7 Strategies

to motivate behavior change:

social marketing the Brogan way.
Brogan & Partners has more than 25 years of experience marketing behavior change
to audiences in Michigan and North Carolina. Behavior change marketing, or social
marketing, is the term public health professionals use to refer to marketing that builds
awareness about a social issue and works to change peoples behaviors or attitudes
for the public good (like wear a condom, dont smoke, get a mammogram and
recycle). A lifetime of experience has led Brogan to call this OUGHTA marketing.
OUGHTA marketing was once handled by God, Mom and dentists. As in:
You oughta eat your lima beans
You oughta not covet your neighbors lima beans
You oughta floss; you just had lima beans

These days, however, OUGHTA marketing is increasingly handled by schools,

the government, community organizations, public health departments, business
and environmental coalitions. OUGHTAS are usually taught publicly on billboards,
talk shows, Facebook, websites, classrooms, TV spots, in church groups rather
than discussed privately one on one. OUGHTAS are even legislated (rightly or wrongly
depending on your side of the fence). Consider New York Citys ban on sugary
beverages, the outlawing of smoking in public places like bars and restaurants,
and the list goes on. And OUGHTAS are being thought of as one of the solutions
to the healthcare crisis when we adopt positive behaviors, we help control many
of the escalating healthcare costs around chronic diseases such as diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers.
The biggest challenge of OUGHTA marketing is that it is in direct conflict
with WANNA. As in:
I wanna binge drink
I wanna drive fast
I wanna drink and drive fast
I wanna have sex with lots of people
I wanna have a cigaretteI just had sex with lots of people

The goal of social marketing is to figure out how to sell the OUGHTAS over the
WANNAS in order to positively impact choice. For example:
AIDS prevention
Obesity prevention
Domestic violence prevention
Smoking cessation and prevention
Mammography screening
Prostate cancer screening
Problem gambling including teen gambling
Immunization
Emergency preparedness
Seat belt safety
Reuse/Recycle
Infant safe sleep
But social marketing is not messaging alone, it is the convergence of a complete
set of tools laws, programs, hotlines, treatment as well as prevention programs,
accessibility, transportation, community outreach, and correct allocations of public
and private resources. This infrastructure can then be enhanced by marketing
communications programs in traditional media, digital media, social media,
mobile media, in-venue marketing, and guerilla marketing.

The

BIG SEVEN

Oughta strategies.
Over our years of doing OUGHTA marketing we have identified seven strategies
as the most effective ways to sell behavior change.

1. Showing consequences
of risky behavior.
Conventional wisdom says scare tactics dont work on adults. But our experience
is that they can be effective for kids and young adolescents, if not to change behavior,
at least to create awareness of the problem. At times, scare messages can be
effective with adult target audiences, particularly when the possible outcome is death
or enforced laws that are forcefully marketed.

2. Using celebrities.
Occasionally a celebrity can offer the breakthrough voice for a campaign. This is
usually a celebrity who looks and sounds like the target audience or has demonstrated
or proven himself/herself as someone with values or attributes that the audience
admires. Celebrity alone does not make a spokesperson credible. Most of the time,
celebrities are the lazy answer. Too often they are the wrong answer because the
celebrity is attractive to the advertiser but not accessible, relevant or believable to
the target. Gee, the Speaker of the House knows James Earl Jones and hes from
Michigan. So why not use him in our abstinence spot aimed at 13 year old girls!?

Colorectal Cancer TV:Meryl Streep

Control Screen for Life

H1N1 Awareness :Flu Fight Coach Tom Izzo

3. Taking responsibility
for yourself.
This strategy appeals to the activist, and the self-reliant. And even if someone
lacks the resolve to tackle a larger behavior problem, they can be encouraged to take
smaller steps toward a goal (for example, pledging to lose 10% of their weight). From
these smaller steps, the target grows in confidence and the ability to tackle the larger
steps needed to disassociate from the negative behaviors.

4. Appealing to an intervener
to affect the situation.
This strategy is a natural. And womenmothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends,
wivesare the interveners naturally concerned about health and safety issues.
Besides appealing to the intervener through marketing, there should be information
made available to them on HOW to intervenewithout nagging, scolding or
inviting abuse.
HELP YOUR TEEN
NAVIGATE REAL - WORLD

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Car crashes are the

#1 cause of death for teens.

