A critical review of social marketing: which factors influence the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign for non-‐governmental organisations and what are the limitations?

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A critical review of social marketing:

which factors influence the effectiveness

of a social marketing campaign

for non-‐governmental organisations

and what are the limitations?

Master Thesis Social Marketing

Jolanda van Hal

vanhal.jolanda@gmail.com

Advanced International Business Management

University of Groningen

Student number: 1627953

International Marketing

Newcastle University Business School

Student number: 110165039

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A critical review of social marketing:

which factors influence the effectiveness

of a social marketing campaign for non-‐

governmental organisations and what are

the limitations?

Jolanda van Hal Master Thesis

Advanced International Business Management & International Marketing

Newcastle University Business School Student number: 110165039

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List of Tables

Table 2.1: Benchmarks for social marketing, adapted from Andreasen (2002), in McDermott, Stead, and Hastings (2005) p547

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List of Figures

Figure 3.1: Tentative Holistic Model of Social Marketing Effectiveness, from Helmig and Thaler (2010, p271)

Figure 3.2: Conceptual model

Figure 3.3: Framing Determinants in Social Marketing Effectiveness, adapted from Helmig and Thaler (2010, p273)

Figure 5.1: Framework as result from Axial Coding

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Acknowledgements

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Abstract

This thesis on social marketing has developed a model based on case study research. An on-‐ going debate on the limits and on the influencing factors of social marketing exists. In this thesis I reviewed the literature on social marketing and used this as a basis for a conceptual model. This model was then tested with case study research, to test the soundness of the model and to investigate whether other factors that influence the effectiveness of social marketing could be identified. Interview questions were created based on the model, variables that were included were: social marketing programme, organisation, budget, policies, environment, institutional structure, other approaches, demographic of the audience, social marketing topic, and the outcome variables behaviour and policy change.

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1. Introduction

I believe that we live in a beautiful world and I hope that many of the earth’s inhabitants agree with me on that. However, this world is not without its problems, many of which are man-‐made. If we want future generations to obtain the full benefits from this world, changes have to be made. This is the premise on which HOPE XXL was founded in 2009. This organisation has created guidelines for a world where humankind can work around the world’s limitations and solve the world’s problems. These issues have been united in a concise list of 85 points, divided into the following sections: Premise, Prosperous Earth, Pecuniary Matters, Power Control, People’s Partnership, and Pleasant Thoughts. HOPE XXL stands for a Human Odyssey of People’s Elevation, in which ten students, including myself, have come together to discuss the problems in the world and to make this list of 85 points.

From the beginning in March 2009, HOPE has accomplished a great deal. As an organisation we have received the support from many people, including prominent government officials and businesspeople in the Netherlands. A large encouragement has come in the form of a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the beginning of 2011. However, in order for HOPE to reach its final goal, which is to present the list to the United Nations so that the UN can execute the different points on it, much still needs to be done.

In order to market the ideas of HOPE XXL, the tools of social marketing should be used. Social marketing is a field where the tools of traditional marketing are used in order to change individual behaviours for the benefit of the individual and society (Andreasen, 1994). Much debate exists on a precise definition of social marketing (Gordon et al., 2006). This thesis does not attempt to develop a new definition of social marketing, but instead focuses on the effectiveness of social marketing and more specifically on its limitations. I have identified some research gaps in the existing literature on social marketing, which is the reason for this focus.

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This thesis attempts to clarify the field of social marketing by developing a model that includes the factors that influence the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign. Since there are several, opposing, lines of thought in the literature, I interviewed eleven organisations to find out what their view is on social marketing. Furthermore, this thesis has critically reviewed the limitations of social marketing by including case studies where social marketing campaigns have been used.

In order to research the abilities and limitations of social marketing, I have devised the following research question:

Which factors positively and/or negatively impact upon the success of social marketing for non-‐governmental organisations and what are the limitations of social marketing?

