The Professional Communicators' Network recently met at Peach to hear our thinking on social marketing and the challenges of creating behavioural change campaigns.

The presentation outlined Peach’s 15 year history and current learnings in social marketing and how social change happens.

In the words of practising social marketer Ian Potter, Director New Zealand Health Sponsorship Council ‘It would be easy to give the public information and hope that it would change behaviour but we know it doesn’t work, otherwise none of us would be obese, none of us would smoke and none of us would drive like lunatics’.

It’s a tough sell. People are creatures of habit and comfort, so consider being told to change your comfortable lifestyle, reduce air conditioning, spend more money and buy green or give up your addiction and stop smoking – all while being overwhelmed with hundreds of other messages every day.

As social marketing specialists, we dig deep to gather the insights needed to create compelling, meaningful and relevant communication that will generate positive social outcomes. To come up with effective solutions, we draw on our own experience and the expertise of social marketers around the world.

We have redefined the 4p’s of marketing to create our own proprietary tool, the 4e’s of social marketing.

Emotional Engagement Use emotion to activate interest and commitment, reflect a human truth, personalise the message, communicate in the right media and embrace new media. Easy Promote a single do-able behaviour, drill down to an individual action, use clear instructions, make it easy to remember and don’t ask for too much. Education Emphasise benefits that make action desirable, engage – don’t tell. Provide necessary support for guidance and integrate with enforcement measures. Enduring Commit long-term to a simple memorable message and progressively build greater commitment.

'The evidence is increasingly clear that if we help people make small manageable changes over time, we can have a positive impact on their wellbeing' (Dr. Fiona Adshead, Deputy Chief Medical Officer – UK NHS). Small steps change the world, think of drink driving, think of smoking . . .

So when it comes to behavioural change, there are no miracles, just persistence and commitment.