Social Marketing Panorama

If Someone Mentions Messages, Communication or Social Media in the Same Breath as Social Marketing, KICK THEM IN THE SHINS!

Here I was, all ready to compose a nice post about using social marketing to address climate change, following up on the Copenhagen conference. Then several things happened to send me into a rant of desperation about the confusion between marketing and messaging!

The Irritants
1. First, I read several posts from the United Kingdom’s National Health Service Marketing blog that discussed the confusion in the UK over social media and social marketing.  Apparently the press and some members of Parliament are upset over large budgets for social media, which they are calling social marketing.  (There should be NO excuses for this confusion anywhere in the UK, given the wonderful resource of the UK’s National Social Marketing Centre!)

2. Next I read a blog post from ISIS-INC. (a non-profit dealing with sexual health) that equates social marketing with “Facebook and Twitter,” and then goes on to talk about a web-based Youth Social Marketing Toolkit (YSMT), created by the California Family Health Council Infertility Prevention Project and the California STD/HIV Prevention Training Center to help “agencies with limited financial resources...develop a social marketing [read social media] campaign.”

I visited the toolkit.  It is nicely developed.  It defines social marketing correctly.  It defines the 4-Ps, and adds policy.  Then it trips up with the statement:  “Social marketing is not always a success. If the attitudes and behavior changes you are encouraging are still not perceived as beneficial, acceptable and attainable by the priority population, it may not be worthwhile to develop a social marketing campaign at this time. [“Beneficial, acceptable and attainable”—isn’t that what the 4 Ps are about?!] In this situation, it is better to introduce a behavior change recommendation by developing connections with community and agreeing on a unified goal before planning a social marketing campaign.” It trips up, and continues the long fall throughout the rest of the site by talking about how to do communication campaigns!

3. Next was a post on the web site 4Hoteliers; Hospitality, Hotels and Travel News.  It acknowledges the origins of social marketing with Kotler and Zaltman, then says of social marketing:  “It delivers a two-way communication link between the consumer/customer and the brand.  While social marketing was originally developed from the desire companies had to capitalize on commercial marketing techniques, it has evolved into a more integrative and comprehensive discipline that draws on a wide array of technology, from the traditional media to new media referred to as “’social media.’” It continues to discuss social media.

4. Finally, there was a meeting last week where a colleague of mine says at a meeting, “Social marketing is a way to make communication more effective, right?”

Cue Eduard Monck’s painting, “The Scream!”

How did those of us involved in promoting health, community well-being and positive behavior change around other issues get so enamored with communication and messaging?  Do we think just telling someone about something, or to do something leads to their doing it?  Do any of us have children?!  Are we looking at what works in behavior change efforts?  Not only did we “drink the Kool-Aid” on communication and messaging, we tied cement blocks to our feet and jumped in!

I AM NOT “DISS-ING” COMMUNICATION!  I am “diss-ing” our over-reliance on it as the panacea for all problems!  I am “diss-ing” the confusion of social media and using communication with social marketing.

This Holiday, Repeat after Me:
1.  Communication may be a necessary condition for behavior change, but it may not be a sufficient condition;

2. Social marketing is more about removing barriers to behavior, and increasing benefits and facilitators, than it is about communicating;

3. Social media is a communication tactic.  Social marketing is a strategic process for effecting social change;

4. Social marketing (and commercial marketing) utilizes a mix of Product, Price, Place and Promotion;

5. If I Hear Someone Mention Messages, Communication or Social Media in the Same Breath as Social Marketing, I WILL KICK THEM IN THE SHINS!

(To be continued…!)

Social Marketing Anniversary-Phil Kotler's Thoughts!

As I wrote in my July 6th posting, this month marks the 38th anniversary of the birth of social marketing--the anniversary of Kotler and Zaltman's article "Social Marketing:  An Approach to Planned Social Change," (the Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35, pp. 3-12, July 6, 1971) in which they first conceptualized social marketing !

I was interested in Kotler's thoughts about social marketing now, after 'lo these many years. Here is what you had to say.

"In the 1970s, a few of us academic marketers at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University started to assert that marketing can be applied to a broader range of issues beyond the marketing of goods and services.  Marketing could help create interest in places, persons, organizations, ideas, and causes.  In the last case, Professor Gerald Zaltman and I had been exchanging ideas about social change and social movements.  We decided to research and write an article on how marketing could be used to "sell" better behaviors, such as "say no to drugs," "don't litter,"  "exercise regularly," and so on.  We chose the name "social marketing" to help the public's gain a better view of marketing.  In retrospect, we could have called it "cause marketing" or "social cause marketing."   