To answer the research question, I used a qualitative study. I first created a conceptual model based on the existing literature on social marketing. This conceptual model was used to create interview questions on the factors that might influence the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. I interviewed eleven organisations that performed social marketing campaigns. The results were analysed using theoretical coding, which resulted in an adapted theoretical model of social marketing. This model showed the variables that have an influence on the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. These variables are the social marketing programme, the organisation that developed the campaign, the budget, and governmental policies. Several moderating variables were identified: institutional and governmental support, the social environment, the effects of lobbying and law/policies, corporations, and third parties. This thesis shows that the environment that an organisation operates in is very important for the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign, especially in terms of cooperation. Many organisations had a tight budget, but they used cooperation and other strategies to overcome this limitation.

Another important conclusion from the research is that many organisations that operate in the social marketing field did not target individuals with their campaigns, but instead tried to change the behaviour of organisations and governments. Furthermore, many campaigns were developed to increase brand awareness. An important implication of this research is that social marketing can have an effect on behaviour change of both individuals and organisations, but its power is limited.

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2. Literature review

2.1 Social marketing: its definition and features

In 1971 Kotler and Zaltman (1971) gave the first definition of social marketing:

Social marketing is the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research. (Kotler and Zaltman, 1971, p 5)

Before this definition of social marketing, there had been several researches on the subject, although most authors put the emphasis on selling ideas (Domegan, 2008). Many discussions and criticisms have followed this first definition of social marketing (Andreasen, 1994).

The definition of Kotler and Zaltman (1971) has been criticised for not representing a proper definition of social marketing (Andreasen, 1994). According to Andreasen (1994), the most important aspect of social marketing is that the main goal is to change the behaviour of its target audience into a more desirable behaviour, to benefit both the individual and the society. He proposes the following:

Social marketing is the adaptation of commercial marketing technologies to programs designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences to improve their personal welfare and that of the society of which they are a part. (Andreasen, 1994, p110)

The ultimate goal of social marketing is voluntary behaviour change (Domegan, 2008). Social marketers try to accomplish this task by using the technologies and tools of commercial marketing. Many different definitions of social marketing have surfaced after the first proposal by Kotler and Zaltman (1971). Andreasen’s (1994) definition will be the basis for this thesis; I will not attempt to create a new definition of social marketing.

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of the basics of social marketing. They do differ in opinion on its abilities and boundaries (Andreasen, 1994; Wymer, 2010). In order to clarify how social marketing both differs from and resembles commercial marketing, I list some of these differences and similarities in the following paragraph.

From the literature on social marketing, several differences with commercial marketing can be defined. Kotler and Zaltman (1971) discussed the conditions for social marketing campaigns to be successful. These conditions are compared to the four P’s of marketing (McCarthy, 1975) Product, Promotion, Place, and Price. The main challenge for social marketers is that the core product of a social marketing campaign is intangible (Kotler and Zaltman, 1971). Several products are needed to accomplish one social objective; therefore social marketers need to design various tangible products while also appointing clear locations where customers can buy them. These issues for products and locations will make it less difficult for customers, who want to be active, to support the social objective.

Another difference with commercial marketing is that social marketing involves a much larger scope than commercial marketing (Domegan, 2008). Instead of only focusing on a customer level, or even on the level of an organisation, social marketing involves the level of the community or the society as well. Domegan (2008) has identified a large restraint of social marketing; its customers need to require the exchanges with the organisations that “sell” certain behaviours, they need to require the benefits that will come from changing their behaviour. Social marketing can only change behaviours “when there is significant and on-‐going customer motivational investment” (p139). This implies that the social marketer needs to be involved with its customers to a large extent, as well as being flexible and having a great understanding of the contextual factors to the exchange of the specific social marketing products.

