Social Marketing
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Research 25<br />
What is Behavior?<br />
• Readiness to change: They are at the same stage of behavior change. (“I’m interested in<br />
getting new light bulbs that save energy” versus “I will never buy a different kind of light bulb<br />
than the one I’ve been buying for the past 30 years.”)<br />
In addition to being described by common characteristics, a target audience must meet three<br />
criteria in order to be viable candidates for a social marketing intervention.<br />
1. Would changing this audience help us reach our goal?<br />
An audience segment must be part of the problem. Most often, the target audience is at<br />
risk. That is, the target is a group of individuals who are performing the dangerous behavior.<br />
In our example, which we only created to illustrate a point, women ages 18 to 24 go to the<br />
grocery store to buy light bulbs. If we can get them interested in CFLs, they may buy those<br />
instead. If we went after a group of people who never buy light bulbs, it would not matter if we<br />
convinced them that CFLs were a superior choice, because they are not the people who will<br />
actually purchase the light bulbs.<br />
2. Is the audience large enough to make a measurable difference?<br />
It is also pointless to target an audience so small that it won’t make a difference in the overall<br />
goal. Size of the audience is a critical factor to determine early in a program. Too often, we<br />
rely on percentages. We often hear that Audience X represents more than 60 percent of a<br />
population. But how many is 60 percent in real numbers - a thousand or a hundred thousand?<br />
The size of the audience is critical for two reasons: 1) it has to be big enough to matter, and 2)<br />
we need to judge the scale of intervention necessary to effect change.<br />
3. Can the audience be reached effectively given our resources?<br />
At this point, you need to assess your resources. Do you have the political clout to address<br />
policy or structural barriers? Do you have money for paid media? What size of print runs can<br />
you afford? How many outreach workers can you muster? Once you have a sense of your<br />
resources – a well as your limitations – then you must ensure that your segment is matched<br />
with those resources. It is sheer folly to set a goal of reaching 60 percent of your target audience<br />
(example: 2 million men age 16 to 20 who drive) if you only have resources to reach 10<br />
percent to 20 percent of them.<br />
Let’s go back to our example:<br />
Example: When going to the grocery store, women ages 18 to 24 who have moved into a new<br />
home will buy CFLs for their outdoor lights.<br />
Observable action: Buying CFLs at the grocery store<br />
Target audience: Women age 18 to 24 who have moved into new homes.<br />
<strong>Social</strong> <strong>Marketing</strong> Behavior A Practical Resource for <strong>Social</strong> Change Professionals