Social Marketing
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About This Book 3<br />
The Single Most Important Thing<br />
If you take only one thing from this book, let it be this: LISTEN. Listen to the people whose<br />
behavior you want to change.<br />
This is the single most important thing, because whatever people do – even when it’s something<br />
that seems crazy to you – they have their reasons. The reasons may not be rational.<br />
People may not even know what their reasons are. Rarely, however, are they waiting for you<br />
– or any other marketer – to tell them what to do. Even then, if you can get their attention<br />
long enough to tell them either the risks they face or the wonderful benefits of something like<br />
efficient lighting, they still may not change their behavior. They may even know that the more<br />
efficient light bulb will save them a lot of money. They may listen when you tell them it will<br />
help the environment. And they still might just go out to the store and buy a bunch of big, ugly,<br />
energy-wasting light bulbs. Rest assured, they have their reasons.<br />
This book is about understanding people’s reasons for behavior, and using that understanding<br />
to change behavior through social marketing. The social marketing discipline is based on the<br />
idea that all marketing is an exchange, if you want people to change their behavior, you have<br />
to offer them something – security, information, an image, a feeling of belonging, whatever it<br />
takes. To know what to offer your audience, you need to listen to them, in order to understand<br />
what they want – not just what you think they need.<br />
<strong>Social</strong> <strong>Marketing</strong> Behavior A Practical Resource for <strong>Social</strong> Change Professionals