Viewing the Conversations Sessions

The powerpoint presentations from the Conversations on Social Marketing Fall 2007 series are now available at the  PSI web site. They include Katya Andresen's essential ingredients of social marketing in which she includes the atypical times you need to be thinking like a marketer and three core ideas to be a successful social marketer.

Richard Pollard describes the Total Market Approach where all sectors (public, private and NGO or donor-financed social marketing) are integrated within one “market” that is segmented by willingness to pay. While the TMA idea was originally developed for products and services, I see expanding this concept to include behaviors using 'opportunities and readiness to engage in behaviors' (in addition to willingness to pay) as one of our next frontiers for thinking through intersectoral, integrated social marketing programs (some ideas for obesity prevention folks!).

Doug Evans develops the idea of public health branding, how to measure the impact of brand equity in behavior change programs and a review of empirical evidence to support the usefulness of brand logic (as I have called it) in designing social marketing interventions. This is an area every social marketer needs to get comfortable with to develop and position their strategies for product, service AND behavior adoption and use.

Greg Cowal presents innovative methods for improving point-of-choice programs aimed at poorer populations that rely on ethnographic research, tailored detailing and merchandising strategies, retailer education and the use of GPS systems for program management. The intense interest, and the insights generated, by the commercial sector on the next 4 billion need to quickly seep into the practice of social marketing practitioners everywhere if they want to improve their ability to serve the needs of poor and vulnerable populations.

Enjoy the presentations. I am beginning to think about the Spring 2008 Conversations - eyewitnesses to the development of social marketing?