Social Marketing

12
The Basics
The 5 “Thinking like
a Marketer” Principles
Thinking Like a Marketer #1
Know exactly who your audience
is and look at everything from that
group’s point of view.
Thinking Like a Marketer #2
Your bottom line: When all is said
and done, the audience’s action
is what counts.
Thinking Like a Marketer #3
Make it easy-to-irresistible for
your audience to act.
Thinking Like a Marketer #4
Integrated strategy offers four Ps:
- the right product
- at the right price
- in the right places
- with the right promotion.
Thinking Like a Marketer #5
Base decisions on evidence
and keep checking in.
Thinking Like a Marketer
Price: What the audience must give up or overcome to receive the product’s benefits. The
most basic price is monetary. The highest prices are often social or psychological. Messages
and services attempt to lower the various barriers (or prices) that an audience faces.
Place: Channels and locations for distributing the product and related information and support
services. Planners must identify places that offer maximum reach and greatest audience receptivity.
Planners must also aim to help audiences overcome key barriers by expanding access to
products and support services.
Promotion: Efforts to persuade the target audience to try or adopt the product
being offered. The promotional strategy includes not only the content of messages
but also their tone and appeal, their timing, and the credible channels
and spokespersons that will deliver them.
We will discuss how to use the four Ps as critical components of your strategy
in the social marketing section. For an example of how one commercial
company used the four Ps to guide their strategy, see the case on page 13,
Using the Four Ps to Market Indiglo Wristwatches.
5. Base decisions on evidence and keep checking in.
Marketers do not simply follow their instincts or let their own ideas about what
the audience wants drive their programs. Commercial campaigns are often
expensive, and their outcome is monetary. They cannot afford to try out different
options blindly; they have competition. If their campaigns head in the wrong
direction, they could lose market share, not to mention their jobs.
Therefore, marketers, both commercial and social, turn to audience research.
They examine audience needs and wants, buying preferences, and lifestyles as
well as where audiences see advertising and who they believe. This research
is conducted both at the beginning as well as during a campaign. Marketers
also track what is being bought and by whom. Results can be checked against
assumptions. The campaign is not only designed based on research findings
but also changed as the audience’s reaction to the marketing campaign or
product is better understood.
What is important is that you remove as much guesswork as possible and rely on objective evidence.
In the section, research, we describe some of the basics of conducting research. There
are many ways to approach this task, some expensive, and others relatively cheap. Whenever
possible, try to use other people’s research.