Video: Building Partnerships With Social Marketing

How can you develop successful partnership efforts that help your organization become one that others seek to engage?

In this video Q&A, Social Marketing Quarterly (SMQ) co-editor Lynne Doner Lotenberg and Darcy Sawatzki, both of Hager Sharp, talk about bringing ‘Best Bones Forever’ — a national bone health campaign targeting U.S. tween girls — to life through partnership building. They explain why partnerships are so important to such programs, which aim to be catalysts for change.

Read their article, “Building Partnerships to Build the Best Bones Forever! : Applying the 4Ps to Partnership Development,” co-authored with Ann Abercrombie of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in SMQ’s March 2012 edition. To learn more about Social Marketing Quarterly, please follow this link.

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Marketing For a Better World

woodleywonderworks (CC BY 2.0)

The first SAGE-published issue of Social Marketing Quarterly (SMQ) offers plenty of tangible advice for marketing scholars and practitioners who want to create change for the greater good. Click here to view the Table of Contents.

The issue’s closing piece, “Insightful Social Marketing Leadership,” excerpts the keynote speech given by SMQ Associate Editor François Lagarde at the U.K. Social Marketing Conference in Brighton, England. Dr. Lagarde reflects on the power of social marketing to transform society, the role of leadership in creating change, and the ways in which social marketing can “evolve and unleash its full potential to take up some of the planet’s and humanity’s greatest challenges.”

An excerpt from the essay:

The beauty with social marketing is that it is a confluence of both marketing and many social sciences each bringing complementary theories, techniques, expertise, and skills (French & Blair- Stevens, 2007, p. 17; Truss, Marshall, & Blair-Stevens, 2010, p. 23). It is also a field of practice that attracts people with diverse backgrounds and talents. In this period of ongoing ecological, demographic, technological, economic, political, and social turbulence and opportunities, I cannot think of a better field of practice.

To learn more about Social Marketing Quarterly, please follow this link.

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Going Green: Do Consumers Buy It?

tracitodd (CC BY 2.0)

The greening of corporate America often has less to do with environmental concern and more to do with perceived influence on consumers, who are hungry for environmentally friendly products and services. But a survey released this month by global business communications firm Gibbs & Soell found that only 21 percent of American consumers actually believe businesses are committed to going green.

In Part Two of our series highlighting the first SAGE-published issue of Social Marketing Quarterly (SMQ), we present a new study which finds that green efforts are impacting consumers–but not necessarily in the ways we would expect. David Raska and Doris Shaw, both of Northern Kentucky University, published “Is the Greening of Firms Helping Consumers to Go Green?” in the SMQ March 2012 edition. Click here to view the Table of Contents.

The abstract:

Although research supports the notion that consumers look favorably upon firms that implement popular social behaviors like ‘‘going green,’’ little is known about how such practices impact the consumer’s own social attitudes and behaviors. In two experiments, the authors explore this underresearched area in social marketing by examining how a firm’s stated motive for its environmentally friendly behaviors as well as brand loyalty influence consumer attitudes toward, and intentions for, similar behaviors. Implications for social marketers are provided regarding the development of effective social marketing programs. These results suggest that society may best be served when marketers integrate more honesty and transparency into socially responsible claims since consumers are more likely to model their behavior under these circumstances.

Read the full article here, and bookmark Management INK to get more upcoming highlights from Social Marketing Quarterly. You can find Part One of our series, which discussed the intersection of political and social marketing, here.

Social Marketing Quarterly, peer-reviewed and published quarterly, is a scholarly, internationally circulated journal that covers theoretical, research and practical issues confronting social marketers. Published in association with FHI360, SMQ is the only journal exclusively focused on social marketing issues. SMQ targets social marketers and other public health, communication, marketing, and social science professionals with research studies, case studies, conference notices, essays, editorials, book reviews, and other relevant news regarding social marketing efforts around the world. To learn more about the journal, please click here.

Are you interested in receiving email alerts whenever a new article or issue becomes available? Then follow this link!

Customer Satisfaction: Priorities for Improvement

Jason Hargrove (CC BY 2.0)

Marketing expert Donald R. Bacon, Professor in the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and editor of the Journal of Marketing Education, has a new article that introduces a method for identifying priorities in order to achieve greater overall customer satisfaction.

