Winter 2002 Sound Partners conference call

December 4, 2002, 2p.m. ET

Text from William Smith's Presentation:

We just have an hour. So what I'm going to do is to try to answer the basic questions I got in your emails. I got some good ones.
But let me try to set the tone first. I got a call from a lovely lady who happens to be an eye surgeon physician in a small community in the south. She was writing a grant proposal to promote community eye care. She said she had heard about me from a friend and that she wanted to include social marketing in her proposal. I naturally expected her to ask me to join her team–but no–she said and I quote–“Dr. Smith I have to get this submitted by tomorrow. Could you tell me all I need to know so I can use social marketing effectively?”
I told her how glad she had called–because I had just been asked to do some eye surgery at a friends house this afternoon. And if she would teach me eye surgery I would teach her social marketing.
There is something crazy about what we are doing. One hour–many different communities and problems, and resources. But hey–if we were not all a little crazy–we wouldn't be trying to make the world a better place.
What is social marketing–and how is it different from advertising, from health education, from health promotion, from advocacy, from media communication.
Simple answer all those other guys usually start where you started–How do I sell my product...
My advance care planning program

My underage drinking program

My economic health program to Native Americans

My HIV prevention program.
“I have something and I want you to help me sell it to them.”
Marketing starts by asking–does anybody want your product? And how do you know? And do they want it the way you are offering it? How sure are you? Does everyone you want to want it–want it? And HOW DO YOU KNOW?
All you see as a consumer is advertising and communication and you think that is what sells products. Ask yourself the next time you go to the grocery store how many of the products in your shopping basket had an ad associated with them?

I'll guess anywhere from 0-3%. You buy products because they meet a NEED YOU HAVE…………..A NEED YOU KNOW ALREADY YOU HAVE.
The problem with most social marketing is that you are trying to sell a need people do not have. You will not succeed. You have to find something they know they need already and associate your product with it. You can only do this by getting to know them as people and not just as sick people, or fat people, or dying people, or parents of drinking kids people.
The folks in Richmond KY asked….
How do I make chronic illness awareness cool?
You think “chronic illness awareness” is important? Why? You think it will lead to people “eating their vegetables”? That's like a car manufacture thinking that awareness of braking systems will sell sport cars. People who buy sports cars don't want to brake–they want to zoom. Even more true–it's like a car manufacturer publishing how much profit they make off each sports car as a way to get you to buy it. Awareness is your “profit”–but people don't care about your profit–they care about theirs. And you care about eating vegetables.
Forget chronic illness awareness–you want people to eat vegetables–make that fun to do. Have a community vegetable eating contest. Watch the TV show JACKASS and get some ideas. Have you seen Fear Factor–they eat 1 quarter of ostrich eggs–yuck………but it's fun. Focus on the behavior–not the awareness you think leads to the behavior.
THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT IDEA IN SOCIAL MARKETING.

