Harnessing social listening to explore consumer cognitive bias: implications for upstream social marketing

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mehmet ◽  
Troy Heffernan ◽  
Jennifer Algie

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how upstream social marketing can benefit from using social media commentary to identify cognitive biases. Using reactions to leading media/news publications/articles related to climate and energy policy in Australia, this paper aims to understand underlying community cognitive biases and their reasonings. Design/methodology/approach Social listening was used to gather community commentary about climate and energy policy in Australia. This allowed the coding of natural language data to determine underlying cognitive biases inherent in the community. In all, 2,700 Facebook comments were collected from 27 news articles dated between January 2018 and March 2020 using exportcomments.com. Team coding was used to ensure consistency in interpretation. Findings Nine key cognitive bias were noted, including, pessimism, just-world, confirmation, optimum, curse of knowledge, Dunning–Kruger, self-serving, concision and converge biases. Additionally, the authors report on the interactive nature of these biases. Right-leaning audiences are perceived to be willfully uninformed and motivated by self-interest; centric audiences want solutions based on common-sense for the common good; and left-leaning supporters of progressive climate change policy are typically pessimistic about the future of climate and energy policy in Australia. Impacts of powerful media organization shaping biases are also explored. Research limitations/implications Through a greater understanding of the types of cognitive biases, policy-makers are able to better design and execute influential upstream social marketing campaigns. Originality/value The study demonstrates that observing cognitive biases through social listening can assist upstream social marketing understand community biases and underlying reasonings towards climate and energy policy.

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Dahl ◽  
Lynne Eagle ◽  
David Low

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the view of integrated marketing communications (IMC) by social marketing practitioners. Specifically, the paper furthers the discussion how a symbiotic relationship between IMC and social marketing can lead to both practical improvements of health-related social marketing campaigns, as well as theoretical advancement of the IMC construct. Design/methodology/approach – Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with practitioners, the authors provide exploratory evidence for support for IMC within the social marketing community and highlight potential differences and similarities when transferring IMC from a commercial to a social context. Findings – Three main differences emerged when transferring IMC from a commercial to a social context. These include differences of customer-centric approaches between commercial and social marketing, the need to weigh out the application of IMC to the charity brand or the use of IMC at a behavioural level and, finally, different complexity levels of desired behaviour as a mediating factor. Research limitations/implications – As with all qualitative data, the findings may not be generalisable beyond the interview participants and organisations studied. Practical implications – Many practitioners expressed that they liked IMC as a concept, but they lacked guidance as to the application with a social marketing context. This paper contributes to providing this guidance and establishing a body of knowledge how IMC can be applied in a non-commercial setting. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the practical development of guidance how the largely commercially applied IMC construct can be modified to be used in a social marketing context, while correspondingly highlighting how IMC needs to evolve to grow beyond purely commercial application.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satyam Mishra ◽  
Bikramjit Rishi

Purpose Marketing tools used in public policy may not be purely commercial but based on non-commercial marketing exchanges also. This paper aims to make a case for the practice of social marketing principles to aid the context of public policy. Design/methodology/approach The approach is to draw out the key implementable learnings (KILs) from the analysis of the five public policy initiatives in the USA, India and Sri Lanka. A case situation with the context of child labour policy in India is proposed to use these KILs. Findings This paper concludes that the implementation of any policy is a challenging exercise and dependent on a large number of factors. However, KILs derived from successful social marketing programs deal with umbrella campaigns, prevailing socio-cultural environment, bottom-up communication, upstream approach to engage with stakeholders and targeted media advocacy could prove useful when the objective is to induce behaviour change as a part of the policy execution. Originality/value This paper evaluates the learnings from social marketing campaigns and their relevance to public policy programs. It also considers a case to demonstrate the application of the concept.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 926-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meikel Soliman ◽  
Silke Boenigk

