“Preparation, patience and a willingness to play the long game.”
These were some of the insights shared by Lisa Cohen, National Programme Manager of Scottish mental health programme See Me at a recent seminar I attended in Wellington, New Zealand.
Many of the factors she raised that contribute to and hinder the success of social marketing programmes are the same ones we’ve been thinking about at New Zealand’s Social Marketing Network. In particular, we’ve been examining the challenges faced by two distinct groups – practitioners (the ones designing and conducting social marketing programmes) and authorisers (the ministers, managers or chief executives who create the budget parameters, time frames and programme boundaries).
Some of these are worth giving a wider airing. Combining some of Lisa’s lessons with discussions we’ve been having on this same topic in New Zealand, here are four factors that contribute to the environments for creating real and sustained social change.
Programmes, not campaigns
Social problems require a systematic response, and social marketing, in its true sense, requires a programme approach. Too often, we hear talk of “social marketing campaigns” – generally one-off or single-layer interventions that are often advertising based. But while advertising campaigns can be powerful, on their own they rarely change behaviour, and do not actually constitute social marketing.
“A ‘campaign’ may be a part of a social marketing programme, but it’s crucial to think about the programme as a whole”
– Lisa Cohen
The challenge here for social marketers is that an advertising campaign is something you can outsource; it’s finite, tangible, and easy to measure. Programme authorisers often ask for the campaign, without also demanding the rigour of a broader programme.
The trouble is, there’s not much sizzle in an integrated programme. They have less well-defined boundaries, tend to be slower to build, and less glorious to trumpet. But they also work better and in the long run can be more cost effective. So our call to practitioner and authorising forces is to demand and invest in programmes, not just campaigns.
Co-design, collaborate and engage. Don’t Preach!
Engage and involve the target audience in programme identification, design and implementation as much, and as soon, as you can. The sooner you do, the more you invest in meaningfully gathering and implementing their input, the better the results in the long term. In the Scottish See Me programme, it’s possible to see the strengthening of the programme (in terms of its reach and impact), the more they involved the voices of people with lived experience of mental illness in their programme planning.
Lisa Cohen says it’s all about talking to people – reaching them one conversation at a time.
The requirement for practitioners is to identify communities early on and engage them meaningfully in programme design and development. For programme authorisers this means giving your teams the time and space to do this respectfully and properly.
Be specific about the change you want
The See Me programme put real effort into clearly identifying the specific actions people could take to make a difference and targeted those actions to specific audiences.
In our rush to implement, we often to keep our programme goals vague and our calls to action general. Being specific requires patience and a robust analysis (including audience research) to properly understand your programme goals and the behaviour you’re seeking.
To increase the likelihood of positive change occurring, practitioners and authorisers alike need to adopt the discipline of being very clear about exactly whose behaviour they want to change, and what they want them to do.
Invest in the planning process
Lisa said they were put in the difficult initial position of creating a campaign before they had a programme in place – “building the plane while we were flying it”.
While this is frustrating for practitioners it’s not the real problem. The real problem is the potential financial and social costs of this ad-hoc, tactical approach to addressing social problems. The costs include, at worst, creating a campaign that has negative impacts and causes unintentional harm. Other risks include wasting public funding and depleting sector, stakeholder and public goodwill.
To successfully create positive social change will require a stronger and more robust authorising environment that understands the value of a programmatic approach and properly engaging with citizens.
It might take time but, to quote Sun Tzu, it’s the slow route to victory.
About the author
Tracey Bridges is a professional director, business owner, mentor & public speaker with expertise in strategy, behaviour change, social marketing and leadership. She’s a co-founder and director of New Zealand based social enterprise, The Good Registry.
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to behaviour change.
But that doesn’t mean encouraging people to adopt new behaviours has to be complicated or expensive. In some cases, simply altering the way in which options are presented can encourage people to make better choices.
This
approach is called ‘choice architecture’ and is based on a deep
understanding of how people think. It can be a simple,
cost-effective means of influencing people’s behaviour.