Regarding the benchmarks for social marketing, Andreasen (1994) has identified six characteristics. These six have later been modified by McDermott, Stead, and Hastings (2005), which I list in the table below. In his research, Andreasen (1994) stated that a programme is called social marketing when it adheres to at least two of these benchmarks. The reason for this is that many marketers self-‐proclaim their programme as social marketing, even though this often only involves a communication programme and not an actual social marketing programme. In order for a programme to be social marketing, it needs to involve marketing tools; it needs to involve more than simply a communication approach. In identifying case studies for my thesis, I use these benchmarks as modified by McDermott, Stead, and Hastings (2005) to determine whether programmes can be called social marketing. Furthermore, I use the same qualification standard as Andreasen (1994) where a programme qualifies as social marketing if it adheres to at least two of the benchmarks as shown in Table 2.1.

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Benchmarks for Social Marketing

1. Behaviour change is the benchmark used to design and evaluate intentions.

2. Audience research is undertaken to (i) assess the needs of the target group, (ii) pre-‐test the programme materials and ideas, and (iii) monitor the on-‐going implementation of the programme.

3. Segmentation principles are applied.

4. The intervention strategy creates attractive motivational exchanges with the target group.

5. The intervention strategy attempts to use all four Ps of the traditional marketing mix. 6. Careful attention is paid to the competition faced by the desired behaviour.

Table 2.1: Benchmarks for Social Marketing, adapted from Andreasen (2002), in McDermott, Stead, and Hastings (2005) p547

2.2 Uses of social marketing

Social marketing as a field has many different applications and operates in several fields of behaviour change. The most common, and also most effective, uses of social marketing programmes and interventions are restricted to three fields: preventing tobacco use, promoting diet and physical activity, and preventing HIV/AIDS (Evans, 2008). Most research on social marketing has focused on these three areas (Evans, 2008; McDermott, Stead, and Hastings, 2005; Gordon et al., 2006; Helmig and Thaler, 2010). Especially health-‐related social marketing programmes have been the subjects of many studies. Even though social marketing programmes can be effective in other areas as well, the tools of social marketing have been applied more extensively in these areas, since a ‘good’ behaviour can easily be distinguished. Furthermore, these areas are important since they are issues on the health and well being of individuals, where they have performed the ‘bad’ behaviour in the past. It will be less complicated to achieve a voluntary behaviour change when it comes to a better personal health. In these areas, the personal benefits are more tangible (Evans, 2008). However, in societal issues, or issues concerning the environment, for example, personal benefits are even more intangible, less clear, and more difficult to get across to an audience. It is more difficult for people to see the ‘wider picture’ and, as such, they will be more unwilling to change their behaviour.

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problems into an activity or behaviour change for individuals, which will ultimately lead to a wider social change and solve the problem.

2.3 Behaviour change

When talking about behaviour change, it is important to determine which factors lead to certain behaviours. According to Azjen and Madden (1986), three factors influence the intention for a specific behaviour: attitude toward the behaviour, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. A change in these factors would change the intention, which in turn would change the behaviour of an individual. Attitude change can therefore be helpful in changing behaviours, as research on social marketing has also described. For this thesis, I make no particular distinction between attitude and behaviour change, since a change in attitude would result in a change in behaviour as well (Helmig and Thaler, 2010; Ajzen and Madden, 1986). However, this research shows that there are other options to change behaviour. One of those options is policy change. In certain situations this might even work better in achieving behaviour change, since this change is forced by the policy. The reverse is also true, social marketing campaigns or other initiatives can lead to a change in policies.

Based on the work by Prochaska et al. (2008) it can be said that social marketers face specific challenges when looking at different stages of behaviour change. The authors have identified the following six stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. Furthermore, the authors define different processes that people use to progress through these stages. In order to maximise effectiveness, specific processes should be emphasised in these different stages of change. An assumption that the authors take is that “The majority of at-‐risk populations are not prepared for action and will not be served effectively by traditional action-‐oriented behaviour change programs.” (Prochaska et al., 2008, p 103). In other words, if people are in such a stage, where they are not prepared to change, social marketing programmes will be inadequate to change their behaviours. These people might be served by a change in policies; such a change will force them to change behaviour. As such, social marketing is presented with a vast challenge to change the behaviour of all the people in its target audiences. Policy changes, however, might bring about a wider social change. Therefore, social marketers should broaden their horizon and look for policy changes in addition to their ‘traditional’ programmes.

