Dr Stephen Dann

Senior LecturerMarketing Management and

International BusinessThe Australian National University

Commercial Marketing and Social Marketing

Commercial Marketing• an organizational function and a set of processes for

creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders” (AMA 2004)

Social marketing • a process that applies marketing principles and

techniques to create, communicate, and deliver value in order to influence target audience behaviors that benefit society (public health, safety, the environment and communities) as well as the target audience."

Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee and Michael Rothschild (2006) in Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good (SAGE Publications) 2007.

What makes it Marketing?

Creation, communication and delivery.• Marketing is more than communication

Value for Benefit• Serving the self interest of the individual in the

name of the self interest of the organisation

Exchange• The process is designed to be implemented so

that everybody involved gains during the exchange

What makes it social marketing?

Marketing.

If there is no marketing, there is no social marketing

…Marketing is not something we can just make up as we go along because someone put ‘‘social’’ in front of it. We all need to read a marketing textbook…

Smith, 2006, Social Marketing Quarterly

Adding commercial marketing thinking to Social Marketing

Three Themes

Integration of relationship marketing and internet marketing

Interpreting consumer research to create new opportunities (and challenges)

Targeting consumers’ progress towards adopting a desired behaviour

Relationship Marketing

Starting with the relationships

What is relationship marketing?

• establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other partners,

• at a profit, • so that the objectives of the parties involved

are met.

• This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises.

Keys to Relationship Marketing

Trust • willingness to rely on a partner in an exchange• level of confidence in the other partner, • belief in the trustworthiness • reliance on the other partner to perform

Commitment • perceived need to continue the relationship, either due

to the inherent value of staying or the cost of departure

Reciprocity • notions of equality in the transaction, • value-for-value exchange • mutual obligation between partners in the relationship.

How’s that help social marketing?

Trust, reciprocity and commitment underpin long term engagement between business and consumer

Government Marketing and Relationship Marketing• Relationship with the customer is for the long term• Need to deliver to the audience

Meet goals Build trust Keep promises

Long term value of a trusted exchange between two parties

Social Marketing Relationship Marketing

Relationship reciprocity involves the non-monetary aspects of the marketing relationship and includes:• increased stability between relationship

partners

• reduced risk in supplier selection Who to trust for social change information

• increased efficiencies over the course of the relationship

Less resources spent on proofing trustworthiness

Using Commercial Marketing for Social Marketing

Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing

Four rules Accept there is competition

Set the campaign free

Make it easy to share

Work with the natural environment

Using Commercial Marketing for Social Marketing

Interpreting consumer research to create new opportunities (and

challenges)

Step 1

Talk to the intended audience.• Seriously, just talk.

Ask the target audience about what they do • Get them to describe it to you• What do they like about the current behavior?

If they’re wanting to change, talk about the barriers they feel get in their way

What’s good about it? Why do they do it?

Let them ask what can they do to assist and support?

Step 2. Get ready to make a deal

Offer a solution to the problem (if they’ve said there’s a problem)

Offer a better deal (if they’re enjoying what they’re doing)

Offer something to think about (if they’re unaware)

When you make the offer• Be specific• Be direct • Be obvious

Step 2.5

Do not offer “health”. • Nobody actually cares about their health. • They care about what health lets them do.

“improved health” is not “keeping up with the kids”

Nobody buys a box of health. • Appeal to vanity• Appeal to the self interest

Step 3

Go back to the people from Step 1• Talk to them• Make them the offer• See how they react to the offer• Be ready to change the offer, scrap the offer

or upgrade and supersize their social change• Build a relationship based on being honest,

trustworthy and holding up your end of the deal

• Don’t cheat

Step 4: Don’t cheat

Don’t cheat.• Switching to legislative enforcement when our social

change campaigns fail to take a grip is cheating. It's saying that if you won't play nicely, we'll force you to play.

Cheating defeats trust.• You will do because we enforce, not because we trust

Cheating says there’s no reciprocity. • You will do, or else.

Cheating kills the commitment• Do it because we said so, not because you’re actually

committed to holding up your end of the deal

Learning from Commercial Practice

If you’re going to use social marketing, then you make an offer, and if the market rejects the offer, you go back and try again.

Keep making different offers until you quit or you beat the current market.

Ask Apple about how many different offers it took to be the guys who made the iPod.

Summary

90 second summary

Talk to the end user

The internet is great at what it does, but not everybody uses the internet.• Go where the target market is

If it’s new to you, check it’s new to them before declaring it innovative.

The iPod Social Change approach means overnight success after decades of missing the mark.