to make it work. Pilot projects are they way of taking your strategies to the real world and testing them by measuring your results, evaluating the end result and adjusting to improve the project. The forth step is to implement your project by just doing it, you need to be committed, use prompts to remind your audience, use social norms, provide incentives, scope our your competition and strive to be better than the competition, and make your concept convenient and easy. The fifth and final step is to continuously monitor your concept and adapt it for any necessary changes. If all of these questions and steps are strictly followed and laid out properly, the concept that you are trying to portray to the community should be accepted and succeed. (Kool, 2010)

Kool, D. R. (2010, February 25). Community Based Social Marketing. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.