Social Marketing Panorama

The Future of Social Marketing--via the USF Conference

In previous posts, I have reported on plenaries at the 20th Anniversary USF Social Marketing Conference that discussed the past and present states of social marketing.  A Day Two plenary looked at the future of social marketing.  The presenters were Craig Lefebvre, Chief Maven at Social Shifting, John Strand from the Academy for Educational Development, and Bill Novelli--one of the founding fathers (see June 25, 2010 post).

Craig Lefebvre

• "'At the center of every human soul is the intense longing to be closer to God." (www.gapingvoid.com) Most people in the world believe this. A brand that can empathize with that is powerful.
• Talk about "market failures" and policy makers listen. There are market failures in the health information marketplace.
• We need to focus on the brain and what neurobiology can tell us about human behavior.
• How can we "make hope visible?"
• Engage people as actors in their own lives, not as audiences.

 

John Strand

• We need to attack the "big gnarly problems."
• We need duty and discipline in what we do.

 

Bill Novelli

• The "big armamentarium" (look it up!) is social change. Social marketing is a piece
  of this.
• We have: a model; skills; data; courage.

 

From the Discussion

• Marketing and social marketing should be a required course in public health,, urban planning, medical fields; environmental fields and pubic administration.
• MBAs should be required to take a marketing course.
• Should there be a social marketing section in the American Marketing Association?

 

From where do you get your inspiration, dear colleagues? From where do you get your agenda?  I challenge you to look back over this post and the last two posts, and find something that throws an extra log on what fires up your work!

Thanks for all you do!

The Current State of Social Marketing--Views from the USF Conference

Last month I shared gems of wisdom from the founding fathers of social marketing.  In this post, I offer up more of the rich content from USF--this time, comments on the current state of the field from three practitioners:  Keith Goodman, Alliance for Climate Protection, in Washington, DC; Carol Bryant, founder fo the USF conference (whom I call the "godmother" of social marketing in public health); and Jeff French, CEO of Strategic Social Marketing, Ltd., and former director of Britain's National Social Marketing Centre.

 

Keith Goodman

• Government needs to do audience research for their program.  They don't understand this (a recurring theme at the conference was the federal gov't. in the US not getting marketing--sm1guru) 
• Technologies used in social marketing (e.g., mass media, social networking) are just tools
• We need to provide benefits for behavior, such as "bragging rights" through easy access into Facebook or Twitter; remember the importance of making the behavior fun
• We have the opportunity to "pile on benefits"

 

Carol Bryant

• We need to address the outer circles of the socio-ecological model
• Community-base social marketing has three major facets:  tapping into local wisdom and sharing control; using the socio-ecological model; using social marketing basics
• Community members (i.e., the "target audience") bring tremendous local knowledge
• Sharing the social marketing process and the ecological model enables the community to make the local knowledge actionable

 

Jeff French 

• We need to "get out of our social marketing ghettos," and talk to others about social marketing
• We have problems in promoting social marketing:  1) definitional and branding problems; 2) not enough proponents, and they are unevenly distributed; 3) lack of alignment with organizational strategies--social marketing is viewed as a third level of activity
• We need to get strategic, and influence policy and evaluation
• We need to develop:  1) standards and codes; 2) social networks of practitioners; 3) an academic evidence base with research and case studies
• There are opportunities in the demands for citizen-based solutions for social problems

 

The three take-home messages for me are that we need to:  1) focus much more on providing benefits; 2) open up our practice to the communities in which we work; 3) shore up the field academically and structurally.  What struck you in the remarks? What ideas do you have about how to act on these observations?  I invite you to examine your own practice of social marketing, and see how it stands up against the comments above.  Are you in good shape, or do you have work to do?

Gems from the Founding Fathers of Social Marketing

I started this post thinking to cite a series of learnings from the recently held 20th Anniversary University of South Florida Social Marketing Conference.  As I went over my notes, it quickly became clear that there were enough gems to fill several blog posts. So, I decided to focus on the very beginning, literally--of the conference and of social marketing!  One of the high points of the conference was the first panel, with the founding fathers of social marketing:  Phil Kotler, who co-wrote the seminal article articulating social marketing; Alan Andreasen (whom I call the "godfather" of social marketing); an early convert to social marketing, both in the academy and in practice; Bill Novelli, who created the first social marketing agency dedicated to using marketing to address health and social issues.  Here are some of their gems:

Kotler

• We need to go from being a profession to a movement
• The social change ferment of the 1960s formed the cultural context for the birth of social marketing
• To market an idea calls for more than communication (Amen!-sm1guru)
• Our usual behavior change paradigm has been that people think-feel-do. Neurobiology is showing it to be feel-do-think.  We need more emphasis on emotions as precipitators of behavior

Andreasen

• The range of things we can apply social marketing to is "humongous"
• Use it upstream to create opportunities
• "If it is behavior, it is our turf!"
• Barriers are limited evaluation, limited executive support, thinking of social marketing as communication
• On confusing social media with social marketing, "I say as nicely as I can, you don't get it." (Wish I can copy the inflexion of voice here!--sm1guru)

Novelli

• Social marketing has models and concepts and ideas ready made that we can apply to social problems
• We need to deal with environments (social, cultural contexts)
• We need an "aerosol spray approach"--addressing problems with multiple interventions
• US government agencies don't seem keen on social marketing, they talk about policy
• US DHHS talks about the need to prove that prevention works. This is the "old Phillip Morris argument"--if you keep them healthy longer, they live longer and cost more money (ouch--sm1guru)

From the Discussion

• Understand your customer. Do the research. Use "working retail"--get out, touch and see the target audience
• "It astonishes me how many people don't do good planning."  If you don't have the right plan, you don't have any idea what you are doing.