Choice architecture is great for dealing with simple behaviours. For example, Google uses choice architecture in its cafeteria to encourage staff to make healthier food choices.
But when
it comes to more complex behaviours, choice architecture isn’t
enough. People don’t make choices in a vacuum. In most cases there are
other determinants of behaviour that need to be identified and
addressed.
One of
the better behaviour change frameworks I’ve seen is Susan Michie’s
Behaviour Change Wheel.
The Behaviour Change Wheel highlights nine ‘intervention functions’ and seven ‘policy categories’ that can be applied to support the selected interventions. For more information you can read Understanding Society – How Do We Change Behaviour by the Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute. It’s an excellent document and includes interviews with several leading thinkers in the field.
A few introductory behaviour change tips
Although
every behavioural challenge is different there are some tried and tested
techniques that can improve the chances of designing and delivering a
successful behavioural intervention.
Incentives
Incentives
are used in the commercial and public sectors to influence behaviour.
They can be extrinsic or intrinsic.
Extrinsic
incentives come from outside the person and comprise things like cash rewards,
bonuses and subsidies. As an example, just a few weeks ago the British
Medical Journal published a study that found financial
incentives for smoking cessation in pregnancy could be quite effective.
But
incentives need not be monetary. Finding opportunities to incorporate
non-financial incentives (e.g. peer recognition) can also work.
Intrinsic
incentives are psychological. If you can structure a specific
behaviour to make a person feel good about themselves they’re far
more likely to adopt it. For many people, simply believing that they’re
‘doing the right thing’ can be enough.
So when
looking to encourage a new behaviour it’s always worth thinking
about how can you incentivise.
Of course
the use of incentives should be tailored to your specific
audience. It can be easy to assume that people will respond in a certain
way, but when it comes to what people value, the only real way to find
out is to ask.
Reduce Barriers
Barriers
are all those things that stop people from adopting a new behaviour.
They take many forms but most are either structural or personal.
Personal
barriers are often psychological and include things like habits, fears and
beliefs. Because personal barriers are just that – personal, it’s
important not to assume you know what they are.
Ask your
target group what’s stopping them from changing their behaviour? You can
use social research methods like focus groups, surveys or phone interviews
or perhaps make use of social media to start a conversation.
Most
importantly, listen. Communication is a two-way
process. Many campaigns fail because too much time is spent telling
people what they should think or do, rather than asking how they can be
helped to do it.
Structural
barriers can also seem obvious, but even the most simple ones can be
missed.
Not enough bins?
For example
– anti-littering campaigns won’t work if you don’t provide enough
bins for people to dispose of their rubbish. Nor will it help if the bins that
are provided get put in the wrong places. I’ve lost
track of how many times I’ve walked along the street holding an empty
coffee cup, muttering under my breath because I can’t find a bin.
Instead, all I see are signs reminding me not to litter or risk a
fine.
Most people
want to do the right thing so it’s important to remove
the barriers that might prevent them from doing so.
Personal Motivations
What
moves and motivates your target audience?
People’s behaviour
is influenced by a range of factors that may include:
Attitudes and beliefs
Likes and tastes
Pleasures and gratifications
Control and choice
Hopes and aspirations
Life stage
Building
an understanding of what motivates your target group may help you to
design a behaviour change approach that’s more likely to succeed.
Prompts
Prompts
are often used at the point of decision-making. That might be a
point in time, or a physical location.
Most
people know that commercial marketers use prompts (e.g. special
offer signage, point-of-sale displays) to encourage consumers to purchase a
given product or service. What’s less well known is that prompts are also
used by social marketers to encourage positive individual
and community outcomes.
The image
below is an example of a visual prompt that was used as part of a
week-long road safety campaign back in 2010. It was run by advocacy group Preventable, and the British Columbia
Automobile Association. You can read more about the project here.
An innovative visual prompt to slow down drivers.
What’s The Competition?
What
other things compete for the time and attention of your audience?
Competition
can be internal or external. Internal competition might
include psychological factors like pleasure, desire and
fear. External competition includes wider influences that promote or
reinforce alternative behaviours (e.g. social norms).
