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Developing a Social Marketing Campaign: Step by Step 21

time, effort, and resources needed to understand what the target audience is do-
ing or prefers to do and what is affecting its behaviors and preferences.
Specifically, barriers, benefits, competitors, and the influencers need to be iden-
tified at this step.
Barriers refer to reasons, real or perceived, the target audience may not want
the behavior to be promoted, or may not think it can be adopted. Benefits are the
“gains” that the target audience could see through adopting the targeted behavior,
or that the social marketing program may promise the target market. Competitors
refer to any related behaviors (or organizations promoting them) that the target
audience is currently engaged in, or prefers to have, rather than the ones to be pro-
moted. Influencers include any “important others” who could have some bearing
on the target audience, such as family members, social networks, the entertainment
industry, and religious leaders.

Step 6: Craft a Positioning Statement
A positioning statement describes what the target audience is supposed to feel and
think about the targeted behavior and its related benefits. A positioning statement,
together with brand identity, is inspired by the description of the target audience
and its barriers, competitors, and influencers. It differentiates the targeted behavior
from alternative or preferred ones. Effective positioning will guide the develop-
ment of the marketing mix strategies in the next step, helping ensure that the offer
in a social marketing campaign will land on and occupy a distinctive place in the
minds of the target audience.

Step 7: Develop Marketing Mix Strategies: The 4Ps

The traditional marketing toolbox contains four major devices: product, price,
place, and promotion. Like their counterparts in commercial sectors, social mar-
keters resort to these tools to create, communicate, and deliver values for their tar-
geted behaviors. The 4Ps can be thought of as independent, though not isolated,
variables used as determinants to influence the dependent variables—the behaviors
of the target market.
The 4Ps should be developed and presented in the following order, with the
product strategy at the beginning of the sequence and the promotion strategy at
the end. Promotion is at the end because it ensures that the target markets become
aware of the targeted product, its price, and its accessibility, which need to be de-
veloped prior to the promotion strategy. Great attention is called for the “mix” of
the 4Ps, which should not be developed in isolation—it is the synergy of the 4Ps
that makes a truly successful social marketing campaign possible.