Strategic Social Marketing

For those of you who may be interested this is the trust of a paper I wil give on the 3rd of November at the ISM confrence Uk. The title is: Why Nudges are often are not enough and why Social Marketing is part of the answer to state sponsored social improvement programmes.
In this presentation I will take a critical look at current thinking about how to bring about social improvement and why social marketing has a key role to play in both shaping the current social policy debate and ensuring more effective operational delivery.
Current policy reflects a degree of conceptual confusion. There is a move away from a top down management, target driven and evidence based approach, that is argued has been ineffective and wasteful. In its place there is an emerging strategy characterised by less state intervention and more personal responsibility. This emergent strategy is embodied in the UK in the idea of developing a ‘Big Society’ and a new form of social contract characterised by the PM as ”You put your taxes in and you get services out”.
This approach shares the same basic reciprocal principles as the social marketing of creating vale through exchange. This alignment means that social marketing must have something to add to the emerging new agenda and intervention landscape.
The backdrop of this demate will be explored and its implications for social marketing. The financial crisis, the need to save money and do more with less. The rise of social psychology and behavioural economics supported by the principles of liberal paternalism and associated interventions such as Nudges. I will argue that we have a great deal of understanding about what works and what does not and that this knowledge is compartmentalised and is often perceived to be in conflict and or competitive. The point will be made that there is a need for a full marketing intervention mix as well as a comprehensive approach to assisting people to change. I will set out some new conceptual thinking about why nudges are not the full answer and make the case for a more comprehensive matrix of forms and types of intervention. A value cost matrix and an intervention matrix will be presented and explained. A central point will be made that all ‘forms’ and ‘types’ of intervention need to be informed by data, evidence and target audience insight.
I will conclude by proposing that there is a need for a comprehensive strategic approach that tackles both the determinants and consequences of social problems and that social marketing is well placed to help develop a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to developing and delivering social programmes.
The case will be made for effort to be focused on an amalgamation and synthesis of what evidence and experience has taught us about how to develop deliver and assess social change programmes.