Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Response to Place Posting (see March 4) Ed Maibach writes back with a request from readers: I'd like to second and expand on Craig's thoughts on the role of "place" in social marketing.  I'm currently writing a paper titled DISSEMINATING EVIDENCE BASED APPROACHES TO DISEASE PREVENTION AND HEALTH PROMOTION: A MARKETING PERSPECTIVE.  One of the ideas I'm exploring in the paper is the need to develop effective and  sustainable marketing channels for evidence-based preventive  approaches. I'm absolutely underwhelmed, and disappointed, by the (dearth of) literature on the development of marketing channels for  social marketing initiatives.  While there are some fine articles  describing the development of distribution systems for contraceptives,  ORS, mosquito netting, vaccines and other public health products in less developed countries, there simply doesn't appear to be any  relevant literature about efforts to develop marketing channels for  public health products -- much less evidence-based preventive  approaches (e.g. the Community Guide) -- in the US and other more developed countries"   Please contact Ed with ideas, suggestions and/or resources at: Edwardmaibach@comcast.net This issue comes up repeatedly, with people like Bob Hornik who keep telling us how creative we are in developing inspirational, motivational messages ("I laughed, I cried") but so lousy at getting them in front of the target audience with any type of frequency or continuity to stand a chance at influencing  change (products and services maybe a little better).  Only the BIG $$ campaigns can afford the paid advertising route, but there are still a lot of channels out there to be tapped and managed.  As I say about Coca-Cola as a marketing strategy to emulate: it's all about putting a coke product within an arm's reach of desire - not just cute jingles and fuzzy polar bears. NOTED: SOCIAL MARKETING IN THE NEWS The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Food Advertising Targeted to Children Scoop Independent News (NZ) - March 14 Just how much influence food advertising and promotion has on children’s food choices and obesity will be the subject of discussion at a symposium in Wellington on Tuesday 15 March. The symposium is hosted by the Agencies for Nutrition Action. The key note speaker is Dr Gerard Hastings, director of the Institute for Social Marketing in the UK and Professor of Social Marketing at the University of Strathclyde . Professor Hastings led a research team at Strathclyde University which published a report in 2003 titled “Review of Research on the Effects of Advertising of Food Promotion to Children”. The report, prepared for the British Food Standards Agency, concluded food advertising does, as most parents already know, affect children’s food choices. Food industry and advertising advocates claim advertising is all about brand protection, but Prof Hastings reports food advertising does more: it also influences the type of food children want to eat. The report highlights the poor quality of the food advertised and just how much advertising and promotion is directed at children. Prime Minister Focuses on Population and Develoment Issues Pakistan Times - March 13 Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the population growth rate in the country had declined considerably and dropped to 1.9 per cent, but said, still three million were being added every year, putting greater pressure on the limited resources. The increased urbanization, he said, was creating more challenges. Besides, it also has implications on government’s efforts towards fighting poverty. The decline in the population growth rate, he said, would contribute towards improving the economy, creating more opportunities for employment and enhanced resources for poverty alleviation. The government, he said, despite all the odds was focussing on development of the social sector and the rich human capital in the country. Aziz said the objective was to provide a better life for the people of Pakistan and to bring them a better future. He said the policies pursued by President General Pervez Musharraf and now his government were aimed at taking the country forward in all spheres. He also stressed the need for expanding scope of private-public partnership, NGOs and Social Marketing Companies and of reaching out to the rural areas  Health Secretary Reid Announces a New Initiative Putting Children at the Center of a Drive for a Fitter Nation. The Guardian – March 10   Marketing will be used "to build public awareness and change behaviour" on a range of issues including obesity, sexual health and smoking. The focus is on "deprived communities and young people". A magazine called FIT will be launched for young men and campaigns on the importance of using condoms and losing weight will be launched. The independent National Consumer Council is to be given a central role in developing this "social marketing strategy that promotes health". It will "consider health psychology and social research to determine how best to influence lifestyle and change behaviour". It will look at the success or otherwise of strategies to promote the five-a-day message on fruit and vegetable portions, as well as information on smoking, salt, mental wellbeing and sexual health. [Also interesting to note and compare is their list of 10 Healthy Steps with the US Leading Health Indicators or what is now HealthierUS: Schools to introduce pedometers to encourage children to walk more ·Pregnant women to be given vouchers for free fruit and vegetables ·Government to commission a "weight loss" guide on the pros and cons of different diets ·Health trainers to help adults and children develop a personal health and fitness plan, from 2006 in deprived areas and 2007 elsewhere ·FIT magazine aimed at young men to be launched ·Regional health champions to be appointed ·Development of simple labelling of packaged foods ·Restrictions on advertising of high fat, salt or sugar foods to children either to be agreed with industry or imposed ·New media campaign on the risks of unprotected sex ·Marketing campaigns from April to change behaviour on overeating, sexual health, smoking and mental health and wellbeing     4:04:01 PM

McDonald’s Tackles Physical Activity McDonald’s has a suggestion for Americans, who are becoming obese in alarming numbers: get some exercise. The company, under fire from those who say its food plays a role in the nation's obesity problem, introduced a marketing campaign yesterday promoting physical activity as part of a balanced life. The theme: "It's what I eat and what I do ... I'm lovin' it."   PR Practices OK with Administration.   There's been a lot of chatter about the use of video news releases by government agencies.  Having been around the social marketing world in DC I would say that you didn't have a full program if you didn't include them.  Here's the update - the NYT article will get you up-to-date on the issue and show - if a long article - how everyone from the USDA to the State Department gets implicated  But ,most people (see the NYT editorial today) seem to think it's "the locals' fault."   The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them. [Link]   Supporters say prepackaged news stories are a common public relations tool with roots in previous administrations, that their exterior packaging typically identifies the government as the source, and that it is up to news organizations, not the government, to reveal to viewers where the material they broadcast came from. Critics have derided such video news releases as taxpayer-financed attempts by the administration to promote its policies in the guise of independent news reports. Within the last year, the GAO has rapped the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of National Drug Control Policy for distributing such stories about the Medicare drug benefit and the administration's anti-drug campaign, respectively.   The Counterfeit News editorial in the NYT.   And Now the Whole Story  Barstow and Stein in the New york Times (March 13th) write that "under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production. Yet in three separate opinions in the past year, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that studies the federal government and its expenditures, has held that government-made news segments may constitute improper "covert propaganda" even if their origin is made clear to the television stations. The point, the office said, is whether viewers know the origin. Last month, in its most recent finding, the G.A.O. said federal agencies may not produce prepackaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials." Link Echoes And for the Beltway crowd – Karen Hughes is back (former communications consultant fro Pres Bush)!  For the rest of you will be hearing a lot about “Public Diplomacy.”  Some of you may remember the profile it received when Charlotte Beers moved in – I wonder what social marketing can add to their efforts?     12:31:09 PM

© Copyright 2005 Craig Lefebvre. Last update: 4/18/2005; 8:12:44 AM.