Social Marketing

22
Research
What is Behavior?
Every social marketing program has a behavioral goal. You want to change a behavior - people
are doing one thing; you want them to do another. That’s what your project, or at least a specific
campaign, is about. Which raises an obvious question:
What’s a behavior?
The BEHAVE framework describes a behavior as having three components:
An observable
action...
by a specific
target audience...
under specific
conditions
An example of a BEHAVE behavior: When going to the grocery store, women ages 18 to 24 who
have moved into a new home will buy compact florescent lamps (CFLs) for their outdoor lights.
Notice in the figure below that defining behavior entails two distinct pieces: the audience segment
and the desired action. You constantly re-evaluate both your audience and the behavior
as more research becomes available to you, as you refine your understanding of your audience,
and as you develop your program plan.
Figure 5: Defining Behavior
Target Audience
Who?
A specific target audience
Key Issues Key Issues
Coherence: What holds this
group together? Similar risks,
wants, needs, behaviors,
demographics, etc?
Potential Impact: Is this
segmenting enough to
make a difference in your
bottom line?
Action Behavior
What?
A specific action under a specific set of circumstances
A segment of the audience What do you want the audience to do? And under
what circumstances?
An individual action: Must
be a specific action taken by
members of the audience
Self Determined: Must be
something under their control
(i.e. can they do it?)
Condition: Must take into
account the condition
under which this would
take place.