Remember
– your message needs to cut through a lot of other noise. Think
about it. How much information are you exposed to every
day? Again, it’s very important to work with your target
market to get a good understanding of what’s competing against
the wanted behaviour.
For
example, let’s say you want to encourage a group of young males to start
drinking low-strength beer instead of full-strength beer. The
competition will include things like the peer pressure felt to drink
full-strength; and a perception that more low-strength beer needs to be
consumed (and more money spent) to achieve the desired effect.
To
succeed in eliciting the wanted behaviour you need to find ways to nullify
competing factors.
Defaults
Changing default choice settings can be an effective means of influencing people’s decision-making. Simply put, the default option is that option which people choose when they do nothing.
The
manipulation of default settings to increase organ donation rates is a much
heralded example of its effectiveness. In Germany people must opt-in
to organ donation program. The donor rate is only 12% of
adults. But in Austria where the default option is to opt-out, 99%
of adults are organ donors.
Substitution
It’s been
shown that people are more likely to try something new if it’s similar to what
they’re already doing. The use of inhalers and nicotine gum as
substitutes for cigarettes is an obvious example.
When
seeking to discourage a specific behaviour think about what can be offered in
its place.
Make it FUN, EASY and POPULAR
If you
can make the desired behaviour fun, easy and popular you increase the chances
of it being adopted.
Of
course, ‘fun’ speaks to motivation, and ‘ease’ speaks to barriers.
‘Popularity’ may also increase the chances of word of mouth
promotion, social sharing etc.
Cue this great example from The Fun Theory which I (and many others) have used numerous times over the years to illustrate how effective fun can be at modifying people’s behaviour.
Piano stairs – The Fun Theory.
Self-Monitoring
If a
person can monitor their performance towards a given goal they’re more likely
to succeed.
That’s
one reason there’s been an explosion in the design and use of health and
fitness apps.
A
good example is My Quit Buddy which allows people to personalise and
monitor their own milestones and targets.
Of course
self-monitoring tools don’t need to be high tech. The very act of
writing things down has been shown to reduce the likelihood of people
repeating unwanted behaviours.
Error Proofing
Effective
design can make it difficult for people to deviate from the
desired behaviour by making it easier to avoid errors, or by making it
impossible to make an error at all.
Error
proofing is used just about everywhere, from rumble strips on our roads to
safety switches in our fuse boxes. Alcohol ignition switches are another
good example. They’re used in several Australian jurisdictions to prevent
convicted drunk drivers from re-offending.
Rumble strips – a great example of error proofing.
Many of
the best examples of error proofing are so well integrated into everyday
life that their presence goes unnoticed.
Simple, Concrete Actions
Make sure
that your target group is provided with relevant and meaningful
information.
And
rather than talking about the problem in broad terms,
provide discrete and simple actions that can be taken to overcome it.
A Few Final Thoughts
Behaviour change is achievable. Sometimes it can be realised quickly and easily with a little nudge, but in other cases it takes a more holistic approach over time. Either way, being clear about the specific behaviour you want to change is critical. Set SMART objectives. Measure outcomes.
So you’ve just developed a new initiative, service or product that’s going to make a real change to the way your organisation goes about its business or deals with its customers. But how do you tell all the people involved with your business – those that would be affected and those that could have an effect – about the change that’s about to happen? What you need is a communication plan.
A communication plan need not be onerous. It’s simply a matter of identifying what you need to say, who you need to say it to, and the most effective way to say it.
A lot of people are going to be interested in what you’re doing and you need to identify:
Who they are
What to tell them
How to tell them
Who is going to tell them
When they are going to be told
The communication plan
Start with a brief, one sentence statement of what the change is, how it will help and who will benefit. Literally 25 words or less. Put it at the top of page one in italics, quotes, bolded, boxed or some other way to make it stand out. This one sentence is your initiative’s raison d’être, and it will help you keep focused while you develop your plan.