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3. Conceptual model

An on-‐going debate on the scope of social marketing exists. Authors and researchers disagree on many issues, from the effectiveness of social marketing (Helmig and Thaler, 2010; Wymer, 2010; Varcoe, 2004), and what problems and challenges the field faces (Rothschild, 1999; Andreasen, 2002; Wallack, 2002; Bloom and Novelli, 1981), to whether it overlooks the context it operates in (Wallack, 2002), and how it can grow (Wymer, 2010; Andreasen, 2002; Hastings, 2003). Two movements can be identified: social marketing as the solution to all social changes and social marketing as a reason why social change will not be achieved.

Essentially, this debate is on the power of social marketing; what can social marketing actually achieve and what other factors outside the field of social marketing have an influence on that. In this thesis I make the distinction between the effects of social marketing and the wider context in which it operates. Thus, I investigate what the success and failure factors are of social marketing in its wider context and what the field can and cannot achieve.

For this thesis I have developed a conceptual model, which is based on a model of social marketing effectiveness developed by Helmig and Thaler (2010). They reviewed 139 articles on social marketing effectiveness. These were articles on different social marketing programmes that described the variables involved and whether the programme was successful in its aim; a change in attitude, intention, or behaviour. Based on their findings, they developed a model of social marketing effectiveness. This model is included in Figure 3.1.

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In order to reflect my personal opinions on social marketing and the results from the literature, I have developed a conceptual model with variables from Helmig and Thaler’s (2010) model and variables from other researches. This conceptual model is shown in Figure 3.2. Due to limitations in time and the scope of this thesis, I have not extensively researched all variables. Consequently, I focused on the independent, moderating, and control variables. In order to establish what the influence of these aspects was, I explored the outcome of a social marketing campaign, in terms of a change in behaviour or policies. I have put less emphasis on the specifics of the outcome. It is more important to establish whether there was a change in behaviour or policy, than to examine these changes in detail. In the following section I describe the different variables and why I included them in this model.

Figure 3.2: Conceptual model

Mediating Variables

-‐ Cognition -‐ Emotion

-‐ Effect of policy on outcome social marketing campaign Outcome Variables -‐ Behaviour change -‐ Policy change Control Variables -‐ Demographics audience -‐ Social marketing topic

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3.1 Independent variables

The independent variables in this conceptual model are the social marketing programme itself, the organisation that developed the programme, the topic, and the budget involved.

3.1.1 Social marketing programme

Regarding the social marketing programme, I used the characteristics set forward by Helmig and Thaler (2010). In their article, the authors distinguished between general campaign characteristics and framing determinants. For campaign characteristics they identified scope and targeting, channels used, and interactive elements. Research has shown that a wider scope, such as a nation wide campaign, has better results in behaviour change. Furthermore, targeting is important in the social marketing field, as Andreasen (1994) stated in his benchmarks for social marketing; audience research, targeting and subsequent target segmentation is an essential part of social marketing. By looking at the targeting and segmentation strategies of social marketers, I assessed which groups, and for which reasons, were selected for a campaign. Different media channels for social marketing campaigns exist, which channels are used has been proven to have an impact on the success of a campaign (Helmig and Thaler, 2010; Smith and Stutts, 2003; Evans, 2008). The choice of channels needs to be adequate for the message of the campaign. Finally, interactive elements in a campaign can increase the knowledge and likelihood of attitude change (Helmig and Thaler, 2010).

