What is "Social and Behavior Change Marketing?"

IRC "Break the Silence" Social Norms Marketing Campaign
to prevent gender based violence, Côte d"Ivoire, 2012

I'm often asked, "So what exactly do you do?" Fair enough, as on the outside to many (including my own family) I just seem to run around the world to far flung, often dangerous places, holding "workshops" on "behavior change communications."  "Righhhhht," I've heard from some, paired with a crinkled brow and a conspiratory nod or smirk, "brain washing…" On more than one occasion I've been labeled a spy. Well, I must give these folks some slack.  Prior to this work, I made my living (or not) as a documentary filmmaker, which has only added fuel to that conspiracy fire! 

The truth is no so mysterious nor filled with intrigue, I'm afraid. Nonetheless, I want to spell it out because the more people who know about this field and how it can benefit the world, the better funded it will be, and yes, selfishly, the more likely I will continue to be employed!  

So it was nice to see that Helen Coster laid out the work of social and behavior change communications, or SBCC for short, so nicely in her recent "Opinionator" piece in the New York Times, Peer Pressure Can be a Life Saver.

The peer pressure she writes about is essentially the concept of group conformity, and social norms.  I devote an entire section in my workshop to this "World Superpower." The constraining and licensing effect of social norms knows no social, economic, or ethnic bounds, and knowledge about this "secret police force" is a powerful tool for social marketers.

Her article nicely describes the work of a few firms working in this space that have made real progress using this simple but powerful tool. I made a comment on the article below-- if you're really down for some social marketing geek rant!

"Break the Silence" billboard, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

Great to see the benefits of social and behavior change theory and practice getting some press, as so much more can be done, with more funding.  

What you are describing is predominantly social marketing, or social norms marketing when addressing the behavior determinant related to peer or group pressure, not behavioral economics, which targets behavior related to economic decisions. Social Marketing (although typically confused with "Social Media Marketing") came about in the 60s by "MAD" men Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman, whose higher sense of purpose led to develop the discipline as "the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research." Or, more simply put: "advertising for good." Remember "Iron Eyes Cody" and the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign to prevent littering? Now, years after this seminal campaign launched in the US, Americans wouldn't think of throwing a soda can out the window, largely because of that campaign, and fear of other's perception of them, not because of any fear of fines related to it.