Situation analysis
Next comes a brief story on what has brought about the change. It might be the changing needs of a key target market, a new form of technology that can be applied to your business, or some other initiative that will fill a market niche you have identified.
Keep it brief and punchy, using active speech and plain English. Try to keep it no longer than three paragraphs with no more than three sentences per paragraph – if it goes longer give it a hard editing and pare it back – and then put it under a heading like Situation analysis or current situation.
Stakeholder analysis
Next step is to identify the people that need to know. You already know who they are; it’s simply a matter of mapping all of your business’s stakeholders that will be affected or potentially have an effect. Obviously customers, also employees, volunteers and contractors, perhaps suppliers, and maybe other businesses and service providers that refer people to you.
If your new product or service might have political implications, what about the local MP or even the state or federal cabinet minister with responsibility for the field in which you work?
Is there potential media interest in what you’re doing? If so, the media should also be on your stakeholder list. Bear in mind though, that the news media does not provide free advertising and once you’ve given the media the information you’ve no longer got control of the message.
If what you need to communicate has a potential bad news angle it might be best to communicate directly with the people that need to know first, and at the same time get ready for media enquiries rather than give the media the story and expect it to run your way. The media is not necessarily your friend.
So what you’re looking for is all the people or groups that have a real or potential interest in – or an effect on – your service or product. List your stakeholders in order of importance along with a short sentence of how they would potentially be affected by the changes, or how they could affect what you’re trying to achieve. Remember there is no such thing as a ‘general public’. Each of your ‘publics’, or stakeholders, are different so each will probably perceive your product or service differently. Put your list into your communication plan under the heading of Stakeholder analysis.
Key messages Now make a list of short, concise sentences that say the what, where, when, why, how and for whom of your product or service. Refer back to your one sentence at the top of page one to keep you focused. While you’re building your list keep referring back to your list of stakeholders and put yourself in their shoes. This will help to ensure you have the answers to all of their potential questions.
Communication channels
Your next step is to identify the best way to tell each of your stakeholders what’s happening. There’s no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ solution to communication. Each stakeholder or group of stakeholders will have one or more preferred ways of receiving information and your challenge is to find the best and most effective method or methods.
The right channel could be anything from a simple letter to a mass media advertising campaign and might include newsletters (printed or email), your website, brochures, flyers and point-of-sale information, banners and posters, even press, journal, internet, radio or TV advertising, journal articles, maybe a media release to all media or just a call to the editor or a journalist at the local paper, or even setting up a Facebook page or Twitter account.
New media and ways of getting your message out are emerging all the time and each channel is worth investigating to see if it’s where your stakeholders will be seeking information. Does your organisation have a call centre? If so customers are likely to call with questions so consider a briefing for call centre staff and developing a Q&A so they can provide a simple answer to the most common questions.
You can use your key messages as a starting point for your Q&A. If you have the names and addresses of your customers and other stakeholders then a personal letter is often a cheap and effective channel. If necessary you can tailor individual letters to different stakeholder groups.
Communication matrix
Now you’ve come to the part where you can really start to simplify things, and one really useful way to do this is with a matrix. Just list all of the channels available to you on one axis and all of your stakeholder groups on the other. Then for each stakeholder tick the box for the channel or channels you have selected as the best option.
Here’s a simple example:
Communication Matrix – Peter Beard
That’s it, you’re pretty much done. All you’ve got to do now is assign tasks to the people who are going to help you, set deadlines and tick off each part of the plan as it’s completed. One way to do that is to tabulate your plan, print it out and keep it on your desk or pinned to the wall. Be sure to include the following:
Message: What do we need to tell them? Channel: How are we going to tell them? People: Who’s responsible for doing it? Deadline: By when does it need to happen?
And that’s your communication plan. It’s simple, effective and should only take a few hours to complete. It’s also there as a reminder in case anyone gets lost along the way.
And finally, remember that quite often plans don’t go according to plan and even the world’s best communication plan will still need tweaking and updating along the way.
About the author
Peter Beard is a communications and media consultant with more than three decades experience in the government and private sectors. He now runs his own communications business in Perth, Western Australia.
