What is social marketing? A process
for influencing human behavior on a large scale, using marketing principles for the purpose of societal benefit rather than
commercial profit Eat your vegetables. Pull over to use your cell phone.
Stop smoking. Talk to your kids about sex.
Each of these actions can benefit an individual
or the entire community, but in order to make it happen, people have to change their behavior. And to GET them to change their
behavior, you must offer a darned good reason, and then figure out how to make that change easy for them, popular for their
group, and FUN (yes, fun is a great motivator). Understanding the barriers to and motivations for changing behavior and helping
people move forward is what social marketing is all about. Social marketing is most often used in public
health, safety, and the environment.
Why Upstream?
Think
of social change as a stream. Typically organizations do a lot of work downstream - working one-on-one on individual behavior
change. And this is good. But until norms are shifted and the behavior is seen as acceptable and desirable, the change
can be isolated and short-lived. By moving further upstream and also involving community influentials or organizations whose
actions are needed to bring about change, you have more of a chance to create widespread and sustained change.
Send your questions, comments or ideas to info@upstreamsocialmarketing.com.
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