Sustainable food for the future;Social marketing – an essential tool for EHPs Jenny Morris, Principal Policy Officer, CIEH

Key trends, drivers and issues

Food: an analysis of the issues. Cabinet Office. January 2008

A 21st century food strategy

• Continuous improvement in food safety

• Healthier diets

• A more environmentally sustainable food chain

• Fair prices, choice, access to food and food security through the promotion of open, competitive markets

Food Matters. Towards a Strategy for the 21st century. Cabinet Office 2008

Food security

Food: an analysis of the issues. Cabinet Office. January 2008

Food choice – positive and negative outcomes

Food: an analysis of the issues. Cabinet Office. January 2008

The sustainability context

An environmentally sustainable food chain

Environmental impacts• Food production

Greatest impact from growth and production e.g. livestock –water pollution, greenhouse gases etc

• RetailStore size, construction and location; transport; influence on consumer choice e.g. imported foods; supplier standards - environmental and packaging

• ConsumersUse of transport, storage and preparation; waste; choice e.g. seasonality; eating out

Food chain contribution to GHG emissions

Transport emissions from food chain

Sustainability components?

• Business partnerships e.g. promoting corporate social responsibility

• Encouraging local sourcing, shortened food supply chains i.e. “food miles”

• Promoting waste reduction i.e. food and packaging

• Promoting recycling

Sharing good practice

www.foodvision.gov.uk

Food Vision case studies

Lancashire County and District Councils

6 Councils in Cornwall

Barriers to change

Some issues:

• Focus on EH as “regulators”

• Poor recognition of wider EH role/competence

• Need to showcase EH “success”

• Resource constraints – need to balance food safety activities with those for diet and health; food security and sustainability

A place for environmental health?

• Contribution to climate change agenda

• Health effects created

•Public and private sector partnerships required e.g. Regional Directors of Public Health initiatives

•CIEH support materials

Local Area Agreements

Sustainable Food in LAAs

Outcomes

National Indicators

Examples of interventions and activities

Environmental sustainability

NI 185. CO2 reduction from LA operationsNI 190. Achievement in meeting standards for the control system for animal healthNI 197. Improved local biodiversity – active management of local sites

Delivery of Strategy for Sustainable Farming and FoodEncourage sustainable farming practices which improve biodiversity of natural environmentSupport Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI)Awareness campaigns to promote local and seasonal food

Effective communication

Food Matters (2008)

And now - social marketing

“the systematic application of marketing and other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioural goals, for a social or public good”

for‘social good’

marketingand other

concepts andtechniques

systematicapplication

behavioural goals

“ Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing and other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioural goals, for a social or public good”

French, Blair-Stevens 2006

What is social marketing?

What is social marketing?

“Social marketing is not about smarter campaigns or a new function for government departments – it is about a long term cultural change agenda built on deep “user” insight that will deliver significant benefits to society and the efficient management of public services”

Ed Mayo, National Consumer Council

“It would be easy to just give the public (or business) information and hope they change behaviour but we know that doesn’t work very well. Otherwise none of us would be obese, smoke or break the law”

Do we need social marketing?

What is the relevance for environmental health?

• EH works to improve standards

• Regulation is a limited tool

• Promotion of change is the goal

• Focus on being effective

• Social marketing is on the agenda

Making the distinction between: strategic & operational social marketing

POLICY

STRATEGY

IMPLEMENTATION

strategic social marketing

operational social marketing

Where can social marketing apply?

Strategic social marketing Operational

social marketing

POLICY

STRATEGY

IMPLEMENTATION

To recap social marketing is not:

• Just social communication re-badged

• About telling people what to do

• A panacea or magic bullet

• Evil – it’s ‘marketing’

How to think about social marketing

As ‘a mind set’

planne

d

process

‘customer triangle’

‘total process planning model’

As a mind set

- concepts and principles

As a process and set of techniques

8 Benchmark criteria

• Customer orientation• Behaviour• Theory• Insight• Exchange• Competition• Segmentation• Methods mix

Social marketing customer triangle

3 core concepts

• Insight

• Exchange

• Competition

Gaining insight

Knowledge understandi

ng

BeliefsAttitudes

Social normsCultural norms

BenefitsBarriers

MotivatorsAspirations

ValuesFears

Feelings

Influencese.g. peers, family, role

models

Developing actionable insights

Exchange

COSTS BENEFITS

The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit

Milton Friedman

Both areas contribute valuable expertise, skills, techniques and

theory

This means .....

• Using research to pinpoint the problem, understand why people do what they do and what might help them to change their behaviour

• Identifying “incentives” to sustain change

• Identifying and eliminating barriers to change

• “Outsmarting” the “competition”

Gaining insight- a short exercise

Chinese TakeawayBehavioural ChallengeStores cooked food out of temperature control for long periods of time e.g. rice

Small independent retailerBehavioural challengeFails to remove all products before expiry of Use By date

Tasks - Draw up a “pen portrait” based on the following questions:What are the beliefs, values, cultural norms?Who and what are the key influencers?What benefits are valued?What are the motivations ?What are the fears and concerns?What/who are the competition and how can they be overcome?

