Social Marketing

The Basics 15
The BEHAVE Framework
The framework is based on the presumption that before you even think about an intervention - a
message, a system change, an outreach effort, whatever - you need to answer three questions:
1. Who is your target audience, and what is important to that audience?
2. What do you want your audience to do?
3. What are the factors or determinants that influence or could influence the behavior,
and are they determinants that a program can act upon?
Once you have answered these three questions, then you can consider this final question:
4. What interventions will you implement that will influence these determinants so that the
determinants, in turn, can influence the behavior?
The answers to these questions are the steps of the BEHAVE framework. As you can see, the
questions are sequential, and each response informs the next. You must know a lot about your
audience before you can identify the action you will promote. And, you should have decided
upon the audience and action before identifying
the perceptions worth addressing. Only
then will you consider what types of interventions
to develop, because the interventions
will act on the perceptions that will act on the
specific action for that audience.
The BEHAVE framework helps
slow your thinking down a bit to
ensure that your assumptions
are valid.
Jumping straight from identifying your audience to designing an intervention is tempting, but
this approach usually fails. We have all seen it happen: “We need to reach young African-American
men; let’s produce a hip-hop video!” someone says. But the video does not connect with
the audience or address the reason these men are not engaging in the desired behavior. The
project is, therefore, doomed to failure.
Using the BEHAVE model is not difficult to do. After all, this approach should not be entirely
new to you. Every day, you make decisions based on evidence and assumptions. However, the
BEHAVE framework helps slow your thinking down a bit to ensure that your assumptions are
valid and that you have thought of everything before you make intervention design decisions.
In the social marketing tools section of this book is a blank BEHAVE framework worksheet.
Photocopy the worksheet and try using it to help you think through your marketing program.
Social Marketing Behavior A Practical Resource for Social Change Professionals