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Figure 3.3. Framing Determinants in Social Marketing Effectiveness, from Helmig and Thaler (2010)

3.1.2 Organisation

The organisation that implements the social marketing programme can have an influence on the success of a programme. A manner in which this effect is shown is the extent to which a target audience identifies with a certain organisation (Bhattacharya and Elsbach, 2002). If an individual identifies with the organisation, he/she is more likely to change behaviour, since they will act on their beliefs. Furthermore, identification also results in positive word-‐of-‐mouth, which will increase the effectiveness of the social marketing programme.

3.1.3 Budget

According to Wymer (2010), social marketing has been unsuccessful in reducing obesity and improving the health of the general population of the United States. The rate of obesity is rising, despite of the efforts of social marketing campaigns. He attributed this failure to the budgetary constraints of social marketing programmes; food industry marketing has been proven to influence consumption of food and involves a considerably higher budget than social marketing programmes. It would be interesting to see what the effect of budget is on the outcome of social marketing campaigns. I realise that this is a difficult subject; since one of the criticisms on social marketing is that it lacks the budget to achieve the behaviour change that it sets out to accomplish. However, I believe that excluding this aspect would not be the right solution. I would rather like to explore this aspect and what the influence is in a social marketing campaign.

Policy

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Since I want to determine whether a policy change has occurred, I include the existing policies in the independent variables. As such, I can compare the policy before the social marketing campaign with the policy after the campaign to see whether anything changed.

3.2 Moderating variables

Concerning moderating variables I have distinguished three aspects that I wanted to add to my thesis. One aspect concerns the environments of social marketing programmes, with a special attention towards the institutions in this environment. Since my thesis involves organisations from both Liberal Market Economies (LME) and Coordinated Market Economies (CME), I included a separate variable for institutional structure to determine what the influence is of these differences in institutions on the effectiveness of social marketing programmes. The last variable in this section involves other approaches that exist to change behaviour: lobbying, social engineering, media-‐advocacy, and law/policies. These approaches are not classified as social marketing but can have similar or increased effects on the same goals as social marketing.

3.2.1 Environment

The impact of the environment in which social marketing operates on a campaign’s effectiveness has often been overlooked (Wallack, 2002; Grier and Bryant, 2005). Regarding this variable, I look at several aspects of the social marketing environment: social, political, economical, and infrastructure. Social constructs and values have an influence on the behaviour of individuals (Smith, 2006; Azjen and Madden, 1986) and therefore they might also be important when social marketers try to change these behaviours. Not only is behaviour linked to the social environment, the political and economic environments are as well (Wallack, 2002). This holds true for individual behaviour, but also for the behaviour and strategy of organisations.

The political environment of social marketing should also be included in my conceptual model. As stated before, political environment and legislation influence behaviour of individuals and organisations and it could have an influence on the relation between social marketing programmes and behaviour or policy change (Lefebvre, 2004).

Finally, the environment in terms of infrastructure should be included in this variable as well. Not only infrastructure in terms of roads and waterways is of importance here, but also in terms of media availability. Worldwide, key differences exist in infrastructure, which can impact the success of social marketing campaigns, for instance when it comes to campaigns based on interactive media channels such as the Internet.

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environment of marketing. Since I am limited regarding time and scope, it is more feasible to use this existing research on these various aspects instead of conducting a research myself. Therefore, I include questions on the outcomes of the research by this author in the interviews.

3.2.2 Institutional structure

In my thesis I research different organisations from both Liberal Market Economies and Coordinated Market Economies, a distinction that has been made by Hall and Soskice (2001). The structure of the political economy of a country and with that its institutional structure conditions corporate strategy (Hall and Soskice, 2001). This is expected to be the same for social organisations, which is why I include the economic environment in my conceptual model.

3.2.3 Other approaches

With this variable, I want to research whether approaches other than social marketing exist, which have the same goal. Furthermore, it would be interesting to see how these approaches perform compared to social marketing campaigns.