Social marketing customer triangle

3 core principles

• Behavioural goals

• Segmentation

• Intervention and marketing mix

A segmentation approach uses

• More than just demographics e.g. Geography; Socio-demographics; Psycho-graphics (behaviours/attitudes)

• A focus on target audience motivation

• Interventions tailored to specific segments

Segmentation “groups”

YUPPIES Young Upwardly Mobile Professional People

DINKE Double Income No Kids

DUMP Destitute Unemployed Mature Professional

PIPPIE Person Inheriting Parents Property

SCUM Self Centred Urban Male

SILKY Single Income Loads of Kids

SINBAD Single Income No Boyfriend Absolutely Desperate

SITCOM Single Income Two Children Outrageous Mortgage

WOOPIE Well-Off Older Person

LOMBARD Loads Of Money But A Right Dickhead

The importance of segmentation

MESSAGERemove out of date foods – they could

harm people

Oh no – how am I going to do that

everyday

So what? Hmm, they didn’t

say anything about drinks

though so that’s ok

But it’s really unlikely and they might

not ... And I’ve got to make a

profit

The UK “Eating out” market 2005

Food: an analysis of the issues. Cabinet Office. January 2008

Social marketing – “a paradigm shift”

Professional ‘direction’

Selling/telling

Awareness raising

Adult – Child

One off

Problem

General audience

Central command

Customer led

Marketing/exchange

Behavioural change

Sustained

Opportunity

Segmented audience

Networks

Crafting‘our

messages’

communicating the

messages

Communications & message based approach

accurate / relevant / clear

creative / clever / funny / impactful / interesting / attention

grabbing / etc

Starts with the customer and what’s important to them

Customer based social marketing approach

understanding the

customerdirectly informing intervention options

(intervention mix & marketing mix)

generating ‘insight’

what ‘moves & motivates’

Difference in approach

What’s going on? ‘what moves & motivates’:

- Own views not those received from ‘authority’ - Self-perception of maturity: ‘an adult’ not ‘a child’ - Move away from parents influence and teachers - Importance of peer views & approval - Fun, social benefits, enjoying attention & ‘causes’ - Questioning, challenging, rebellion, streetwise - Living in ‘the now’ less concern for distant future

Basic insights:

Selling of ‘health’ and longer term benefits, or ‘being good’ very unmotivating – avoid (can be counter motivating)

Connect to ‘own views’, not being conned, link to a cause & rebellion, ensure social & fun benefits are strong

eg: ‘Truth’ campaign approach www.wholetruth.com

‘Customer based’ social marketing approach

understanding the

customerdirectly informing intervention options

(intervention mix & marketing mix)

generating ‘insight’

what ‘moves & motivates’

Example: Young people & smoking:

Identifying the intervention mixFormative research• What is the problem?• What is the context?• Who will be the target audience?• How do they think and behave about the

problem?• What ‘product’ will appeal?• How can you best reach the audience?• What messages and materials would work

best?• What is the best intervention mix?

Influencing behaviour – four key elements

Education• Inform and advise• Build awareness• Persuade and inspire

Design• Environmental and

physical context• Design and engineer

“bespoke” systems• Increase availability• Improve distribution

Control• Legislate, regulate• Enforce• Set standards

Support• Toolkits• Business support• Recognise success eg

Awards

Starting from “where the customer is at”

INFO

RMeducate

comm

unicate

advise

unaware or

not considering

attempting but

not succeeding

contemplating but

not yet acting

actively resisting

or entrenched

“not

hing to

do

with

me”

“its

just

too

hard”

“don

’t giv

e a

damn”

SOCIAL MARKETING

Tailoring interventions to take

full account of where the

customer is starting from CONTR

OL

requ

ire

enfo

rce

legis

late

SUPPORT DESIGN

A social marketing intervention mix

CONTROL

SUPPORT

INFO

RM

DESIG

N

social marketing intervention

Social marketing considers how to utilise each area & get an appropriate balance or ‘mix’ between different ways to influence behaviour, based on different needs and wants of different consumers, driven by consumer insight

Both areas contribute valuable expertise, skills, techniques and

theory

This means ...

• Being clear about the change sought and how it will be measured

• Identifying specific groups with common behaviours, culture, knowledge, norms etc (segmentation) in order to create targeted solutions

• Creating an “offer you can’t refuse” • Doing more than communication and

awareness raising

“The Chitterlings story”

The problem• Traditional seasonal product (Nov/Dec)

• Home prepared by African American community (US)

• Severe diarrhoea outbreaks (infants predominantly)

“The Chitterlings story” (2)

• The solution - Pre-boil for 5 minutes

• “The old approach” - Leaflets, campaigns, posters

• The outcome - No change

The social marketing approach

• Understand the barriers- Not the way we do it traditionally- Might not taste so good

• Overcome the barriers- Find the community “power” i.e. the matriarchs - Use community channels to pass the message- Show it still tastes good - Promote the message widely

• New outcome- Year on year reduction in cases

Superficial adoption won’t deliver

• Using the language of social marketing without applying its disciplines

• Only applying social marketing principles to operational issues

• Getting a few practitioners to take up social marketing

Three traps we need to avoid

Future action

• Provision of centralised resources eg links to research information

• Case studies of effective practice• Planning tools• Practitioner training• Evaluation tools

Ongoing developments

National Social Marketing Centre •Planning tools •Evaluation tools•Case studies of effective practice•One stop shop for research

FSA/NSMC/CIEH partnership•Development of training course

CIEH •Wider training needs review

• Resources and presentations

• Links to other social marketing projects – evidence and best practice via case study database

• Training and workshops

• Project management and advice

• Research and evaluation – ‘one stop shop’

• Commissioning support and resources

• Regional Development and Support Managers

Support available from NSMC

www.nsmcentre.org.uk www.brilliantfutures.org

National Social Marketing Centre

http://www.nsms.org.uk

Social marketing support

Conclusions

“If we continue to do what we’ve always done, we will only get what we’ve always got.”

“Currently we are missing a trick by failing to fully realise the potential of social marketing.”

(NSMC 2005)

Thankyou