THERE is one question which any business will ask when considering launching a marketing campaign.
How do we make sure that we reach the right people and fully understand their needs?
It has never been more important to efficiently find the answer as ‘value for money’ is the daily narrative in both the private and public sector.
Social marketing will be a very familiar practice to service providers in the health and education sectors. Think smoking cessation, obesity campaigns, sexual health interventions, and social marketing has been applied for many years.
It reaches out to consumers through a mix of approaches including direct engagement from those ultimately delivering the service. They have to fully embrace the intervention for it to be effectively delivered.
Social marketing has been used in this way to improve breast-feeding rates in low socioeconomic areas.
By working with front-line clinical staff, the service was re-engineered to better focus on potential breast-feeding mothers. By using insights into these mother’s lives and the skills developed by front-line staff, breast-feeding rates improved in the test community by 5% in just three months.
However, is the private sector missing a trick? Can encouraging a behavioural change that has a social rather than a commercial agenda be profitable? The answer is yes and we are beginning to see more of it.
Why would an energy company want to encourage people to use less energy? By demonstrating their social responsibility, their corporate reputation and brand stand to gain.
Since social marketing is evidence based, the added value to commercial organisations that apply the same techniques is that they get detailed information on their current and potential customers in a cultural context.
Market researchers can analyse the ways in which consumers react and interact with a food brand by monitoring them at home within their natural environment. Likewise, a social researcher could monitor the wider cultural, behavioural and psychological factors that impact on eating patterns and habits.
The intelligence gathered by both the commercial and social sectors could be combined to strengthen research and development operations for future products and services.
Now is the time for businesses and public sector organisations to join forces to deliver products and services that fulfil both a commercial and social agenda.
Rita Brophy is head of qualitative research at Newcastle-based SMS Survey and Marketing Services
