Early and Often: How Social Marketing of Prevention Can Help Your Community

The Central CAPT web site has moved to be part of a new National CAPT web site. In 10 seconds you will be automatically redirected to http://captus.samhsa.gov/central/central.cfm -- Use this form if you have any questions.

Excerpts From Jerry Jaker's Early & Often: How Social Marketing Of Prevention Can Help Your Community

In the Great Noise and Clutter of Life, we need to borrow a page from our friends in marketing in order to capture people's attention and listen to our message: "Hey, look at this. It's important. Here's something you can do."

The challenge of social marketing is that there is an agenda beyond choosing brand X over brand Y. It's more complex than that; we want people to change their behavior. And we want to use communication systems to do it.

"A communication system is totally neutral," said the late Edward R. Murrow of CBS Broadcasting. "It has no conscience, no principle, no morality. It has only a history. It will broadcast filth or inspiration with equal facility. It will speak the truth as lightly as it will speak falsehood. It is, in sum, no more, no less than the men and women who use it." In the new millennium, smart public health specialists and those deeply involved in prevention will use marketing and communications media to accomplish public health objectives. We can be compelling and be helpful.

Competition for Attention

Without smart social marketing applications, we in prevention tend to fall on one of two ends of the spectrum. Either we can "do pretty" with an attractive though lightweight message. We can help an ad agency, pro bono or not, win an award for a very creative campaign that doesn't help people. Or, we can hit the other end of the spectrum and have a public health message well grounded in the research that is so un-compelling in its communication design that it puts people to sleep. Again, it doesn't help people. In the past we've occasionally erred in doing this. We have assumed that because our public health or prevention message is a noble one, that we can be forgiven for bad and boring communication. Not on your life! Not anymore.

Powerfully Communicating What Needs to be Said

As we said in the introduction of this booklet, a noble message can't be forgiven for being boring in its delivery. All generations currently, particularly the younger generations, are used to being entertained as well as informed in compelling ways through electronic media. So an accurate brochure, or program recruitment print piece, or curriculum for that matter that is noble in its content, but boring and uncompelling in its communication style just will not be helpful. We have a tough, easily distracted, options rich series of audiences, and if our message isn't wrapped softly in communication arts, we should consider it as expendable as a drab TV program staring at a viewer with a remote control in his/her hand.

Marketing techniques underscore the importance of knowing a variety of ways to peak your audiences attention. Humor is big -- I'll bet your favorite television commercial or radio jingle is humorous. Somber and authoritative styles have their role, though it's not the most popular. Just plain being different is a strategy unto itself in that it will increase the talk factor about your message. And, there is something to be said for provocation.

Know Your Audience

Formative market research sounds complicated, but it's really not. It's an organized, thoughtful way of getting into the heads and hearts of the audience you are intending to reach and seek their input before you spend money in production of campaigns, print pieces and a variety of mediums. Measure twice, cut once.

Nova

Here is a good example of not knowing your audience well enough. In the early 1970's, General Motors introduced a car called the Chevy Nova. It sold reasonably to quite well in many areas of the country, but among certain subgroups of the population, particularly southwestern United States and in certain identifiable urban areas, the Chevy Nova just didn't sell.
Why not?
Do you know any Spanish? If you do, you know that loosely translated, Nova means "no go; won't go."
Would you buy a car whose name was "won't go?" There is a lesson learned.

In Minnesota several years back an expensive nonsmoking mass media and research initiative was conducted over a period of four years. In the early formative market research the focus group facilitators stumbled onto something. As they talked about the negative health effects of tobacco use, i.e. lung cancer, damage to the respiratory system, etc., the information was important but the facilitators noticed that they might as well be talking to these 10-14 year olds about pension plans. The consequences were too far down the road, too far away, not relevant to their lives. They were concerned for their grandparents, not for themselves. Then, the facilitated discussion turned to having bad breath and yellow teeth, i.e. things that 13 year old doesn't want because the short-term consequence is, it would crimp their social life. As opposed to lung cancer, the yellow teeth is a 'this Friday night' consequence. Therefore, while it wasn't the most noble prevention message, it did cause behavior change in young people, i.e. they re-thought the benefits versus the risks of smoking. The short-term consequences mattered because they were 10-14 years old.

Jerry Jaker continues borrowing real-life social marketing messages that he and others were involved in, using humor, provocation and creativity, to illustrate success, and lessons learned. The reader is the beneficiary.

Early & Often also includes over two dozen graphic, practical illustrations of what to do, and not to do in social marketing of prevention.

Early & Often includes tips and guidelines on:

planning a campaign
working with a communications firm
getting "pro bono" help
conducting focus groups, and other research
viewing the target audience as �customer'
evaluating your initiative

. . . AND a specific, step-by-step creative blueprint process to help you succeed with social marketing, Early and Often!

To order Early & Often, call Eva Dessellier at 1-800-782-1878. Volume discounts available. Visa/Mastercard accepted.