Purpose Imbedded in the life course paradigm, the purpose of this paper is to investigate which individual life events impact blood donations and to study their underlying mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach By applying logistic regression, moderation and mediation analysis, this paper uses a large sample of N = 5,640 individuals. Findings Experiencing normative life events and stressful life events reduce the likelihood of donating blood, whereas human capital life events enhance the likelihood of donating blood. Specifically, having a child and death of a mother decrease and finishing education increases the probability of blood donations. Locus of control and satisfaction with income are significant underlying mechanisms. Practical implications Social marketing campaigns can use individual life events to focus on similarities between potential blood donors and individuals in need of blood. Blood centers can adopt their services to cater to the changing needs after experiencing individual life events by running mobile blood collecting drives and providing guidance. Social implications Blood centers take an important role in sustaining a healthy society. As the need for blood will increase in the future, a better understanding of blood donation behavior and social marketing contributes to increased donations. Originality/value While previous research looked at collective life events, there is a dearth in marketing and blood literature on the effects of individual life events.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Donovan ◽  
Julia Anwar-McHenry ◽  
Yolexis Hernandez Aguilera ◽  
Amberlee Nicholas ◽  
Simone Kerrigan

Purpose Maximising return on naming rights sponsorships is important for social marketing campaigns with limited funds. Naming rights allow the sponsor’s brand to be aligned with the event name in text and visual promotional materials. For visual displays, either the brand logo or the brand name in words can be aligned with the event name. As the Act–Belong–Commit mental health promotion campaign’s logo encapsulates the brand name, a study was conducted to assess the relative impact on recall of “Act–Belong–Commit” as part of a sponsored event name, when the logo was aligned with the event name versus when the brand name in only words was aligned with the event name. Design/methodology/approach An intercept survey was conducted with n = 112 adult university students. Participants were presented with one of the above two branding alignments for the sponsored event. The image was removed from view, a distracter question asked and participants were asked to recall the name of the event. Findings Recall of the Act–Belong–Commit brand in full as part of the name of the event was significantly and substantially greater for participants exposed to the words only alignment versus the logo alignment: 52 vs 7 per cent (p < 0.000). Practical implications Given these findings, the campaign has adopted the policy of using the words Act–Belong–Commit alongside the event name rather than the logo in future naming rights sponsorships. Originality/value It is recommended that other social marketing brands with similar brand/logo designs undertake research to ensure optimal return on naming rights sponsorships.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Pang ◽  
Krzysztof Kubacki

Purpose – This study aims to contribute to the existing social marketing literature by considering young adults’ views and perceptions about social marketing and social marketing campaigns in the context of alcohol consumption. Design/methodology/approach – Eighteen interviews were conducted with young adults aged 25-30 years in Australia and the USA. Biographical interviews were used to collect information on individuals’ drinking histories and how their attitudes towards social marketing campaigns have formed during their lives. Findings – Four main themes emerge in the study, namely, ethicality (freedom of choice), expensiveness, exaggeration and effectiveness. These four issues represent the main barriers and challenges for social marketers. Future research needs to explore the relationship between the attitudes of the target audience towards social marketing, and the actual effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. Research limitations/implications – This is an exploratory study that is limited by its context, sample size and participants’ demographical characteristics. Originality/value – This study provides empirical evidence behind challenges and barriers facing social marketing identified by Andreasen (2002).


Significance Voting in the race to replace Tom Mulcair as leader of Canada’s social-democratic NDP begins on September 18, with results announced by October 1. The victor of the contest will go on to contest 2019’s federal election against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. While not a contender for government, the NDP’s standing and performance at the polls will help determine whether Trudeau’s Liberals are elected to a second term or the Conservatives return to power. Impacts Oil-friendly NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley will probably be ousted in 2019 by a new right-wing fusion party. The NDP-Green coalition in British Columbia will pressure the new federal leader for more militant stances on climate and energy policy. Trudeau will probably increase his majority in 2019 should NDP support remain tepid despite a new leader.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duong Trong Hue ◽  
Linda Brennan ◽  
Lukas Parker ◽  
Michael Florian

Purpose – This paper aims to elucidate perceptions of safe driving and social norms in relation to driving motorbikes in the Vietnamese context. Design/methodology/approach – A series of focus groups was undertaken in relation to driving practices from a number of groups: adolescents, families and adult males and females. The discussion centred on how driving behaviours were socialised within the various groups. Findings – The research highlighted some very interesting social dynamics in relation to how safe driving habits are established and supported within the social context. In particular, the separation of descriptive and injunctive norms and the role such norms play in socialising driving behaviours, safe or otherwise. Practical implications – The implications for social marketing practice are considerable, especially in the Vietnamese context where injunctive norms are difficult to portray, given the dynamics of the media landscape. Social marketing campaigns will need to have a broader consideration of how to establish descriptive norms, bearing in mind the social milieu in which the behaviours occur. Originality/value – This research is the first of its kind in the Vietnamese context. While much practice-led innovation is occurring in the region, there is little extant research on the topic of social norms and the socialisation of behaviours within the Southeast Asian region.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongjae (Jay) Lim ◽  
Jhih-Syuan Lin ◽  
Un Chae Chung ◽  
Youngjee Ko

