Do Symbolic Gestures Make a Difference?

by Nedra Weinreich | Oct 4, 2006 | Behavior Change, Blog, Social Marketing

Whether you think it’s the symbol of world peace or a corrupt thugocracy, when a major world organization like the United Nations shows up in Second Life, people take notice. Second Life Insider reports that on October 15-16, Second Life residents will be able to participate in the United Nations Millennium Campaign to Stand Up against poverty.

The Millennium Campaign was launched to hold the countries of the world accountable to their commitments to the eight goals that would eradicate extreme poverty by 2015:

1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

With the Stand Up campaign, they are trying to set an official Guinness World Record for “the greatest number of people ever to Stand Up Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals” (I didn’t realize there was a category for that! Seems like any number would set that record.). To that end, they are asking people around the world to participate — including virtually in Second Life. SL residents can obtain a free white wrist band for their avatar and click it at the appropriate time to assume the “stand up” pose and be registered as a participant in the event.

This article sparked an interesting discussion in the comments section, with Prokovy Neva starting it off:

You do have to ask whether awareness/Internet/SL things like this are really the best use of scarce resources and the good UN name.

I can’t imagine what clicking on a pixelated wristwatch in a video game like environment will actually do to alleviate real poverty of real people.

This is dangerous virtuality, in my view, like cocaine — it makes people mistakenly believe they are really doing something, that their feeling good about having their awareness raised is something having effect in the RL [real life]. It isn’t.

Tomas Hausdorff countered:

I think activities like this that raise awareness do have a significant value. No, they don’t directly address the underlying problem. I don’t think anyone would be confused enough to believe that clicking an object in a virtual world “solves” anything, any more than standing in front of a building waving a placard “solves” anything.

However, reading the sign, participating at a particular time…these things should make at least a percentage of the participants spend a few moments thinking about the Millenium Development Goals. And like a commercial on the subject, all it is intended to do is reach an even smaller percentage- those who might be incented to actually *do* something about the goals.

For that reason, I think this is a worthy effort.

Aimee Weber, who built the campaign in SL noted:

The magic is not in clicking an pixellated wrist band. The magic is in the numbers of citizens of nations who will know what their governments promised they would do in 2015.

Prokofy then got to the heart of what has been bothering me about this campaign from a social marketing perspective:

Awareness-raising without some specific recipes for action really gets to feel like disaster porn to me.

Symbolic gestures can be powerful in bringing about political or social change. Think of Rosa Parks sitting on the bus, the lone Chinese protester facing down the tank in Tiananmen Square, even the thousands of citizens who miss work and spend money to travel to the National Mall for various demonstrations each year. These gestures are so powerful both for what they represent and because the participants have something significant at stake — whether it’s their safety or life, or the time and money they give to show their identification with the cause.

And other symbolic protests or awareness-building events on a smaller scale can also be effective by increase an individual’s empathy for — and personal stake in — the issue. Tomorrow’s DarfurFast, in which individuals will be fasting in solidarity with the people of Darfur; numerous walkathons and runs that require a physical commitment as well as collecting donations; even Hands Across America, which seems a similar concept to the Stand Up campaign, but which collected money that was donated to local homeless and anti-hunger agencies — all of these events are designed to raise awareness but also have a call to action associated with them. Whether it is donating money or writing to your local Congressman, these are actions that could make a difference in the issue.

My concern with the Stand Up campaign and other initiatives that have no accompanying action beyond standing up or clicking on a virtual bracelet is that they don’t go anywhere. Awareness is absolutely the first step in getting someone to become involved in an issue. But a campaign cannot stop there. Awareness then needs to lead to some sort of action, otherwise you are wasting your time. If the Stand Up campaign encouraged people to do things like sending an e-mail to their country’s policymakers to demand that they take action to reach the Millennium Goals, writing letters to the editor of their local newspapers, volunteering in their community’s food bank to do their part to alleviate poverty — these would be a good use of the awareness and good will the campaign generates.

But a symbolic gesture that requires little or no actual commitment or risk from the person doing it is an empty gesture. It feels good at the time, but then they feel they’ve done their bit and quickly forget about the issue.

Just as knowledge is necessary but not sufficient to bring about behavior change, awareness is necessary but not sufficient to bring about social or political change.

