Communication and Marketing in the Fight Against Racism in the Sports Context

Racism is a global hierarchy of superiority and inferiority that has been politically, culturally, and economically produced and reproduced for centuries by the institutions, in different countries, depending on their colonial history. In that sense, racism cannot be seen as a concept that is equal in every region of the world. Racism in sport is a research topic that has been particularly valued in recent years (and decades). There are several episodes of racism that occur in sport (among fans and athletes). In this sense, sports institutions (European and global) regularly invest in social marketing campaigns to raise awareness of this social phenomenon. Therefore, social media has allowed football fans to engage in discussions concerning football and other subjects. This chapter presents a brief theoretical reflection with three (European) examples of marketing campaigns against racism in sport (UEFA, Premier League, and F.C. Porto). This chapter presents inputs for marketing, ethics, and management in sport. At the end, lines of future research will be presented.

Lives Saved in Low- and Middle-Income Countries by Road Safety Initiatives Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Implemented by Their Partners between 2007–2018

Over the past 12 years, Bloomberg Philanthropies (BP) and its partner organisations have implemented a global road safety program in low- and middle-income countries. The program was implemented to address the historically increasing number of road fatalities and the inadequate funding to reduce them. This study evaluates the performance of the program by estimating lives saved from road safety interventions implemented during the program period (2007–2018) through to 2030. We estimated that 311,758 lives will have been saved by 2030, with 97,148 lives saved up until 2018 when the evaluation was conducted and a further 214,608 lives projected to be saved if these changes are sustained until 2030. Legislative changes alone accounted for 75% of lives saved. Concurrent activities related to reducing drink driving, implementing legislative changes, and social marketing campaigns run in conjunction with police enforcement and other road safety activities accounted for 57% of the total estimated lives saved. Saving 311,758 lives with funding of USD $259 million indicates a cost-effectiveness ratio of USD $831 per life saved. The potential health gains achieved through the number of lives saved from the road safety initiatives funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies represent a considerable return on investment. This study demonstrates the extent to which successful, cost-effective road safety initiatives can reduce road fatalities in low- and middle-income countries.

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

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.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among University Students in Lebanon

Background Lebanon has one of the lowest reported COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates (21%). Little is known about the decision-making process of college students in Lebanon regarding obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify factors that predicted the behavioral intentions of students enrolled at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine. Methods The study was a randomized, non-experimental, and cross-sectional study of undergraduate and graduate students. A valid and reliable survey was developed. A total of 3,805 students were randomly selected to participate from all academic units. A total of 800 students responded (21% return rate). Results We generated three groups based on students’ intentions to be vaccinated: 1) vaccine accepting (those who are willing to take or already took the vaccine); 2) vaccine hesitant (those who are hesitant to take the vaccine); and 3) vaccine resistant (those who decided not to take the vaccine). The majority were Lebanese (85%), undergraduate students (75%), females (57%) with a mean age of 21 ± 0.14 years. Overall, students were vaccine accepting. Specifically, they were vaccine accepting (87%), vaccine hesitant (10%), and vaccine resistant (3%). Vaccine hesitancy was significantly associated with nationality, residency status and university rank (p value < 0.05). Moreover, there was a significant association between hesitancy and agreement with conspiracies. A significant factor for hesitancy was disagreement with the statement that symptomatic cases are the only carriers of COVID-19 (OR = 5; 95% CI = 1.67–14.29; p value = 0.004). Students believed that that the vaccine was safe (OR = 0.01; 95% CI = 0.002–0.08; p value = 0.000); in agreement with their personal views (OR = 0.1; 95% CI = 0.02–0.51; p value = 0.004) and were less likely to be hesitant than the vaccine accepting group (reference group). Conclusion The factors identified that explain and/or predict each of the three vaccine intention groups can be used as core content for health communication and social marketing campaigns to increase the rate of COVID-19 vaccination.

An extended theory of planned behaviour model to predict intention to use bioplastic

Purpose Approaches based on social marketing have led to the proposal of systemic interventions to achieve individual behaviour that takes into account the benefits for society as a whole. The use of plastics is having significant negative effects on the environment and so numerous policies such as the use of biodegradable packaging, have been implemented to ensure sustainable production and consumption patterns (Sustainable Development Goal 12). This paper aims to analyse the background factors that explain consumer intention to use bioplastics with the aim of guiding company and government social marketing campaigns designed to encourage such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach To gather data, a survey was carried out using a sample of 3,612 people obtained via an online panel made up of participants over 18 years of age. The model and its hypotheses were tested by structural equations with the PLS technique using six independent variables obtained from the literature review. Findings The results of the variables “attitude towards bioplastics”, “subjective norms” and “activity to reduce plastic use” show a significant influence on intention to use bioplastics. This paper will also discuss the implications for governments and environmental managers to be taken into account when developing social marketing campaigns. Social implications Given the importance of perceived social pressure in terms of behaviour regarding the use of recyclable bioplastics, social marketing campaigns may be developed to encourage environmentally-responsible behaviour amongst different social agents such as consumers, businesses, governmental organisations and suppliers. Originality/value This study demonstrates the factors that explain intentions to use bioplastics, which until now had been subject to very little research.

