6/12/06 Reigniting the FireReigniting the Fire

Reigniting the Fire:Contemporary Controversy

in Social Marketing

Dr Stephen DannThe Australian National University

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

For those of you unfamiliar with my style

Here’s a hint

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Challenges

• Getting Definitive– 30 years on, and we’re still having the same discussion– Defending the name of social marketing– Two Parents of Social Marketing

• Urgent Bug fixes and Security Patches– Return to Collaborator from Liberator – Bug patching the notion of being Enforcers

• Staying in the Marketing Family– Mixing it up with the rest of the pack

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Getting DefinitiveChallenge for the 21st century

…helping those coming from a social science background to really recognise what ‘marketing’ can bring to the party, … conversely for those from a marketing background to appreciate and integrate social science, public health, health promotion theory and practice into their work

– Clive Blair Stevens, National Social Marketing Centre

To Do List• Prevent the Loss of “Social Marketing” as a name

– Deal with those idiots from Jupiter Media (30 August) decision to use the term “social marketing” to describe social media marketing

• Maintain clarity of what constitutes social marketing– Stomp on those damn health promotion people

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Urgent ActionFrom the Front Lines

I sometimes feel that the self- righteousness of the anti-tobacco work in the U.S has given too many social marketers the sense that we are liberators - people who will save others from themselves. I worry about this shift away from the central idea of social marketing which is simply "let's make a deal".

– William Smith, on the move from collaboration to liberation

To Do List• Return to the Collaborator mode and away from the Liberator mode

– It’s not a war people. They’re not the enemy, they’re the alternate choice

• Reinstate the right to be banal and the right to reject the offer– Consumers are allowed to just say no to social marketing messages

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Reconnect with MarketingQuit thinking we’re soooo special

This author makes the fundamental assumption that social marketing ought to have a relationship with commercial marketing, and that this relationship is necessary and desirable…

– ANZMAC Review of my (rejected) social marketing paper

To Do List• Social marketing or social production orientation?

– Expert driven moral elitism is not marketing

• Catch up and keep up with commercial marketing techniques– They’re not the enemy, they’re our ally.

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Defend the Castle

• Get a workable, explainable and saleable definition of Australian social marketing into the public ideas marketplace

• Make social marketing recognizable.– Then tell people about it.– Tell people when they’re misusing the label, and don’t shut up

until they get it right or they go away.– Market the marketing

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Storm the Castle

• We are the dream ticket– Governments spends millions of dollars on social marketing

campaigns.– We research, teach, preach and assess social marketing.

• Collaborate with government to assess their campaigns with our frameworks.

• Start tomorrow by assessing the government marketing campaigns to see what they’re doing, what they could do better, and then contact the government to get started.

6/12/06 Reigniting the Fire

Put the marketing back in

• Be consumer focused– Start the interventions with the consumers– Listen to the people. Do the research that enables the

practitioners to make the deal.

• Be biased properly– If you’ve got an agenda, then flaunt it. Embrace it.

Believe in it. Be proud of it.• Just stop lying about being objective when you conduct

research tailored to finding outcomes that support your agenda’s goals

One Line Way Forward

Put the marketing back into social marketing

6/12/06 Reigniting the FirePresented at ANZMAC 2006