Page 16 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

Introduction 9

consumer centric. This means that marketing programs should be informed
by a deep understanding of the intended audience for the program. Such
knowledge of the audience, or market, may or may not imply full or even
partial agreement with the goals of the marketing program. For example, a
drug addict may not be supportive of a program to end his or her addiction,
at least initially. Part of the persuasive process in such cases may involve
obtaining buy-in. This raises the question of how people feel about having
their behavior systematically influenced or regulated by others.
Chapter 9 addresses the question of the degree to which the public sup-
ports its own regulation. It is certainly the case that many people reject
efforts to promote behavior that is usually regarded as pro-social and in the
best interests of the public. Despite marketing campaigns and even laws
requiring specific behavior, some people still do not wear seatbelts and
others still text on mobile telephones while driving. This chapter revisits
the political domain and argues that social marketing cannot be separated
from broader, “upstream” efforts to place boundaries on behavior and in-
fluence people through education or the passage and enforcement of laws.
This is a recurrent theme in broader discussions of social marketing, espe-
cially those discussions of more strategic approaches to persuasion and
behavior change. The shift in the focus of social marketing from influenc-
ing the voluntary decisions of individuals to inducing involuntary changes
in behavior is clear in this perspective. Inherent in such a perspective is the
increasing tendency to redefine what were once “personal” problems as
“societal” or “public” problems. This is in part a matter of how the problem
is framed, which is itself a common tool for persuasion.
Chapter 10 continues the discussion of upstream approaches to social
marketing that use legislation and regulation as means for promoting be-
havioral change but also introduces the legal dimensions of social market-
ing. The author observes that social marketing and the law are often used
in partnership to achieve societal goals. Efforts focused on the individ-
ual—“downstream” activities—may involve the provision of information,
education, and other interventions, even as legal remedies are employed
upstream. Thus, educational programs may be employed to discourage
drug use at an individual level even as laws are passed and enforced to
prohibit the sale and use of certain drugs. However, the law is not always
a partner to social marketing. The author notes that the law also places
boundaries around what is and is not acceptable in terms of social market-
ing practice. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the legal bounda-
ries of social marketing.
Volume 1 is intended to establish a broad perspective for social market-
ing and the deep philosophical issues that are associated with efforts to