“Understanding Priorities for Service Attribute Improvement” was published in the May 2012 issue of the Journal of Service Research. To view other articles in this issue, please click here.

Dr. Bacon writes in the executive summary:

In today’s increasingly competitive environment, service managers continually look for ways to improve their services. They generally know that some improvements will have more impact on customer satisfaction than others, but with limited budgets, identifying the specific improvements with the greatest impact is critical. This paper offers managers a new tool to understand which improvements to their services will give the biggest boost to customer satisfaction with the service.

The task of identifying the attributes with the greatest impact is particularly challenging because customers may not care that much about further improvement in some attributes. Thus, the attributes that were top priorities for improvement last year may not be top priorities this year because they have reached a point of diminishing returns. Several methods exist for understanding how customers value additional improvements in a service attribute, such as importance-performance analysis (IPA), regression analysis, and factor regression. However, these techniques have important limitations that are discussed in this article.

This paper introduces marginal utility analysis (MUA), a new method of understanding the relationship between an attribute and the overall customer evaluation of a service. The data necessary for the method can be collected within a typical customer satisfaction survey. With these data, the method estimates the shape of the relationship between each attribute and the overall evaluation of the service. Other techniques assume the same functional form between the attribute and the overall evaluation. MUA does not force an attribute to assume the same general form. Consequently, MUA provides a more accurate and detailed picture of each attribute’s relationship to the overall evaluation. Based on Item Response Theory and Rasch analysis, MUA is entirely different than factor and regression analyses and brings a new and richer perspective to understanding customers’ evaluation of service performance.

MUA is demonstrated using customer satisfaction data collected by a medical professional association following their annual conference. The method displays the results graphically and provides managers with a helpful visual tool for identifying the attributes that are top priorities for improvement now, and those that may become top priorities in the future as conditions change. For example, at low levels of satisfaction, customers value reducing the crowding at the conference more than increasing the amount of continuing education credit available. However, at higher levels of satisfaction, the priorities are reversed; reducing the crowding further is not as valued as increasing the educational opportunities. The method’s output is easy to interpret and should generate insightful conversations among the full management team.

Read the full article here. To learn more about the Journal of Service Research, please click here.

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“Eclectic, Timely, and Targeted”: Philip Kotler and Bill Novelli on Social Marketing

Joelk75 (CC BY 2.0)

As the U.S. election season heats up, political marketing is everywhere. How does it interface with social marketing, which aims to change the behavior of individuals?

Management INK is pleased to announce the first SAGE-published issue of Social Marketing Quarterly (SMQ), which answers this question and more. This week, we present a special series to highlight the March 2012 edition, offering fresh perspectives on eclectic topics from the effectiveness of green marketing to the impact of a Facebook fan page. Click here to view the Table of Contents.

In the introduction, “American Politics and Social Marketing,” SMQ Editor Bill Smith talks with Philip Kotler, author of the worldwide bestseller “Marketing Management” and S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern University; and Bill Novelli, Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. The experts discuss the “intersecting circles” of political and social marketing and what we can learn from them:

Americans are getting ready to purchase a new set of politicians. The two great competing companies have pilot tested their products, even as new competitors are threatening to eat into the market share of the brand leaders. Segmentation research is guiding each party’s marketing strategy while continuous polling and focus grouping are keeping both campaigns agile. Ten of millions are being spent on new media and old media in the race to price and promote the two dominant product extensions.

As we inaugurated a new publisher for the Quarterly, this seems like a good time to reflect with two of social marketing’s iconic figures, Phil Kotler and Bill Novelli, on the interface between political and social marketing.

We’re not interested in picking the winners and losers, or which political party is doing better than the other. We want to talk about the process of modern political marketing and what we can learn from it that might be useful to us in social marketing.

Read the whole conversation here—and stay tuned for more highlights from SMQ on Management INK.