Technorati Tags: second life, UN, marketing, social marketing

Communications are Not Enough

by Nedra Weinreich | Sep 29, 2006 | Behavior Change, Blog, Social Marketing

When people want to bring about health change on a broad scale, most think about communications campaigns.  While these can be very effective, don’t forget about the P in the social marketing mix that stands for policy.  Governmental or organizational policies can create an environment that supports individual behavior change or that does not even require the individuals themselves to be the ones that do the changing.

A study by the American Heart Association found this to be the case:

A Colorado city ban on smoking at workplaces and in public buildings may have sparked a steep decline in heart attacks, researchers reported on Monday.

In the 18 months after a no-smoking ordinance took effect in Pueblo in 2003, hospital admissions for heart attacks for city residents dropped 27 percent, according to the study led by Dr. Carl Bartecchi, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

“Heart attack hospitalizations did not change significantly for residents of surrounding Pueblo County or in the comparison city of Colorado Springs, neither of which have non-smoking ordinances,” said the American Heart Association, which published the study in its journal Circulation.

The association said this was further evidence of the damage wrought by secondhand smoke.

This policy led to 108 fewer heart attacks in Pueblo in an 18-month period, likely as a result of a decrease in the effect of secondhand smoke as a triggering factor for heart attacks, according to the AHA.

This result actually ties in nicely with part of Craig Lefebvre’s recent post on critiques of social marketing, where he says:

Bottom line: Your theoretical or philosophical model for how behavior comes to be, is maintained and can be most effectively modified or changed determines how you use the principles and tools that social marketing provides.  This was always the central point of people like Larry Wallack and other proponents of a social determinants point-of-view who criticized social marketing for ‘blaming the victim.’  Individual theories of behavior change will lead you down that path, whether you utilize a social marketing approach or some other model. The rise of social ecological models, policy interventions and environmental change approaches to public health are all attempts to reorient how ‘we’ view the world and interact with it in our professional capacities. In the way I think about social marketing, it provides a systematic and strategic way to think about issues of being audience-centric, aware of and responsive to larger trends and competition in the environment, using research to guide and inform program development, and applying the 4Ps. The more theoretical models we have in our toolboxes to bring to the task, the more successful, I believe, we will be.

Before you invest lots of money in a media campaign or other communications (i.e., Craig’s 4 Ps of communication – posters, pamphlets, PSAs and publicity events), think about how you can change the environment rather than just how you can change behavior.

Technorati Tags: social marketing, marketing, policy, smoking, heart attacks

Blood for Oil?

by Nedra Weinreich | Aug 17, 2006 | Behavior Change, Blog, Social Marketing

I donated blood the other day (and was so excited to be able to do so because a few weeks previously they had turned me away, as often happens, because my iron was too low).  As I was lying there in the cold American Legion building, I reflected on why people donate. 

The people who were there donating with me were total strangers to each other, and came on their own rather than as part of a blood drive by their workplace or other communal organization, so they weren’t there to impress anyone.  It was the middle of a workday, so it probably wasn’t very convenient.  The cookies and juice at the end were a nice bonus, but I don’t think it was enough to induce people to come. 

And the donation process itself is not very fun — you get stuck in the finger, have to answer lots of invasive questions and then get the blood drained out of you through an uncomfortable needle in your arm, after which you may feel dizzy or weak.  [Note: If you have never given blood before it’s actually not that bad – I’m overdramatizing to make a point!]

So what was the promotion that the Red Cross was using to encourage me to come donate?  To get a chance to win something like $500 worth of gasoline.  I have a feeling that nobody was there to try to win gas.  What were the chances that out of all the donors in Southern California, I would win? They could have saved their money and still had the same number of donors.

Why was I there?  Because I had received an e-mail from the Red Cross letting me know that the need for blood was dire.  That supplies were at such a low that there was not enough blood for those who needed it.  That they really needed my O positive blood desperately.  That I could make the difference between someone living and dying.

By making me feel like it was up to me to take action, that I couldn’t let someone else do it, and that the stakes were so high, the Red Cross motivated me to load up on the iron pills for a few weeks to try to make sure that this time I would be able to donate.  Knowing that you can save someone else’s life with very little effort is a powerful feeling.

And they made it very easy for me to follow up on that motivation to donate.  The e-mail I received had a link to search for upcoming blood drives in my area, and I was able to find one that was convenient for me and to schedule an appointment immediately online.  As I munched my cookies in the canteen, they gave me a sticker with the next date I can donate to put on my calendar so I know exactly when I need to make my next appointment.

