by Nedra Weinreich | Aug 23, 2006 | Blog, Social Marketing
I was asked by Fard Johnmar to add my thoughts on consumer-driven healthcare from my social marketing perspective to his series on the topic at his blog Envisioning 2.0.
Consumer-driven healthcare is a strategy that is starting to take hold as a way of changing the costs and incentives for healthcare consumers. Instead of insurance companies making all the decisions about how people will receive their healthcare, individuals are given more power to decide how their medical dollars will be used. This reintroduces competition into the pricing and services, and makes it more likely that people will use their healthcare budget efficiently and in a way that makes sense for their own situation.
While I don’t often write about health policy issues here, social marketing has a definite role to play in helping healthcare consumers make decisions that are informed and appropriate. After you read my short take on the topic, take a look at what Dmitriy Kruglyak of The Medical Blog Network and Amy Tenderich of the blog Diabetes Mine have to say on the subject.
If this trend keeps growing, consumers will absolutely need some help navigating all of the healthcare products and options that will increasingly be marketed directly to them. As social marketers, we can offer an objective take on what is quality and what is quackery to assist consumers in their decisionmaking.
Technorati Tags: consumer, healthcare, marketing, social marketing, health, policy, insurance
by Nedra Weinreich | Aug 21, 2006 | Blog, Communication
When you think of puppets, do you think about Punch and Judy for kids or those giant freaky paper mache puppets that seem to show up at every anti-globalization rally? Maybe you should start thinking about social marketing. The recent edition of the
Drum Beat from the
Communication Initiative features resources on puppetry for development. It includes examples of programs around the world that have used puppets to address issues related to intergenerational connections, general and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, democracy and governance, and human rights. A particularly good introduction to the topic can be found in UNICEF’s excerpts from
Puppets with a Purpose: Using Puppetry for Social Change.
I’m not sure whether in the American culture adults would accept puppets as a way of imparting information or motivation for change outside of Sesame Street. But it has been quite successful in many other cultures that have a long tradition of puppetry as entertainment or education.
And what kid doesn’t love puppets? (Okay, I’ll admit that I didn’t for a long time after I saw an outdoor puppet show when I was very small where a dragon puppet breathed real fire and I ran away screaming, but other than that, you get my point.) If the age/culture you are addressing is appropriate, consider how you might be able to use puppets to get your message across.
Technorati Tags: puppets, social change, marketing, development
by Nedra Weinreich | Aug 21, 2006 | Blog, Technology
I just got an e-mail about a new search engine called GoodSearch that will send money to your favorite nonprofit each time you search. I checked it out and have added it my Firefox toolbar (they also have it for Internet Explorer) so that my kids’ school can earn money while I work. Here’s what their website says about it:
GoodSearch is an Internet search engine with a simple concept and unique social mission. GoodSearch enables you to help fund any of hundreds of thousands of charities or schools through the simple act of searching the Internet.
The company was founded by a brother and sister team who lost their mom to cancer and wanted to find an easy way for people to support their favorite causes.
It’s simple. You use GoodSearch.com like any other search engine (we’ve partnered with Yahoo! to ensure great results), but each time you do, money is generated for your favorite cause.
Last year search engines generated close to $6 billion in revenue from advertisers. Think about what your favorite cause could do with even a fraction of that money!
Definitely worthwhile to check out, especially if you already prefer Yahoo as your search engine of choice. In any case, earning a penny or so for your favorite charity or school each time you search could end up bringing in big bucks if you spread the word and get other supporters to use Goodsearch too.
by Nedra Weinreich | Aug 20, 2006 | Blog, Entertainment, Technology
Since I last wrote about YouthNoise in June, the social activism networking site for teens has continued to innovate new ways to appeal to youth. The Wall Street Journal (online subscribers’ access only) on Saturday describes a new partnership between YouthNoise and Virgin Mobile USA to send a text novella in 160-character installments to cellphone users who sign up.
The story is aimed at raising awareness of teenage homelessness, and was written by copywriters rather than a published author. Here’s how they describe it:
Ghost Town is the first interactive text novella from Virgin Mobile and YouthNoise. It’s the gripping story of a teenage football player named Ghost who is hiding a dark secret—he’s homeless. This secret will shock his classmates as he tries to manage the ins and outs of high school, an uncertain future, and just trying to stay alive.
The characters from the story each have a profile and blog on youthnoise.com, interacting with readers and each other in the comments. They also each have a MySpace page.
In the past week about 10,000 people have read the beginning of this text-message fiction. It’s not free, though, costing anywhere from $.025-.05 per message (depending on the messaging plan they have); those who sign up will receive two text messages a day for five weeks.
This is a novel way of getting the message out (yes, pun intended), and I expect that we will be seeing more of this type of text messaging and/or interactive fiction directed at teens through the media they use most.
And while we’re on the subject of social activism via mobile phones, I just read at Strategic Public Relations about a line of mobile phone personalization products called Just Cause from Airborne Entertainment. These products include “socially-relevant, environmentally-concerned and politically attuned ringtones, ringbacks and wallpapers.”
Sample “Protestones” include “Hell no, we won’t go!” and “Viva La Revolution!” while “Stop and Thinktones” include “Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger” and “Nearly one in four people live on less than $1 per day.” Ringbacks include factual information about subjects as diverse as the depletion of the planet’s rainforests and cruelty to animals, while wallpapers include graphic illustrations accompanied by statements such as “Pollution Stinks,” “Change Your Habits, Not the Climate” and “Dissent is NOT Un-American.”
Over and above its basic messages, Airborne will work in conjunction with socially-responsible groups across the continent to create cause-specific products. In addition, the company will select one group to which it will donate 10% of all Just Cause net proceeds each month.
Kids love to be able to personalize their phones, and this presents an opportunity for nonprofits to be able to give their teen supporters a way to express their affinity for the cause. YouthNoise knows this too, and they just had a contest to design a phone charm that embodies the site’s philosophy. If you are working with youth, how can you make their mobile phone — one of their main methods of communication — into a way of getting your message out?
Technorati Tags: phones, youthnoise, homelessness, virgin, social activism, marketing
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
by Nedra Weinreich | Aug 13, 2006 | Blog, Communication
The guys at Antfarm are back after a hiatus with Blogging Social Change — the first social marketing-related blog I found back when I was starting to figure out what these blog things were. They share an excellent e-book about How to Pitch the Media with insider tips from a working reporter at the CBC.
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
