Social Marketing

Beattie Communications has been a driver of social marketing for more than a decade, spearheading campaigns that have changed people's behaviour in order to positively impact their health, safety and wellbeing and enrich their lives.

We have also been at the forefront of social marketing campaigns which are playing a part in protecting the environment and the world around us.

Beattie's social marketing team is passionate about delivering behavioural change and work with partners from the public and private sector on campaigns ranging from health and fitness to recycling.

Our programme of monitoring our results provides evidence that following the implementation phase of a campaign our target audiences have -

Taken more exercise and improved their diet
Recycled more and reduced their waste
Let to the uptake of drugs designed to protect specific individuals from hepatitis and malaria

Social marketing is not new phenomenon. In fact, rulers, kings and governments have, for centuries, used crude forms of social marketing to bring about behavioural change.

Today social marketing is a highly sophisticated and powerful tool which impacts every strata of society.

Do you remember when it was socially acceptable to drink and drive or race through towns and villages ignoring the speed limit?

Do you recall when it was acceptable to smoke in restaurants or when it was not so important to wear a condom?

Not so long ago it would have been unthinkable to have a black president occupying the oval room at the White House.

Subtle social marketing campaigns have changed, and are changing, the way we think and the way we act.

Social marketing involves not just communicators and marketers but embraces the knowledge, experience & skills of doctors, scientists, psychologists and sociologists.

Social marketing differs from traditional marketing because the journey starts with a desire to bring about change for the social or public good. Its foundations lie in understanding what drives people to behave in a particular way and working out what interventions will result in a person adapting or changing their behaviour.

Step change campaigns involve much research and study not to mention inspired strategy and effective implementation.

You can modify behaviour by changing the law but to bring about long term social change you have to connect with the heart as well as the mind.

That's where Beattie Communications comes in. We are highly experienced at developing social media marketing campaigns which score a bull's-eye intellectually and emotionally.

Our social marketing team operates to a stringent planning process involving consumer orientated research, segmentation, marketing analysis, objective setting and the identification of best fit strategies and tactics in order to deliver positive, sustainable behavioural changes.

Within the social marketing sector Beattie excels in -

Stakeholder and consumer consultation
Research and analysis
An ability to understand the challenges and barriers to change
An ability to interpret key learnings locally, nationally and around the globe
Experience in segmenting and truly understanding the target audience and the barriers to change
An understanding of how to best utilise the appropriate elements of the marketing mix in order to provide an integrated approach, directly to the target audience, and therefore obtain the optimum results - everything from word of mouth to internet marketing

We know that in order to deliver successful and effective social marketing campaigns they must stem from a systematic planning process.

Rushing ahead to the development and implementation stages of a campaign is a common mistake that will ultimately affect the anticipated outcome.

In order to understand the target audience and achieve the ultimate goal of delivering a positive benefit for society in the form of long term, sustainable behavioural change, we follow a number of key steps, starting from grass roots level and getting to know the target audience and key stakeholders.

We operate a stringent social marketing planning model aligned to that recognised by the National Social Marketing Centre.

Scope

This stage is the most crucial, as it is essential to focus on understanding the consumer first. This stage delivers the market research data required in order to make the correct case for change. It involves a variety of methods, including desk-based research into local, regional, national and international work, stakeholder and customer consultation as well as workshops with the client, its partners and the target audience.

Develop

During this phase we use the formative research to establish the product and message design in order to identify the most appropriate way to reach the segmented target audience and develop the message and imagery. This includes -

Working on the interventions to overcome challenges and overcoming barriers which such as accepting new behaviour, rejecting old behaviour or a new behavioural concept or modifying current behaviour.
Develop behavioural goals
Agreeing the most dynamic social marketing mix to maximise use of key messages via a variety of mediums
Developing campaign strategy and design
Developing and agreeing key messages
Segmenting the audience into accessible groups
Identifying incentives
Identifying performance indicators

Implementation

Using the formative research, the team will have established how to connect with the key audience on their 'turf', geographically, emotionally and physically.

Following a trial with key target audiences, we deliver campaigns which connect geographically, intellectually and emotionally

Throughout the campaign process, we anticipate and deal with issues and problems; track, test and analyse performance to increase the impact and identify new opportunities which we can capitalise on.

Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation is essential to inform and direct future campaigns and to provide key data in line with performance indicators. During this phase, the team will:

Assess achievement of aims and objectives (short, medium and long-term goals)
Evaluate the impact on audience, outcome, process and cost effectiveness of the campaign
Determine the impact on specified behavioural goals
Take on key learnings - effectiveness, efficiencies, quality, management process

Follow-up

Evaluation isn't the end of the road - effective social marketing campaigns should progress to the follow-up stage.

Clear and dedicated follow-up is essential in ensuring the short term impact of a campaign is built on to achieve medium and long-term goals. We therefore -

Consider the outcome of the campaigns - what impact did we have, why and how?
Agree on how best to capitalise on achievements and learn lessons from previous activities
Clearly define what remains to be achieved
Use this as an informative resource to move forward

Our social marketing team works for Government departments, health boards and health trusts, universities, local authorities and global corporations.

In the health sector, we work in partnership with Finnamore, the largest independent healthcare management consultancy in the UK.

This allows us to offer a unique one stop shop in terms of the specialist development, implementation and evaluation of social marketing campaigns, not to mention providing innovative and comprehensive solutions for the healthcare sector.

The joint venture brings together two companies that are leaders in their respective fields: healthcare strategy and change management, market research and marketing communications.

If achieving sustained change for the social good is on your agenda, we would like to think that we might be your ideal partner.