The Michigan Checkpoints Program

can help your teen shift gears into
safer real-world driving. Create a
parent-teen driving agreement at
Checkpoints is a trademark of U.S. DHHS

saferdrivingforteens.org.

5. Showing consequences
of risky behavior on others.
For those who dont care about the consequences to themselves, it is often powerful
to show how they affect those they care about.

Quitline TV:Its Like Theyre Smoking

Gamble Responsibly TV:The Confession

6. Getting em
while theyre young.
Kids form opinions early and decide on many standards for themselves between
the ages of 10 and 14. This is why many of our anti-smoking and abstinence
messages are geared to this group. Influencing the decision before the choice
is presented is often the most successful social marketing strategy.

7. Engaging them in
the conversation.
Social media offers the opportunity to invite participation in discussions around
positive behavior adoption. Social marketers have the opportunity to invite comment,
both supportive and combative. This conversation can positively and appropriately
support the target audience in a one-to-one engagement that, once shared,
may reach thousands.

The

right medium for

the message.
Those are the creative approaches that have worked for us. The next question is:
which media or communication mechanisms work best?
1. Research and tracking studies show that TELEVISION has consistently generated

the most awareness and inquiries for our OUGHTA efforts because it is mass media.

Mind you, we mean paid television spotsnot PSAs. PSAs cannot be placed in the

right programs or times to target the right audiences; they cannot deliver the reach

and frequency that effective marketing demands.

2. RADIO also works extremely well because of its ability to target certain programs

and timeframes where we can reach the audience.

3. OUTDOOR is appropriate if there is a powerful visual and a short

clear message. Examples include bus shelter ads, transit ads, smaller street

posters, telephone or lighting poll posters, and projection advertising.

4. GUERRILA MARKETING should be deployed to reach the hard-to-reach.

Examples include sidewalk chalk art, street teams, environmental takeovers

and flash mobs.

5. INTERACTIVE MEDIA is often a highly targeted, very effective media to deliver

social marketing messages, particularly when video is used.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA affords the opportunity to engage with an audience on their own

terms, and to create a community that can provide support.

7. CHURCHES, CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY CENTERS are places to reach

the opinion leaders and influencers of a communitythe interveners.

8. IN-VENUE MARKETING can hone in on your target bars, casinos, sports sites,

crack houses, prisons, doctors offices, health clinics and hospitals. Posters,

flyers, giveaways, and restroom advertising can get the message seen.

9. MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS can be powerful, offering new opportunities

to reach the target, and often new incentives for change.

10. PROMOTIONAL ITEMS can get your message into peoples hands and homes.
Refrigerator magnets are perennial favorites for moms, especially the magnet that
can hold a photo. And premiums that fit the context, such as waterproof first aid
kits to promote boating safety, are more likely to be kept and used.
11. PUBLIC RELATIONS can reach mainstream and business audiences and today
should be integrated with social media.
12. WORKSITE MARKETING is a way to impact groups with intranet banners, video,
payroll stuffers, cafeteria table toppers, and more.

What Oughta marketing

Oughta be.
Successful OUGHTA marketing, however, has to go beyond the right approach
in the right medium:
Successful OUGHTA marketing has to be comprehensive from mass media to one

on-one counseling. Its the entire tool box of programs, laws, and communications.

Successful OUGHTA marketing is patient marketing, long-haul marketing, endurance

marketing. It takes time, commitment and dollars to change behavior.

Successful OUGHTA marketing is intensive and aggressive in community outreach.

It seeks all players not just the usual suspects in social welfare, civic, health, law

enforcement and corporate communities, but also in churches, ethnic groups,

clubs, local sports, teams, merchants, small business, and schools as well.

Successful OUGHTA marketing is accountable and proves through results and

research that state, federal, community, foundation, coalitions, marketing partner

dollars and resources have been used well and effectively.

Successful OUGHTA marketing can change behaviors, families, communities and society
for the better. And if you need a proven team to make your social marketing successful,
you OUGHTA contact Brogan & Partners. Just call our Managing Partner, Ellyn Davidson
at 248-341-8211 or edavidson@brogan.com.