Transcript Communications Strategy Planning Process: The Promotion Mix

Determining Your
Message Products
and Identifying
Communication
Activities
The 4Ps of Social
Marketing
1. Product
2. Place (or distribution)
3. Price
4. Promotion
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#5 – is people!
And the 6th ‘P” is PROOF!
Whether or not you think you are
selling a product, you are: Your
product is the behaviour change,
belief change, attitude or awareness
change that you are promoting
through your demo project.
Price/Cost includes the actual
monetary and non-monetary costs
exchanged in the act of purchasing
the product. But there are also, in
social marketing – psychological
costs such as embarrassment,
withdrawal symptoms, peer
pressure, and so forth. Time and
opportunity costs are also included
as are ‘opportunity costs lost’ (if the
product is purchased, what else
cannot be bought – or enjoyed, or
used).
Exchange Theory is
Fundamental
Benefits must outweigh the
costs if your audience is to
change and adopt your product
.
PRICE
In commercial marketing, the costs are
straightforward. In social marketing, they
are often hidden or secondary or
‘opportunity costs’ that need to be
considered. For example,
• I know I shouldn’t dump my waste in the
river, but it’s too far to take it to the
dumpster.
• I know I should stop drinking, but I don’t
want to be embarrassed and go to AA
In social marketing – context
costs are usually short term
and certain, but benefits are
often long term and less
certain (Weinstein, 1988, cited
in Donovan and Henley 2003).
The challenge in behaviour
change communication is to
sell unsure, long-term benefits
when the short term costs are
often certain, and very high.
Place (or distribution) is
the process of making
the product available to
the consumer – therefore
including channels,
networks, access factors,
availability of
transportation, ease of
parking, location, etc.
This also includes how
you ‘position’ your
product.
PLACE
Think of ‘place’ as how
to make sure you get
your product where it is
available for people to
get. This is the ‘making
sure its on the shelves’
part of the equation to
factor in to your social
marketing strategy.
For behaviour change, we need to have our
products –and our messages – in the places
where our audience is. Where are they????
Another important fact –
PEOPLE!
In behaviour change
communication, sometimes the
best way to ‘place’ your product
is through people – mentors, face
to face, communicators. They are
often the ‘gate keepers’
The mystery of
‘word of mouth’
advertising…
Why is it that some
ideas or behaviours
or products start
epidemics and
others don’t? And
what can we do to
deliberately start
and control positive
epidemics of our
own? …(Gladwell,
2002:14).
Promotion is the mix
of activities undertaken
to create awareness of
the product and its
benefits and to persuade
the consumer to go for
it. Promotion includes
advertising, direct
marketing, personal
selling, sponsorship,
public relations.
PROMOTION
Promoting your ‘product’ will require a
variety of tactics and a ‘mix of methods’
including:
•Advertising
•Sales promotion
•Sponsorship
•Publicity and public relations
•Free merchandising (give aways)
•And personal selling
Point of Decision-Making
Both effective social
marketing and commercial
advertising campaigns, try
to get to their
‘client/customer’ at that
‘just in time moment’,
when the audience is just
about to make their mind
up or do something.
More about PRODUCT
In commercial marketing – the product is in fact a
tangible item or service. But in social marketing, the product is
a particular BENEFIT.
“Although people may buy a quarter-inch drill, what they
really want is a quarter inch hole”.
Kotler (1988) makes a distinction between:
•The core product
•The augmented product
•And the actual tangible product
The core product is the underlying benefit
that the consumer is getting by buying a
product or service or by adopting a practice.
It’s what people really, really want!
What are some examples of these differences?
Which is the core product, the augmented
product and which is the actual tangible
product?
The augmented product involves what
Donovan and Henley (2003:239) call ‘the
buyer’s total consumption system’. But
really refers to all of the additional services
and benefits that supplement the actual
product or that are needed to sell the core
product.
Commercially, this might involve the
purchase of insurance, warranties, service
agreements, training and so forth.
Augmented products can also be
incentives.
So augmented products for those just
discussed might include:
To feel attractive (core product) – we buy cosmetic guides,
magazines or also beautician services (augmented products),
To lose weight or diet (core product) – we buy health
cookbooks, diet magazines, food scales, cooking classes, etc.
(augmented products)
To prevent HIV/AIDs (core product) – we might buy literature
on HIV/AIDS, check anonymous hotlines or websites
To get a better career (core product) – we pay tuition, library
fees, take extra classes, hire tutors, (bring our lecturers apples
and fruit….) etc.
Well-being and stress reduction – buy a yoga DVD, take a yoga
class, get a personal yoga instructor, and so on.
Tangible products to achieve the
same core product might be
•
•
•
•
•
Cosmetics, lipsticks, etc.
Prepared diet meals
Actual condoms
Books, pens, course materials
Yoga mats, yoga outfits, mystic music,
incense, candles, …
Another Important factor –
PRODUCT MIX
In promoting social change – you can’t only sell
one option – you need a mix of different options for
the same ‘core product’. That way people – and
different market/audience segments - have a menu
choice of complementary products to choose from
and that always makes us feel better. They also
provide different product choices for different
audiences. For example:
An exercise programme might promote the
following options:
•Ride or walk to work
•Take the baby for a stroll
•Walk the dog
•Play with your kids on the swings in the
playground
•Walk - instead of taking a cart when golfing
• Dance, Dance, Dance
Pros and Cons of Different Types of
Media
Does media
really make a
difference?
For example, (Donovan and Henley,
2003:267) suggest that it is:
“unrealistic…to expect that advertising
alone will have a significant impact on
a man’s violent behaviour, but it can
have a substantial influence on
encouraging the violent man to seek
help…”
Donovan and Henley’s (2003:
268) suggest it is realistic to
expect that media will have the
most behavioural effect where all
or nearly all of the following
apply:
• The desired behaviour change requires
little time, effort, financial, or
psychological effort;
• Where social norms are important and
favour the desired change;
• Where there are clear and substantial
benefits to the individual (that outweigh
the costs)
• Where there are no major environmental
inhibitors
• Where the individual’s attitudes are
neutral or already mildly positive towards
change
Think outside the box when
choosing media today. Some new
media to consider might be:
• Multi-media kiosks in malls and
transportation centers
• Game box (play station, X-Box)
• Mobile phone text messages….
• DVDs and CDRoms
• Internet cafes
• You-tube
We should not forget the
importance of including ‘events’
in our strategies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Conferences
Speaking engagements
“Walk-a-thons”
Music Festivals
Film festivals
Dances
“Launches” ….
Civic Journalism
Find these persons/shows. By
partnering with them, you create a
win-win scenario.
Media Mix
So, now you’ve gone through all the options
with respect to different media choices. You
cannot do everything, but need to maximize
your options. After (1) correctly identifying
your audience and studying their needs,
attitudes, practices and beliefs, (2) setting
appropriate and realistic objectives, (3)
choosing your media mix will be the corner
stone of your campaign design.
Messages & Communication
Efforts May (Will) Fail if:
• We get our ‘purpose’ or objective wrong. We
haven’t diagnosed the problem correctly.
• We make our message too general.
• We aren’t specific about what we want to
people to do, or to feel.
• We pick the wrong target audience.
• We don’t know our audience (their goals,
desires, aspirations…)
• We get the message wrong.
• We aren’t creative enough in designing
our message
• We get the channels or networks for
communication wrong.
• We don’t work within budget.
• We don’t pretest and get feedback.
• We don’t have the support services in
place to help people do the right thing. Or,
we aren’t organized to respond.
The good news is, we don’t have to get
100% in everything to have a good
campaign!!!!