Social Marketing

16
The Basics
Working Toward a Strategy
The BEHAVE framework and all the other tools in this resource book are a guide for you to draft
strategies for successful programs. Put simply, a strategy is a statement that provides a blueprint
for action. It sums up all that you have learned to date and answers twelve basic questions
(see figure 4 below). These questions frame the marketing problem by helping you to define
the broad analytic problems, and narrowing towards developing specific interventions. It is
critical, however, to carefully answer the first questions, as these answers will frame your entire
program; if you don’t correctly identify the audience, the marketing mix you define won’t make
a difference. Take the time to get it right.
Figure 4: Twelve Strategic Questions
Problem Statement
1. What is the social problem I want to address?
2. Who/what is to blame for this problem?
Behavior
3. What action do I believe will best address that problem?
4. Who is being asked to take that action? (audience)
Determinants
5. What does the audience want in exchange for adopting
this new behavior? (key benefit)
6. Why will the audience believe that anything we are
offering is real and true? (support)
7. What is the competition offering? Are we offering
something the audience wants more? (competition)
Interventions
8. What marketing mix will increase benefits they want and
reduce behaviors they care about.
9. What is the best time and place to reach members of our
audience so that they are the most disposed to receiving
the intervention? (aperture)
10. How often and from whom does the intervention have
to be received if it is to work? (exposure)
11. How can I integrate a variety of interventions to act over
time in a coordinated manner to influence the behavior?
(integration)
12. Do I have the resources alone to carry out this strategy
and if not, where can I find useful partners? (affordability)