BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 1

This document is designed to help communications professionals complete a social marketing plan without having to hire outside consultants, agencies or contractors. This guide can be used by anyone from the private, public and NGO sectors.

Using communications to change behaviour is a tough challenge at the best of times, but convincing people to reduce waste at the source is particularly difficult. An approach with proven success is community-based social marketing, or CBSM. This methodology aims to change behaviour via direct communication and community level initiatives that remove the barriers preventing change and add positive reinforcements that encourage it.

While CBSM has great value, it can be very resource intensive, and beyond the means of many municipalities.

An alternative with useful results is to combine the techniques of advertising with the learnings from CBSM – an approach called Social Marketing.

This Guide reviews the best practices of Social Marketing, in a “how to”, step-by-step format.

DEFINITION

“Social marketing is a process that applies marketing principles and techniques to … influence target audience behaviours that benefit society (public health, safety, the environment, and communities) as well as the target audience.”

Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee and Michael Rothschild, 2006

PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESS

1. Take advantage of prior and existing successful campaigns

2. Support and promote single, doable behaviours with significant potential impact

3. Make the benefits of new behaviours feel tangible

4. Highlight costs of competing behaviours – those you want to change

5. Consider non-monetary incentives in the form of recognition and appreciation

6. Use communications channels at the point of decision making

7. Get commitments and pledges

8. Create plans for social diffusion

9. T rack results and make adjustments

Encouraging New Behaviours that Reduce WasteBEST PRACTICES GUIDE FOR CREATING A SOCIAL MARKETING PLAN

FALL 2015

BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 2

1 Describe purpose and focus for the planning eff ort

- What is the specifi c waste reduction issue?

- Develop a purpose statement that refl ects the benefi t of a successful campaign and a focus that narrows the scope of the plan’s purpose to one that the plan will address

2 Conduct a situation analysis

Factors and forces infl uencing your target market and your eff ort

- Internal organizational factors (strengths and weaknesses)

- External factors (opportunities and threats)

3 Select and describe the target audience

a. Segment the market

b. Evaluate the segments

c. Choose one or more as a focal point

RESEARCH TIP: this is a good point in the process to consider research. Consider who your target(s) might be and how you might learn more about them. Existing research is the most aff ordable but can be out of date or too generic. Conducting primary research through surveys or focus groups is a more costly way to learn about your audience but could help produce better results. These preliminary learnings will help you determine which audience to pursue versus others and it’s best to start with the audience most ready for action.

4 Set marketing objectives and goals

a. Behaviour objective – what do you want your target audience to do?

b. Knowledge objective – what you want the market to be aware of (to make them more likely to change behaviour)?

c. Belief objective – what to you want your target audience to feel that could stimulate the new behavior?

5 Identify audience barriers, benefi ts and competition

a. Barriers – reasons your audience cannot (easily) or does not want to adopt the behaviour. (TIP: think about what can be done to remove those barriers)

b. Benefi ts – reasons your target might be interested in adopting the behavior or what might motivate them to do so.

c. Competitors – behaviours your target audience prefers or organizations that support or promote “undesirable” behaviours.

RESEARCH TIP: At this point you might want to consider conducting focus groups or one-on-one interviews to gain a better understanding of your audience’s psychographic make-up and what might motivate them to change and adopt the desired behaviour you are promoting.

6 Craft a desired positioning statement

Positioning is the act of designing the organization’s actual and perceived off ering in such a way that it lands on and occupies a distinctive place in the mind of the target market – where you want it to be. Fill in the blanks to: “We want (TARGET AUDIENCE) to see (DESIRED BEHAVIOUR) as (DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE) and as more benefi cial than (COMPETITION).”

10 STEPS IN THE PLANNING PROCESS

10 STEPS IN THE PLANNING PROCESS continues on next page

BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 3

7 Develop a strategic marketing mix (4Ps) that addresses all of the barriers

• Product – anything that can be off ered to a market to satisfy a want or need. A product doesn’t need to be tangible – it can be a service, an experience, an event, a person, a place, a property, an organization, information or an idea.

In social marketing, major product elements include:

ú The benefi t the target wants in exchange for performing the behaviour

ú Any goods and services you will be promoting to your target audience

ú Any additional product elements you will include to assist your target audience in performing the behaviour

Having all three elements is key to campaign success.