Nothing else to say from me, except read, reflect, share and use these gems to brighten up your own social marketing practice!

Way Cool Resource: USF Social Marketing in Public Health Conference

With this post I am bringing back an occasional feature, "Way Cool Resources," where I highlight a really cool (WAY COOL, ACTUALLY) social marketing-related resource.  This time--how could I resist?--it is the University of South Florida's Social Marketing in Public Health Conference!  And how appropriate as this is the 20th Anniversary of the conference (June 11-12, 2010).

I love this conference!  I have attended it for 12 years.  It has never grown stale.  There is always something new and different to learn each year. For me, it is like "God's navel," professionally; or the center of my professional universe!  I begin thinking about it in February or March, each year.

There is alway so very much to learn--through the plenaries, the featured speakers, and the workshops.  You can get the big picture of social marketing, down to very specific applications.  This year, there are additional workshop offerings.

And each year, there is a Training Academy (June 13-14, 2010) that will give you an in-depth introduction to social marketing.  I remember the first year I attended the Training Academy.  As I sat there listening to Carol Bryant (whom I call the Godmother of Social Marketing), I felt like the heavens opened and this big silver platter was presented to me with all these wonderful goodies on it!  I had heard at least two social marketing presentations before, and kind gone, "that's nice...so?" This time, the key went in, the lock turned, and the rest is history!

The conference is designed to provide a very comfortable atmosphere (note the flowered shirt above!) in which to network.  The conference is internationally attended, usually 300 - 400 people. They range from novices to the people who wrote the books--LITERALLY! Attendees come from public, private, academic and non-profit sectors. And while public health may predominate, you can find about any human service, safety or environmental issue you can imagine represented.  Folks are very friendly and willing to share.

Speaking of the people who wrote the books! This year being the 20th anniversary of the conference, Phil Kotler (the father of social marketing, with Gerald Zaltman), Alan Andreasen and Bill Novelli will keynote the speakers.  Hey, bring your autograph book!

So...beg, borrow or sale those Girl Scout cookies in the freezer, and direct you bad self to this conference! You--and the clients you serve--will be glad you did!  (And if you can't make it, I will be Tweeting from the conference each evening: http://twitter.com/sm1guru.)

Riding the Social Marketing Wave--Surf's Up!

This is proving to be quite the year for social marketing!  Just today I learned that social marketing is in the preliminary Healthy People 2020 Health Objectives for the nation! While the US Department of Health and Human Services has to approve all of the 2020 objectives, the social marketing objectives were approved by an interagency committee charged with preparing objectives for a specific issue area--a momentous step!  The social marketing objectives are part of the "Health Communication / Health Information Technology Objectives." They read:

HC/HIT HP2020-13:  Increase social marketing in health promotion and disease prevention.

HC/HIT HP2020-13a: Increase the proportion of state health departments that report using social marketing in health promotion and disease prevention programs.

HC/HIT HP2020-13b:  Increase the proportion of Schools of Public Health and accredited MPH programs that offer one or more courses in social marketing.

HC/HIT HP2020-13c:  Increase the proportion of Schools of Public Health and accredited MPH programs that offer workforce development activities in social marketing for public health practitioners.

 

Efforts continue to form a Global Social Marketing organization. The hope is to roll this out at the Social Marketing in Public Health Conference (see below) this summer.  There is a very good communications vehicle for this nascent organization in the Social Marketers Global Network. The site offers a way to communicate with individuals and groups doing social marketing, share articles, conference announcements and other resources, and even post your own blog. (And, of course, there is still the Georgetown University Social Marketing List serve.)

The 20th Annual Social Marketing in Public Health Conference is coming up June 11th & 12th, in Sand Key, Florida!  That is right: the 20th! This is, I believe, the longest running social marketing conference in the world.  And little wonder, it is wonderful!  I have attended for 13 years, and I always find something new and engaging.

The University of South Florida School of Public Health--a leader in social marketing thought and practice--sponsors the event. And this year they are celebrating in style.  Philip Kotler, one of the founders of social marketing will deliver the key note address. There will other long-time social marketers, such as Alan Andreasen and Bill Novelli, talking about the past, present and future of the field, also.  Plus, there is a whole extra set of workshops this year.

Surf's up! Come on in and catch the wave!