EMPODERAMENTO DAS MULHERES ATRAVÉS DE CAMPANHAS CONTRA A VIOLÊNCIA

Marketing Social é o uso das ferramentas do Mix de Marketing para trazer mudanças positivas para a sociedade, numa causa sem fins lucrativos. Ele é comumente utilizado por governos em estratégias como campanhas antitabagistas, contra a direção alcoolizada e combate a doenças. A Lei Maria da Penha e a Campanha Ligue 180 são exemplos de campanhas de marketing social voltadas ao empoderamento feminino. Este trabalho buscou avaliar os resultados destas campanhas nas vidas de duas gerações de mulheres. Divididas em dois grupos etários e entrevistadas, pôde-se entender o que estas mulheres entendem empoderamento como liberdade de expressão e tratamento igualitário; que não acreditam na efetividade das leis de proteção à mulher; e que, apesar de não acabarem com o problema, ao menos as campanhas ajudam a conscientizar a mulher em estado de risco sobre como pedir auxílio. Devido à metodologia e caráter homogêneo da amostra, este estudo não pode ser generalizado. Palavras-chave: Empoderamento. Mulher. Violência. Abstract Social Marketing is the use of Marketing Mix tools in order to bring positive change to society, with no lucrative goals. It is most commonly used by governments in strategies such as anti-smoking campaigns, anti-drunk driving and for fighting diseases. The Maria da Penha Law and the Ligue 180 Campaign are examples of social marketing campaigns aimed towards empowering women. This paper sought to measure the results of these campaigns in the lives of two generations of women. They were divided by age and interviewed, allowing us to understand that they saw empowerment as freedom of speech and egalitarian treatment; that the laws don’t protect women as they should; and, even though the campaigns don’t solve the problems, at least they bring awareness to abused women that they can seek help. Due to the methodology and homogeneity of the sample used, this study cannot be generalized. Keywords: Empowerment. Woman. Violence.

Social marketing applications in public policy programs: key learnings and applications

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.

The role of construal fit in threat appeal to persuade young drivers not to text while driving

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.

The role of norms in predicting waste sorting behavior

Purpose This study aims to examine the role of personal and subjective norms in predicting waste sorting, an increasingly relevant pro-environmental behavior. Design/methodology/approach This study obtained data from a sample of 300 respondents from three Indonesian cities. Purposive sampling was employed to obtain information from specific segments of Indonesian population. The analysis consisted of a two-stage procedure including confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based structural equation modeling. Findings Results demonstrated that both subjective and personal norms significantly and directly predict waste sorting behavior (WSB) bypassing intention to behave. Research limitations/implications The fact that norms held by individuals are able to single-handedly drive pro-environmental behaviors implies that previous studies and social marketing campaigns may have overstated the role of intention. Practical implications In designing marketing communication programs promoting WSB, this paper argues that targeting normative tendencies of the audience may provide a more effective strategy than focusing on explicit pro-environmental intentions and attitudes of the public. Originality/value This study provided a new experimental test and confirmation of the role of subjective norms, the normative component of the theory of planned behavior and of personal norms, the normative component of the norm activation theory, in predicting WSB.

Effects of Social Marketing Intervention on Physical Activity promotion Among the Elderly

Background: Social marketing emphasizes the use of commercial marketing concepts and their application for social purposes and also the change of voluntary behavior in a nonprofit manner. This study mainly aimed to examine the effectiveness of social marketing in changing the physical activity of the elderly. Besides, this study sought to determine the extent to which the Andreason social marketing criteria have been targeted in social marketing interventions. Methods: This was a narrative review study that investigated social marketing interventions to promote elderly physical activity, during 2000-2019. The scientific databases (Elmnet, SID, Irandoc, Civilica, Medline, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Web of Science, ProQuest, and Emerald) were searched between February and March 2019. The searched keywords included physical activity, social marketing, the elderly, social marketing mix, improving physical activity level, social marketing intervention, social marketing campaigns, and the Andreasen criteria. Finally, nine articles entered the study. Then, the mixed marketing components were extracted from the interventions, and six benchmarks of the Andrasen social marketing interventions were analyzed. Results: Most articles employed four components of the marketing mix. No intervention had applied the six measures of the Andrasen social marketing criteria. Also, five studies reported positive behavioral changes. However, other studies have reported no change in negative behavior. According to the evidence gathered in our study, social marketing offers an effective behavioral change approach to increase physical activity in the elderly. Conclusion: The present findings provide the basis for comprehensive and effective social marketing interventions.