07776 103 785 john@makesportfun.com

The National Social Marketing Centre have drawn up a list of the 8 criteria to look for in an intervention to determine whether it is consistent with social marketing.

They have been developed to help strengthen the use of effective social marketing approaches. They were developed following a two year independent review in 2006 which examined social marketing methods and approaches. The review identified that there was an increasing tendency for work to describe itself as social marketing without necessarily reflecting social marketing core concepts and principles. The eight point benchmark criteria built on the review findings and also Alan Andreasen’s previous six point benchmark from 2001.

It is important to note the reason why other factors, which are critical to any successful intervention have not been included. Obvious examples would include: strategic planning, partnership and stakeholder engagement, review
and evaluation, (to name a few). These are clearly all important in there own right, and key to successful interventions.

The reason they are not part of the benchmarks is that they are not unique to social marketing. Their presence (or absence) does not indicate if something is social marketing or not. The eight criteria included in the benchmark are however, the things that have to be present in order to be described as consistent with social marketing.

I’ve explained here how each of these should be used as part of an activity marketing campaign.

1. CUSTOMER ORIENTATION
‘Customer in the round’ Develops a robust understanding of the audience, based on good market and consumer research, combining data from different sources

Make sure that you use the marketing communication plans when deciding how to market to your chosen segments. These are based on the very robust Sport England and DH segmentation, and an extra £100,000 of research on top of that.

2. BEHAVIOUR
Has a clear focus on behaviour, based on a strong behavioural analysis, with specific behaviour goals

3. THEORY
Is behavioural theory-based and informed. Drawing from an integrated theory framework

Use the four stage Make Sport Fun method (Know, Link, Try and Repeat). This is a proven framework to make sure that you’re driving people to try activity, then to stick with it, rather than just increasing the intention to participate.

4. INSIGHT
Based on developing a deeper ‘insight’ approach – focusing on what ‘moves and motivates’

Make sure that you use the marketing communication plans when deciding how to market to your chosen segments. These are based on the very robust Sport England and DH segmentation, and an extra £100,000 of research on top of that.

5. EXCHANGE
Incorporates an ‘exchange’ analysis. Understanding what the person has to give to get the benefits proposed

Look in the marketing communication plans at the motivations of that group (these are on page 2 of each plan).

6. COMPETITION
Incorporates a ‘competition’ analysis to understand what competes for the time and attention of the audience

Look at the barriers that you need to overcome, these are in the marketing communication plans on page 2.

7. SEGMENTATION
Uses a developed segmentation approach (not just targeting). Avoiding blanket approaches

Choose who your target audience is by looking at the strategic tools on www.promotingactivity.com – especially:

8. METHODS MIX
Identifies an appropriate ‘mix of methods’
‘Intervention mix’ = Strategic SM
‘Marketing mix’ = Operational SM

Look at the recommended communication channels in the marketing communication plans, these show you which communication channels work best for that segment. Also look at how these different communication channels fit into the six stages of an effective sport or activity marketing campaign.