Can marketing change behaviour
ESSAY – CAN MARKETING CHANGE BEHAVIOUR?
INTRODUCTION
Peter Drucker, management consultant, said that “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself”. Marketing is more often used to sell a product or a service but it can also be used to influence consumers’ behaviour. It is called social marketing. For Kotler and Andreasen (1991), it “seeks to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society”. It is a way to “sell” ideas, attitudes and behaviours. Social marketing is more often used by governments to solve, for instance, health and environmental problems. However, changing people’s behaviour can be very difficult to do. In this paper we will see that there are different ways for marketing to succeed a behavioural change, not always on his own. Also, there are other alternatives needed to achieve this change. How marketing can change behaviour?
Social marketing has an important place in the behavioural change. To reach this change, companies, governments or policy makers have, at first, to understand consumers’ needs and why people behave the way they do. An effective social marketing campaign is built on an important research and on group consultation to understand their needs and motivations. Thus, they have to think about a message that can reflect the different target groups in order to be able to influence them. For instance, to reduce binge drinking among teenagers, the first thing to do would be to talk to local young people to understand why they are drinking alcohol and how we can persuade them to stop (Perspectives in Public Health, 2009, p2).
A social marketing campaign can succeed if it is well-targeted. Segmentation can sometimes be a problem because everyone does not react in the same way. We cannot promote a social campaign to all, it does not answer to everyone’s needs. Some people will not be as
INTRODUCTION
Peter Drucker, management consultant, said that “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself”. Marketing is more often used to sell a product or a service but it can also be used to influence consumers’ behaviour. It is called social marketing. For Kotler and Andreasen (1991), it “seeks to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society”. It is a way to “sell” ideas, attitudes and behaviours. Social marketing is more often used by governments to solve, for instance, health and environmental problems. However, changing people’s behaviour can be very difficult to do. In this paper we will see that there are different ways for marketing to succeed a behavioural change, not always on his own. Also, there are other alternatives needed to achieve this change. How marketing can change behaviour?
Social marketing has an important place in the behavioural change. To reach this change, companies, governments or policy makers have, at first, to understand consumers’ needs and why people behave the way they do. An effective social marketing campaign is built on an important research and on group consultation to understand their needs and motivations. Thus, they have to think about a message that can reflect the different target groups in order to be able to influence them. For instance, to reduce binge drinking among teenagers, the first thing to do would be to talk to local young people to understand why they are drinking alcohol and how we can persuade them to stop (Perspectives in Public Health, 2009, p2).
A social marketing campaign can succeed if it is well-targeted. Segmentation can sometimes be a problem because everyone does not react in the same way. We cannot promote a social campaign to all, it does not answer to everyone’s needs. Some people will not be as
References: Transport for London road safety message tells teenagers to pay attention and live Simon Bull, London24 editor March 15, 2012 http://www.london24.com/news/transport/transport_for_london_road_safety_message_tells_teenagers_to_pay_attention_and_live_1_1238600?usurv=skip MINDSPACE influencing behaviours through public policy (02 March 2010) http://rsh.sagepub.com/content/129/6/260.full.pdf+html?hwshib2=authn%3A1395508871%3A20140321%253A60982041-eb75-40ea-b27b-4a647e2b2bf8%3A0%3A0%3A0%3AxCSm51C9JGkLUvD9vqgDag%3D%3D Kotler/Andreasen (1991)