According to Andreasen (1994, p 111): “Social marketers should not be tasked with the burden of carrying out either basic education or value change if these present massive challenges.” In later researches he maintained this position, but he also stated that other approaches exist, such as media-‐advocacy and policies and that social marketing should compete among these approaches for the field to grow (Andreasen, 2002). Rothschild (1999) has distinguished three fields regarding social change and stated that each field has its own merits and can and should be used in different situations. He compared the fields of education, law, and marketing and found that based on motivation, opportunity, and ability, one or more of the approaches should be used.

Wallack (2002) criticised social marketing for ‘blaming the victim’, instead of focusing attention upstream in order to achieve social change. He believed that the source of the problem is not the individual, as social marketing assumes, but part of the broader environment. In order to achieve social change, he proposed the approach of media advocacy, which is “the strategic use of mass media in combination with community organizing to advance healthy public policies.” (Wallack, 2002, p27).

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trends exist that have no connection with social marketing but are instead started by a democratic process. Furthermore, I would like to establish whether these trends impact on a social marketing campaign, or for example if social marketing campaigns are formed as a result of a social trend caused by social engineering.

Interest groups and social movement organisations have an increasing influence on public policymaking (Burstein and Linton, 2002; Richardson, 2000). Since these groups can directly impact social policies through lobbying, it would be interesting to see to what extent lobbying influences policymaking and whether it has an influence on the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. More specifically, the intensity of lobbying could influence the effectiveness of campaigns. I want to determine what influence lobbying has, and to what extent a high lobbying intensity influences policy and/or behaviour change.

3.3 Control variables

As control variables I include demographics of the audience and the social marketing topic. In the following section I expand on these variables to clarify what factors of these variables are of particular importance.

3.3.1 Demographics audience

Individual characteristics influence the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign (Helmig and Thaler, 2010; Smith and Stutts, 2006), just like it influences the effectiveness of traditional marketing (Slama and Tashchian, 1985). Smith and Stutts (2006) have found that grade level, gender, and ethnicity have an influence on the effectiveness of antismoking advertisements. Demographic characteristics that influence purchasing involvement, in a traditional marketing field, are gender, education, income, and stage in the family life cycle (Slama and Tashchian, 1985). Henry (2001) found that in public health programmes, social class has an impact on health outcomes.

It is important to note here that I do not intend to look at these variables at an individual level, but rather at an organisation or community level. As such, I will research whether groups with different demographics also have differing results in behaviour change.

3.3.2 Topic

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might be easier to translate the behaviour change into personal benefits in certain subjects (Evans, 2008).

3.4 Mediating Variables

Regarding the mediating variables I focus on the independent and control variables in my conceptual model. The mediating variables cognition and emotion are based on the model by Helmig and Thaler (2010) and are measured on an individual level. Since the other variables in my conceptual model are on a group or organisation level, it would be time-‐consuming to measure these at an individual level and then convert them into group level information.

Furthermore, I have incorporated a factor in the mediating variables that is included in this research, namely the effect of a policy on a social marketing campaign. As such I can determine what the effect of an existing policy is and how this might influence the change of that policy or of the behaviour of groups.

3.5 Outcome Variables

In this section I look at the outcome of the social marketing programme, in order to determine whether a change in behaviour or policy has occurred. Varcoe (2004) has identified five levels of the effectiveness of social marketing. The author claims that social marketing should be judged at all five levels, which are Awareness, Engagement, Behaviour, Social Norm, and Wellbeing. For the outcome of the different marketing campaigns, I look whether the effectiveness of the campaigns can be classified in these five levels.

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4. Methodology

Based on academic articles and literature, I have set up a conceptual model, which formed the basis of this thesis. In order to test the applicability of this model, I performed a qualitative research study, by means of a set of case studies. By conducting interviews at social organisations I determined whether the factors that I had included in my conceptual model have an influence on the outcome of a social marketing campaign and what this influence consists of. Furthermore, I wanted to research whether other factors should be included in the conceptual model that have been overlooked in existing literature. These research aims have been included in the following research question:

Which factors positively and/or negatively impact upon the success of social marketing for non-‐governmental organisations and what are the limitations of social marketing?