When you are trying to figure out how to motivate your audience to action, ask yourself a few things:

• How can we make someone feel like taking this action is critically important?
• How can we personalize the action to avoid the “someone else will do it even if I don’t” response?
• How can we make it easy for them to take the action?
• How can we make it easy for them to do it again the next time?
• And finally, what is a real inducement to action, and not just a waste of our money that sounds good?

Let this post be a call to action for you to follow the link above and find a local blood drive or donor center.  Let me know if I’ve inspired you or reminded you to donate if you would not have otherwise.  I’ll be back at the American Legion in 56 days myself.

Technorati Tags: blood, red cross, marketing, motivation

Making Fear-Based Campaigns Work

by Nedra Weinreich | Jun 3, 2006 | Behavior Change, Blog, Social Marketing

Recently, Rohit Bhargava reviewed some of his favorite but little-seen posts from the past six months, including one about fear marketing, which is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. He says

Fear marketers paint the picture of what your life might be like if you don’t get their product. They play into already existing fears, or paint new ones that consumers may never have considered. The end result is the consumer perception that the advertised product or service is a necessity to keep their family safe, make their life less dangerous, or avoid a situation they dread. But should we do it? Doesn’t this type of marketing just add to the plague of society, fostering fear and making us a weaker people as a result? Probably – but the problem with fear marketing is that it often works.

Fear appeals are used quite often in social marketing campaigns, not always to good effect. I’ve seen several campaigns lately that use this technique, such as this ad from Mothers Against Drunk Driving promoting a safe graduation (via Coolz0r):

Or this flyer from New Zealand designed to go on car windshields facing the interior, urging drivers not to speed near schools (via Adfreak):

Or this domestic violence PSA from Singapore that portrays the men who hurt women as literal monsters (also via Adfreak):

Or this campaign from the Swiss Amnesty International on transparent billboards that’s been making the rounds (via Houtlust):

What all of these campaigns have in common is that they try to instill the fear of what might happen if you do not support their causes. Do they succeed in getting people to take action? I’m not so sure in all cases.

Because I recently talked about this in the social marketing class I teach at UCLA, Kim Witte’s model of how fear-based appeals affect behavior change is at the top of my mind as I look at these examples. When people are confronted with messages that arouse fear in them, they will take one of two courses of action to dispel those unpleasant feelings — either taking preventive action to deal with the threat or controlling the fear through denial or avoidance of the issue.

Fear appeals can be tricky and are often ineffective in bringing about behavior change. But that’s not to say that you should never use them if you find in your research that the target audience responds to that approach. Here are some suggestions for how to make your fear-based campaign more effective:

1. Make sure the portrayed consequence of not taking action is severe, but not exaggerated. You will lose credibility if you show someone dying of an overgrown toenail, but you will also not be taken seriously if you emphasize that a bad cough is the worst consequence of getting pneumonia.
2. Make the audience feel that the problem is relevant to them. There are many problems in the world, and many issues for which people are bombarded with appeals to help. If you can show the people in your audience that they are susceptible to contracting that particular disease or at risk for experiencing the problem, they will be much more likely to pay attention. Tell them why they should care and how the issue relates to their lives.
3. Provide a specific action that the audience can take to prevent the portrayed consequence from happening. The worst thing a fear-based approach can do is to raise the heightened feeling of danger without giving the audience a way to prevent that outcome from occurring. This could be providing a website or toll-free number to contact for more information, or even better, specifying what action the person can take right now to address the threat. Should parents make a plan with their graduate about calling them for a ride home if their friends have been drinking? Should they contact child protective services if they suspect a parent is abusive? Should the audience write letters to their legislators urging them to pass a resolution against repressive regimes, or send money to Amnesty International so it can take action on their behalf?
4. Ensure that the audience believes that the proposed solution is effective in preventing the consequence. They may not agree that telling a child to “just say no” is enough to help them avoid being pressured into trying drugs. Do research with members of your target audience to find out what solutions they perceive as being effective or ineffective. You may have a simple solution, but if they don’t believe that your proposed action will actually work, they will not do it.
5. Portray the solution as something that the audience can easily do. Similarly, if the audience thinks the solution is effective, but not something they themselves can do, they will not do it. Encouraging people to meet with their legislators to discuss how to fix the problem will not be seen as feasible by most individuals who are not full-time activists. Sending an e-mail or making a scripted phone call might be much more doable.