 

The field of social marketing grew slowly at first.  Ned Roberto and I wrote the first book, Social Marketing, on the subject. Eventually social marketing drew the interest of the Center for Disease Control, the World Bank, World Vision, Population Services International, the Population and Community Development Association of Thailand, and other organizations.  Social and health oriented advocates began to appear from different countries.  Alan Andreasen and others wrote books on social marketing and organized annual meetings.  This culminated with the launching of the World's First Social Marketing Conference in Brighton England in late September 2008 which drew 700 attendees.  In July 2009, Nancy Lee and I published Up and Out of Poverty: The Social Marketing Solution, the first book applying social marketing to a specific and grave problem, poverty. 

 

It appears that social marketing has passed the take-off stage and is entering a period of steady growth." 

When I asked him the current practice of calling social media "social marketing," he had this to say:

We wish that those who talk about social media use that term [i.e. social media].  They can call it social media marketing.  But it shouldn't be abbreviated to social marketing. 

So, there is a brief history of social marketing from one of its fathers!  And the next time you hear someone say "social marketing" when they are talking about social media, resist the impulse to throttle them (or not!)--whip out the quote from Dr. Philip Kotler!

CDC Center for Health Marketing Report

The CDC's Center for Health Marketing has become both a thought and a practice leader in the use of social marketing and health communication (which they term "health marketing") to bring about healthy communities.  They have especially taken the lead in using Web 2.0 and e-tool technologies to achieve public health goals! Their website is chock full of examples of applications and global initiatives; resources and tools; research and evaluation links; health marketing basics; and more--including a blog by Jay Bernhardt, Ph.D. center director, and my favorite, their e-Health Marketing Page!!  (Don't miss the e-Health Data Briefs--wonderful one-to-two page PDFs with audience research about who is using which e-technology!)

The center's great work is summarized in a recently released report, "Health Marketing for a Healthier Nation and a Healthier World."   It is available as a PDF from their web site.

TWITTER: Not Just for Lunch Anymore!

Okay, I admit it!  "My name is Mike, and I have started Twittering--and now I am addicted! "

And here is just a sample of what I learned on Twitter in one week:

• CDC has a podcast just for kids on Salmonella in peanut containing products at: http://tinyurl.com/dc7ux4

• NYC Dept. of Health introduced a Facebook page to promote condom use:  http://snurl.com/bqzl3

• AIDS.gov uses text messaging for appointment or medication reminders:  http://blog.aids.gov

• The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released the first major study of Twitter users:  http://bit.ly/18pHgg

• CDC has a page for RSS alerts on Travel Notices:  http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss/asp

• Satellite-tracked birds from India will provide clues on how Avian Influenza spreads (USGS):  http://tinyurl.com/cw7oyx

• Great blog on environmental health and living green:  http://tinyurl.com/coludg

• US HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology plan specifically endorsed in stimulus plan as guide to health IT spending.  See http://hhs.gov/healthitfor link 
  to plan

Wow, not one mention of what someone was having for lunch, or that they were going to take a nap! (The topics I find that many professionals think Twitter is about.) 

My excursion into using Twitter is a classic case of behavior change, I suppose.  I heard about it over a year ago.  I thought, “You have to be kidding?  Who cares what someone is doing every minute of the day?!” Then, at the CDC's 2008 Health Marketing Conference, I learned how it was using Twitter, both to deliver health messages and to convey real time information from the conference.  I thought, "Interesting, but how the %$*#@*&^% can I make time to start using one more form of communication?!"  (But--intellectual acceptance!)  The next month, the World Social Marketing Conferencetweeted (sending messages via Twitter) in real time about topics and speakers.  I followed these Tweets, and found them both informative and enjoyable. (Trying the new behavior, with positive actual consequences!)

So, this past October, I created a Twitter account…and did nothing with it.  But I kept learning more about CDC’s use of the medium.  Several of my social marketing “buddies” were regular users, and sang its praises.  I found myself thinking more and more, “I have to find time to use this!  And besides public health should be using the same communication channels that our populations use!”  (Encouragement from, and modeling by, those important to me.  Benefits and possibilities outweighing barriers!)  Et voila, on February 16, 2009, I began posting!  I was delighted to find a number of public health-related users to follow, as well as my own colleagues’ Tweets, and Twitters from their networks. I am amazed at how much useful, new information I am learning.  And I love the sense of camaraderie and belonging I feel! (Very positive actual consequences!)

If YOU haven’t tried Twitter yet, give it a go!  You can make of it what you want--a way to learn about and share the latest social marketing resources, or a way to find out what your friends are having for lunch.  You can become familiar with one of the media your priority audiences may be using.  And, if it doesn’t work for you, there is always blogging, texting, e-mailing, even talking face-to-face or...writing letters(?)!

If you want to sign-up for Twitter, go to www.twitter.com.  If you want suggestions for Twitterers to follow, try:

CDC_eHealth

BirdFluGov

SocialBttrfly

Nedra

mindofandre

chiefmaven

Or, you can follow me at sm1guru .