The reason for choosing a qualitative research method is that this is considered the most appropriate method to build theory (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Among researchers and social marketers still exists a strong debate on the features, effectiveness and reach of social marketing. Therefore, I believe that this research is necessary to determine which factors contribute to an effective social marketing campaign. This thesis also researched what a social marketing campaign can and cannot accomplish. The main drawback of a qualitative research method is that generalizability could be quite low (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Future research is needed to empirically test the model set forward in this thesis. In the following section I discuss the different benefits and drawbacks of a case study approach.

4.1 Benefits and drawbacks of the case study approach

The choice for a case study approach and the collection of data by using interviews, presents both benefits and drawbacks. I believe that the use of case studies is best suited to investigate the soundness of the conceptual model and to identify new factors that should be included in it. In order to accomplish this, an in-‐depth examination is needed, which is best done by case studies, since they result in rich data on these processes (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). According to Flyvbjerg (2006), more can be learned from case studies, the context-‐dependent knowledge in case studies helps people to become experts on the subject. This is particularly important in a topic on which exists as much debate as with social marketing.

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address in my research. First, often, case study research has a lack of rigor, when researchers do not have a structured approach towards their research or when the research is biased. To prevent this, I followed the methodology in the book by Yin (2009) on doing case study research. Second, it is deemed difficult for case studies to provide a good basis for scientific generalization, which could be the case in this thesis as well. When case studies are carefully chosen, they can still be valuable and generalizable (Flyvbjerg, 2006). In the selection of case studies, I have tried to overcome this limitation by choosing case studies with some similarities. However, since the inclusion of case studies depends on the willingness of the organisations in question to cooperate with me and donate their time, the organisations included have less in common than I initially intended. This also implies that it is difficult to generalize the results from the other sectors and countries.

Third, case studies have been seen to take too long and to result in large documents. To reduce the time frame and size of this thesis, I chose to include no more than eleven case studies. Furthermore, I am bound by the assignment on these aspects as well. The last drawback that Yin (2009) mentioned, states that case studies cannot prove causal relationships. However, case studies can provide explanations for certain situations and processes, which is the aim of my thesis.

The use of interviews in my research has the advantage that it is an efficient way to obtain rich data and personal opinions from the people in direct contact with the campaigns and organisations in question, which can also provide new insights (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The main challenge in the use of interviews is to limit the bias that may be present. Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007) determined two ways to achieve this; by using other ways to collect data as well and combining cases from the past and present. In my research I used data obtained from interviews, but I also collected data from unbiased sources, such as newspapers and journals. I also intended to include marketing campaigns from different times, however more information was available on recent marketing campaigns. With the exception of one case study, the campaigns from the different organisations occurred in the last five years.

The authors also stated that real-‐time cases are best served by using longitudinal data collection of interviews and observation. Unfortunately, I did not have the resources or the time frame to accomplish this; therefore, my data from the interviews might be biased.

4.2 Data collection

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employed. With the exception of one organisation, where I interviewed two employees, I spoke to one individual at each organisation.

Social marketing has been extensively defined in the literature review section of this thesis. In order to determine whether an organisation has used social marketing, I refer to the benchmarks set forward in McDermott, Stead, and Hastings (2005) that have been adapted from the benchmarks by Andreasen (1994). These benchmarks are listed again in the table below (Table 4.1). Social marketing campaigns need to involve at least two of these benchmarks and need to have as their goal an attitude or behaviour change, which can also involve a policy change.