While this type of fear-based approach can be very off-putting if it portrays death or injury in a graphic way, sometimes people do need to be shown the possible outcomes to get them to take action to avoid that situation. A recent study showed that patients with high cholesterol are more likely to be motivated to stay on their medication after seeing an actual scan of their own arteries showing blockage from plaque — kind of like the medical version of Scared Straight. You can’t get more personally relevant than seeing evidence in your own body of your risk for heart disease, and taking a pill is seen as both easy and effective.

What fear appeals have you seen that have either spurred you to action or made you shudder and change the channel?

The Education/Motivation Equation

by Nedra Weinreich | Feb 23, 2006 | Behavior Change, Blog, Social Marketing

A new study from Ekant Veer at the University of Auckland highlights the importance of distinguishing between educational approaches and motivational ones in developing messages for a particular target audience. While social marketing does not equal public education, sometimes you need to raise awareness and educate people about an issue before they can move to the next stage of behavior change.

The study, designed to identify the most effective approaches to prompt overweight children to want to lose weight, tested two types of messages — educational and motivational. The research first identified four distinct groups within the high school population, as described by Veer:

“Firstly we have those who are ‘Unaware and Don’t Care’,” he says. “This group know that they are not their ideal size, but don’t think about weight loss enough. However, subconsciously they want to lose weight.

“Then there are the ‘Blissfully Unaware’ who don’t think about their size and, when prompted, say they are happy with the way they look. This group subconsciously doesn’t want to lose weight.

“Our third group is students who are ‘Ready to Go’. They don’t like their current size and are consciously looking to lose weight.

“Finally we have the ‘Beautifully Big’ who love the size they are and consciously do not want to lose weight.”

Not surprisingly, each group responded uniquely to the different approaches, when shown advertisements designed with the two types of messages. Here are the results:

“Students in the ‘Blissfully Unaware’ group were 30 percent more likely to lose weight when they were shown both types of advertisements rather than just an educational one. ‘Beautifully Big’ students were 15 percent more likely to respond to the educational advert than the motivational one.“The differences weren’t so marked for the ‘Unaware and Don’t Care’ students who showed a slight preference for the motivational advertisements.

“As expected, the students in the ‘Ready to Go’ category were 22 percent more likely to lose weight than the other groups, and had no preference for either type of advertisement. This is probably because they had already made the conscious decision to lose weight and advertising was unlikely to increase their desire. Most important for this group is that they have access to feasible and effective weight loss programmes.”

Overweight high school students are not a monolithic market segment. Beyond their demographics and medical stats, good social marketing research identifies the key attitudinal and behavioral characteristics that determine how the audience will respond to a given approach. What do they think about their weight? Do they want to lose weight? Have they tried losing weight on their own? What do they need in order to help them move to the next step on the path toward behavior change?

Incorporate this 14 day fitness challenge, will sculpt your muscles while helping you to burn fat! Getting your heart rate up is key to boosting metabolism as well as calorie-burn.

Craig Lefebvre recently posted on what to consider as you segment your target audience for a social marketing program. He says that your segmentation scheme needs work if (among other things):

• It reads like a page from a census document.
• It is overly concerned with the consumers’ identities to the neglect of which behavioral features matter to current and potential audiences (for physical activity – what types of activities, under what circumstances, for how long, when and with whom are some of the features that can be considered).
• There is too little emphasis on the actual behaviors of the audience (these are the audience profiles where you feel all ‘warm and fuzzy’ about the audience but don’t have a clue about what they do when it comes to engaging in the target behaviors or any of the possible competitive ones).
• There are no obvious implications for how to position the desired behavior versus competing ones, what incentives to offer, what barriers to address, where and when to provide opportunities to try and/or engage in the behavior, and what promotional strategies and messages may be most relevant for the audience.

So, before everything else must come an understanding of who your target audience is and what makes them tick. Only after you know this can you determine whether an educational or motivational approach (or a combination) will work. And even then, you will still need to test the messages with the different segments of your audience to make sure you’re right.

Don’t make assumptions about who your audience is and how they will respond — they may surprise you.