Social Marketing Quarterly, peer-reviewed and published quarterly, is a scholarly, internationally circulated journal that covers theoretical, research and practical issues confronting social marketers. Published in association with FHI360, SMQ is the only journal exclusively focused on social marketing issues. SMQ targets social marketers and other public health, communication, marketing, and social science professionals with research studies, case studies, conference notices, essays, editorials, book reviews, and other relevant news regarding social marketing efforts around the world. To learn more about the journal, please click here.

Are you interested in receiving email alerts whenever a new article or issue becomes available? Then follow this link!

A “Novel” Approach to Engaging Gen Y

Thuany Gabriela (CC BY 2.0)

Thanks to shorter attention spans and “stimulation overload,” today’s Generation Y business students are a tough crowd when it comes to classroom engagement.

A new study in the Journal of Marketing Education (JME) ditches the traditional lecture method for an innovative approach in which marketing students create their own photo novels to generate lively discussion, develop their skills, and enjoy the learning experience.

Kallol Das of the Mudra Institute of Communications published the article, “Using Participatory Photo Novels to Teach Marketing,” in the April 2012 issue of JME. To see more articles in this issue, please click here.

Professor Das explains in the abstract:

Teaching the restless young generation business students of today is not easy. Furthermore, the traditional lecture method has failed miserably to engage the business students and deliver significant learning. The author presents a discussion on the photo novel as an attractive communication medium and the participatory photo novel as an innovative pedagogical tool, in place of the traditional lecture method. In fact, this method puts the onus of learning on the students and empowers them to co-create content and subsequently learn through classroom discussions. This is followed by a brief classroom guide on the process of creating a participatory photo novel. Student evaluation and feedback are discussed. Specifically, the content analysis reveals that students experienced the following learning outcomes: understanding and knowledge, critical thinking, transfer ability, creative thinking, communication skills, and leadership ability. This is followed by an agenda for empirical research. The limitations and implications of using this pedagogy are also discussed in detail. Overall, it is hoped that the use of participatory photo novel as a pedagogical tool can go a long way in augmenting learning resources, popularizing of this genre of literature, and providing the young generation business students with a unique learning experience.

To learn more about the Journal of Marketing Education, please follow this link.

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Social Marketing and Healthy People

Did you know that social marketing objectives have been added to Healthy People 2020?

Healthy People, the program of national health promotion goals set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, aims to improve the health of all Americans with 10-year national objectives. For the first time, the index now includes measures to increase social marketing in health promotion and disease prevention.

To support this historic achievement, the 22nd Annual Social Marketing Conference in Clearwater Beach, Florida, will include two plenary sessions on strategies for initiating instruction about social marketing, social entrepreneurship, and related social change at universities and improving existing educational endeavors in these institutions.

Included are two “collaboratories” devoted to academic interests, giving people working in and with universities a chance to discuss and expand upon the ideas presented during these plenary sessions.

Healthy People 2020 objectives directed at incorporating social marketing include:

• “Increase the proportion of schools of public health and accredited master of public health (MPH) programs that offer one or more courses in social marketing.

• Increase the proportion of schools of public health and accredited MPH programs that offer workforce development activities in social marketing for public health practitioners.” (Source: Healthy People 2020, US Department of Health and Human Services)

If you have ideas on how to realize these Healthy People 2020 objectives, we welcome your abstracts for short oral presentations or posters. We also invite you to join us for a productive and purposive conversation about the future of social marketing in academia.

For more information about this year’s conference, visit us on the web at: http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/csm/scc.htm

Online registration for the 22nd Annual Social Marketing Conference: Ideas Beyond Borders is now available! To register, please click here. To view detailed information and download a conference brochure, please follow this link.

Training Academy: June 13-14, 2012
Main Conference: June 15-16, 2012
Sheraton Sand Key Resort
Clearwater Beach, FL
Sponsored by USF Health

Get published! Submit your research to the Journal of Marketing Education

About the Journal

The Journal of Marketing Education (JME) is the leading international scholarly journal devoted to contemporary issues in marketing education. Its mission is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, information, and experiences related to the process of educating students in marketing and its subfields. Its audience is largely composed of marketing faculty members at institutions of higher education where teaching is an integral component of their overall responsibilities.