Table 4.1: Benchmarks for Social Marketing, adapted from Andreasen (2002), in McDermott, Stead, and Hastings (2005) p547

The first step in order to find organisations that conducted social marketing campaigns was by personal contacts. Four of the case studies included in this thesis have been found by using contacts in the organisation themselves, or by using contacts through others. One of these four case studies was HOPE XXL, where I interviewed the director. I included the foundation in order to be able to compare the results from the other case studies to HOPE XXL. As such, it was easier to relate the marketing activities of HOPE XXL to marketing activities of other organisations, so that it was possible to determine what steps the foundation should take regarding marketing. After confirming these first four case studies, I searched for additional organisations that fit the criteria set forward in this section on methodology. In order to find these organisations, I used Internet and magazine sources. First, I looked for organisations that are well known to the Dutch public. Since most of these organisations are part of an international structure, I contacted the British counterparts as well. The reason for this was that I wanted to interview both British and Dutch organisations, so that I could research the influence of the different institutional structures of these nations. Second, I used the Internet and advertisements to find lesser known,

Benchmarks for Social Marketing

1. Behaviour change is the benchmark used to design and evaluate intentions.

2. Audience research is undertaken to (i) assess the needs of the target group, (ii) pre-‐test the programme materials and ideas, and (iii) monitor the on-‐going implementation of the programme.

3. Segmentation principles are applied.

4. The intervention strategy creates attractive motivational exchanges with the target group.

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smaller organisations that I could contact. It was my assumption that these organisations would be more willing to make time for my thesis.

In order to determine whether the organisations in my selection met the benchmarks set forward in this thesis, I researched the organisations before I contacted them. I looked at the goal of the organisation, the type of organisation, and what it had done in terms of marketing. Next, I examined some specific marketing campaigns, to establish whether it could be classified as social marketing. These actions resulted in an extensive list of organisations that I could contact for my thesis. In order to improve the chances of obtaining sufficient interviews for my research, I made no additional selections based on industry that the organisations performed in. I realise that this might have lead to some limitations of my thesis, but I feel that this decision was necessary to collect a sufficient size of case studies.

After compiling a list of organisations that fitted the criteria for social marketing, I contacted these organisations. Initial contact was through e-‐mail, where I used the foundation HOPE XXL to get the attention. E-‐mail addresses were retrieved from the organisations’ websites. Where possible, I sent the e-‐mail to the marketing or communications department. For most organisations, I sent an e-‐mail to the general e-‐mail address, at the attention of the marketing or communications department. The precise names of these departments were often listed on the website.

From the 30 organisations I contacted, seven additional case studies were added to my research. Some organisations did not respond and several organisations replied that it was not the policy of the organisation to give interviews to students. Several other organisations were interested in cooperating with the research, however they did not have time or the person I would need to talk to was unavailable.

This process of case study selection resulted in eleven different case studies. This was a group of two British organisations, one Bangladeshi organisation, and eight Dutch organisations. The organisations operated in five different sectors, six organisations were international, with either operations or divisions in other countries. One case study was not an organisation, but a professional who had worked with social marketing campaigns in past and current positions. In Appendix A I included a list of the organisations, the sector they operate in and the titles of the interviewees.

A critical review of social marketing: which factors influence the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign for non-­‐governmental organisations and what are the limitations?

A critical review of social marketing:

which factors influence the effectiveness

of a social marketing campaign

for non-­‐governmental organisations

and what are the limitations?

Master Thesis Social Marketing

Jolanda van Hal

vanhal.jolanda@gmail.com

Advanced International Business Management

University of Groningen

Student number: 1627953

International Marketing

Newcastle University Business School

Student number: 110165039

Table of Contents

A critical review of social marketing:

which factors influence the effectiveness

of a social marketing campaign for non-­‐

governmental organisations and what are

the limitations?

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Literature review

2.1 Social marketing: its definition and features

2.2 Uses of social marketing

2.3 Behaviour change

3. Conceptual model

3.1 Independent variables

3.2 Moderating variables

3.3 Control variables

3.4 Mediating Variables

3.5 Outcome Variables

4. Methodology

4.1 Benefits and drawbacks of the case study approach

4.2 Data collection

A critical review of social marketing: which factors influence the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign for non-‐governmental organisations and what are the limitations?

for non-‐governmental organisations

of a social marketing campaign for non-‐