STOP TEACHING PEOPLE WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT AND START LISTENTING TO WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT.
FOCUS ON BEHAVIOR, NOT AWARENESS!
You were also the folks who asked “if GOT MILK can't do it, how can we?” “Got milk” made the same mistake at the beginning. They thought people didn't drink milk because milk wasn't cool! They made milk cool–but they did not change the product–its package or it availability. When they made milk actually live up to its advertising, milk sales went up.
The point of the "Got Milk" story was that advertising alone does not always work–you need a good product–you need to make eating vegetables outrageously fun!
“How do I do that,” you ask. The simplest way. Find an outrageous teen in your community–a kid who doesn't fit in. Maybe he doodles in class. Don't go to the A student, they are always boring. Get the strange kid and then do what he tells you to do. If you haven't got enough courage for that, then get an ad agency to help. But don't ask them to “raise awareness about chronic illness”–ask them “to make eating vegetables outrageously fun!” Get the craziest guy on local radio and ask him or her how to do it. You got to break through the clutter of bad news and serious stuff.
Oh, I forgot something…your audience. Who do you want to eat vegetables? Old people? Young professionals? Teens? Families together at the table? Kids at school? Important questions. Why? Because you have to make it outrageously fun for them and they are different when it comes to fun.
OK, lets go to another question. The folks in Provincetown, Maine ask:
We'd like to begin conversations about advance-care planning or build a program that helps in the completion of health-care proxies or the Five Wishes document (from the Last Acts Program).
Honest to God, I saw a guy at the mall here in Washington the other day with a tee-shirt that said–Mark's Funeral Home–where we put the “fun” back in funerals. Seriously---------- why not!
But I'm not going to beat that old horse about “make it fun” anymore. Let's try a new horse called:
Make it EASY to Do? This principle emerges out of a lot of research that says–people are lazy as can be.
The folks in Maine asked a series of 4 really good questions. Let me take them one at a time.
How do we define a target population when there are several?
First, you can have multiple audiences. But realistically on a tight budget that is tough. The best audience is the one that is ready to act but just needs a little help. Find the easy sell–the low hanging fruit–start there–they will then become part of the your next wave of selling.
You have an interesting problem here though. I like your idea of “conversation.” People are often more wiling to talk about a tough subject before they are ready to act. Where would people feel comfortable talking about proxies? Who would they want to be there? How do they bring it up?

Notice that these are all very practical questions–people need help–model a conversation. Make it fun by showing how tough it is. Ask yourself, how would Ramon handle this on Leave It to Ramon. Create two radio or media characters in a program overtime that builds suspense. Remember those coffee ads where we met this couple like a soap opera.
Focus on the conversation and make it EASY to talk about by dealing with all their doubts in the ads or programs. Also make it east to find the paper work and get it done.
You also wanted to know if you should base such a program on having one measurable goal? Yes, if you don't have much money–but let the goal change overtime and be with it for the long haul. Let the goal change overtime and our consumer changes.
How long do you need and how much does it take? No simple answer. Sorry
Let's turn quickly to a question from Evansville, Indiana.
The purpose of our project is to help parents and other adults name and claim the problem of underage drinking. We want to change long-term social norms and public policies. How do you generate interest and involvement if denial is the problem? How do we avoid preaching to the choir?
I hope you are now beginning to ask yourself– like I hope the folks in Kentucky are asking themselves…what do we want people to do----not what do we want people to think. Are you so sure that denial is the problem? And if it is, why is that the only route to what you want people to do?
When people take ownership–how will you know? What will they do?
Keep their kid at home?

Search his room?

Talk to him about drinking?
Focus on behavior and then make whatever you want people to do–REAL, and if possible, FUN.
Then start with the folks who want to be in the choir but aren't–publicize their conversion to the new faith and make it easy for others folks to join.
This is a tough problem. Don't get your hopes up. Remember we got everyone in America saying drinking is OK. Have you done any Christmas shopping yet? The hottest gift at places like Linen and Things is Martini sets. You don't think kids see that. Remember we had prohibition once and it didn't work. Find behaviors that matter and push for those behaviors. Get kids involve. Find the cool ones. Avoid A students at all cost on this issue. Man, there are so many different ways to go about this. But keep the three principles in mind:
Focus On Behavior, Not Attitude. Behavior changes attitude easier than attitude changes behavior–think about it. Did you really love Sushi before you ate it a bunch of times with cool friends?
Make the Behavior really FUN – outrageously fun, but realize what's fun for teens may not be so much fun for older women.
Make it as easy to do as possible. Anticipate all the reasons people won't do it and take the obstacles away or laugh at them so loudly they won't take the obstacles seriously any more.
I think we about running out of time. I could be talking to you about branding, and positioning, and segmentation. But honestly–you can't do eye surgery with a pair of pliers any more than I can. And telling you orthroscopic surgery exists hardly seems to help you. So don't do “eye surgery.” Start with basic social marketing.
Stop trying to tell people to think like you.
Start finding out what will make their lives more fun if they do something you think will help them and then–
Make it as easy for them to do it as possible.

William Smith is Executive Vice President and Co-Director for Social Development at the Academy for Educational Development