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of matching social distance and the concrete/abstract visual presentation of the threats of distracted driving in campaign design. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts a series of 2 (social distance frame: close vs distant) × 2 (visual rhetoric style: literal vs metaphorical) online experiments on the perspective of the construal level theory. Findings This study identified that a fit between social distance and visual rhetoric style of the threat enhances the effect of a social marketing campaign targeting young adults. A message framed in terms of socially proximal entities shows a favorable impact on young drivers’ threat perception and behavioral intention when the visual rhetoric depicts the threats of texting while driving more concrete. On the other hand, more distant social entities in the message show a better impact when the threats are visualized in metaphor. Originality/value This paper enhances the understanding of a threat appeal message design by adding empirical evidence of matching visual rhetoric style and social distance. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for social marketing campaigns, regarding the strategic tailoring of messages, particularly in public service announcements that discourage texting while driving on young adults.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Polonsky ◽  
Kate Francis ◽  
Andre Renzaho

Purpose – The aim of this study was to assess whether the removal of blood donation “barriers” facilitates blood donation intentions, using a sample of African migrants, and to identify the implications for social marketing. African migrants are currently under-represented as blood donors in Australia. Some members of the African community have unique donation needs that can only be served by this community. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with 425 people from the African community in Victoria and South Australia. Factor analysis was performed on the barriers and the removal of barriers. Item groupings for both constructs differed, suggesting that barriers and their removal are not necessarily opposite constructs. Findings – The cultural society factor was negatively associated with blood donation intention (i.e. a barrier), whereas engagement and overcoming fear were positively associated with blood donation intention (i.e. facilitators). Cultural issues and lack of understanding were not seen to impede blood donation. Additionally, the removal of cultural barriers did not facilitate increases in blood donation intentions. Thus, the removal of barriers may not be sufficient on their own to encourage donation. Research limitations/implications – This only examines the issue with regards to whether the removal of barriers is a facilitator of blood donation with one group of migrants, and relationships may vary across other migrant and non-migrant groups. Practical implications – Policymakers often use social marketing interventions to overcome barriers as a way of facilitating blood donation. This research suggests that removing barriers is indeed important because these barriers impede people considering becoming blood donors. However, the findings also suggest that the removal of barriers is insufficient on its own to motivate blood donations (i.e. the removal of barriers is a hygiene factor). If this is the case, social marketing campaigns need to be multifaceted, removing barriers as well as leveraging facilitators, simultaneously. Social implications – This work identified that the impact of barriers and their removal may facilitate effective social marketing campaigns in differing ways, in the context of blood donation. Originality/value – How barriers and their removal impact social marketing activities (i.e. blood donation behaviour) has generally not been explored in research.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Wettstein ◽  
L. Suzanne Suggs

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the comparison of two tools in assessing social marketing campaigns. Design/methodology/approach – Using data collected from the campaign planners of 31 alcohol misuse prevention campaigns, two tools were compared; the Social Marketing Indicator (SMI) and Andreasen’s Benchmark Criteria. Findings – In the case of the benchmarks, 26 per cent of the campaigns fulfilled four or more criteria and no criterion was fulfilled by more than 70 per cent. The main differences between current practices and social marketing are the often-missing segmentation and an explicit exchange. The SMI found a lower degree of resemblance between current practices and social marketing. In this case, the major differences lie in the use of behavioral theory and the absence of an exchange. Research limitations/implications – The SMI allows a more precise description of an intervention. This represents an advantage, as a campaign’s resemblance to social marketing can be reported by directly pointing out the process steps that make the difference. This is important for understanding the research evidence base in social marketing. Practical implications – Although the benchmark criteria are based on a conceptual approach, the SMI is built around a core procedure. The SMI can thus help program planners from the onset of a project to make sure they do social marketing as it is defined. Originality/value – This is the first empirical test comparing a new tool against the well-established, frequently critiqued, Benchmark Criteria, in gauging “social marketing” practice in health campaigns.


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