• Price – the price that the target market associates with adopting the desired behaviour. Consider using one or two of the price-related strategy examples below.

ú Increase monetary benefi ts for the desired behaviour

ú Decrease monetary costs for the desired behaviour

ú Increase non-monetary benefi ts for the desired behaviour

ú Decrease non-monetary costs for the desired behaviour

ú Increase monetary costs for the competing behaviour

ú Increase non-monetary costs for the competing behaviour

• Place – where and when the target marketing will perform or be considering the desired behaviour, Options include:

ú Physical location

ú Phone/Mobile devices

ú Mail

ú Internet

ú Where people shop/hang out

ú Kiosks/vending machines

ú Home delivery/house calls

• Promotion – the persuasive communications designed and delivered to inspire your audience to action. At this step you determine messages, messengers, creative strategies and communication channels. Major social marketing channels include:

ú Advertising

ú Public relations

ú Social media

ú Special events

ú Printed materials

ú Special promotional items

ú Signage and displays

ú Personal Selling

8 Determine an evaluation plan

An evaluation plan outlines why you will be evaluating, what will be measured, how and when. What is measured often falls into one of the categories below:

INPUTS OUTPUTS OUTCOMES

Resources allocated to the campaign or program eff ort

Program activities conducted to infl uence audiences to perform a desired behaviour

Evaluate how the campaign performed against its objectives

Audience response to outputs

RESEARCH TIP: Consider conducting a post-campaign evaluation to assess the level of market retention (who saw it, did they remember the message, was it motivating, etc.). Retention tells you one story – but actual changes in behaviour (e.g., pledges on a website, website activity, more uptake in a particular service, reduction of tonnage, etc.) will give you a much better indication of how well your campaign worked. Please note that measuring change in behaviour can be very diffi cult to achieve and is often something that needs to be measured repeatedly for a length of time to demonstrate a true shift.

10 STEPS IN THE PLANNING PROCESS CONTINUED

BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 4

9 Establish a campaign budget and find funding

How you budget for your campaign depends on the organization for which your work. A budget might already be set based on calendar year or historical finances – in which case your strategies and tactics will need to be adjusted as needed. Alternatively, your budget might be based on pricing out all the tactics required to satisfy the intent/goal of the campaign – in which case you will have more flexibility in determining the makeup of your tactics.

Consider the following costs when determining your budget:

ú Product-related costs – usually associated with purchasing a tangible good or enhancing a service to support behaviour change.

ú Price-related costs – include those associated with incentives, recognition programs and rewards.

ú Place-related costs – involve providing new or enhanced access or delivery channels (e.g., phone centres, online purchasing, extended hours, etc.).

ú Promotion-related costs – the costs associated with developing, producing and disseminating communications.

ú Evaluation-related costs – include any post-campaign evaluation and measurement.

If your budget isn’t enough, consider finding sources for additional funding: government grants and applications; non-profit/Foundations; media partners; corporations; cash grants and contributions; in-kind contributions and effective use of no-cost distribution channels.

If you find that you still don’t have the desired budget, consider spreading your campaign out into phases to make it more affordable or to buy more time to raise the funds you need. Also consider how you can strategically reduce costs, for example buying only the strongest media channels that will deliver the best results. You can also consider going back to Step 4 and revisiting your goals.

Note: the more realistic your budget is in relation to your campaign goals and expected results, the more likely your campaign and its funding will be approved.

10 Outline an implementation plan

The implementation plan functions as a concise working document to share and track planned efforts. Most commonly, plans represent a minimum of one-year activities and ideally two or three years.

Key components to an effective implementation plan include:

ú What will be done – these are the key activities necessary to execute strategies identified in the marketing mix and the evaluation plan.

ú Who will be responsible – identify who will be responsible for program implementation. This can include staff, partners, sponsors, consultants, volunteers, etc.

ú When will it be done – each major activity needs a start and end date.

ú How much will it cost – outlining expenses/quotes for campaign elements will help with keeping the project on track.

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@NZWCOUNCILNational Zero Waste Council

Sources:

Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviours for Good, Fourth Edition, Nancy R. Lee and Philip Kotler (SAGE 2011)