The main function of the Journal of Marketing Education is to publish articles focusing on the latest teaching/learning strategies and tactics in marketing education. JME also publishes articles that address various professional issues of importance to marketing faculty members. The journal’s readership is international in scope with significant representation in university libraries.

Submit Papers in these Areas

JME is accepting bylined articles from experts and practitioners on a wide range of topics related to marketing education, including:

• Evaluating teaching effectiveness
• Experiential exercises
• Marketing in developing economies
• Ethics
• Student team projects

JME also plans to publish a special issue on ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability in marketing education, with guest editors Victoria Crittenden and Linda Ferrell. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2012. Please click here to view the special issue call for papers.

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to the Editor, Donald R. Bacon, at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmed. Authors are expected to review and conform with manuscript submission guidelines described here prior to making a submission. Questions about the submission process should be forwarded to the Editor at dbacon@du.edu.

For more information, please follow this link.

JMK Special Issue on Vietnam

The Journal of Macromarketing (JMK) has released its first country-specific special issue, featuring articles and commentaries about Vietnam that tie in to various macromarketing themes. Guest editor Clifford J. Shultz, II, of Loyola University Chicago, authored the introductory essay, “Vietnam: Political Economy, Marketing System.” To access all articles in this special issue, please click here.

The abstract:

Vietnam is an evolving political economy and marketing system. Since the implementation of Doi Moi, the 1986 policy to invoke a shift from central economic planning to a more market-oriented system, the country has made extraordinary progress on several socioeconomic indicators. Some observers contend Vietnam is a development model; others suggest the country still has numerous challenges to overcome before it can reach its development goals. This article provides an overview of Vietnam’s socioeconomic development; it introduces eight refereed articles and four commentaries that comprise the scholarly contributions to the first special issue of the Journal of Macromarketing to feature research on a single country. Vietnam is that country. Contributors provide detailed research, analysis, and reflection on the interplay of markets, marketing, and society. Topics studied include system complexity and entrepreneurship, retailing evolution, consumption dynamics and societal wellness, family policy and consumption, education and human resource development, living standards and quality of life, ethical/unethical foreign direct investment, ritualistic consumption, and marketing, trade and protectionism, land policy and environmental sustainability, and implications for Vietnam’s economic and geopolitical future.

To learn more about the Journal of Macromarketing, please follow this link.

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Fostering Sustainable Behavior

Fostering Sustainable Behavior Workshop
An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing
June 13-14, 2012  

The cornerstone of sustainability is behavior change. Sustainability requires individuals and businesses to act (e.g., reduce waste, increase water and energy efficiency, and prevent pollution). To date, most programs to achieve these changes have relied upon disseminating information. Research demonstrates, however, that simply providing information has little or no effect on what people or businesses do. But if not ads, brochures or booklets, then what? Over the last decade a new approach, community-based social marketing, has emerged as an effective alternative for promoting sustainable behavior.

About the Workshop: 

Presented by Pacific Agenda, Inc. and taught by Doug McKenzie-Mohr, PhD, the Fostering Sustainable Behavior Workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to community-based social marketing and how it is being applied throughout the world to foster sustainable behavior. Attendees will learn the five steps of community-based social marketing (selecting behaviors, identifying barriers, developing strategies, conducting pilots, and broad scale implementation) and be exposed to numerous case studies illustrating its use. As such, this workshop provides participants with the knowledge they need to design and evaluate their own community-based social marketing programs.

About the Presenter: 

Dr. McKenzie-Mohr is the founder of community-based social marketing and has written and presented extensively on the topic. His work has been featured in the New York Times and his book, “Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing,” has been recommended by Time magazine.

Workshop Details:

The workshop is being held at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort (Clearwater Beach, Florida) June 13-14, 2012. To register or to find more information, please follow this link.

The workshop precedes the 22nd Annual Social Marketing Training Academy & Conference: Ideas Beyond Borders, sponsored by USF Health. Workshop attendees will be emailed further information on the annual conference as well as a code that can be used to obtain a reduced rate for staying at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort. Online conference registration now available at www.cme.hsc.usf.edu!

Training Academy: June 13-14, 2012
Main Conference: June 15-16, 2012
Sheraton Sand Key Resort
Clearwater Beach, FL
Sponsored by USF Health