Twenty Strategic Questions To Ask When Developing A Social Marketing Programme

Strategic Social Marketing Ltd
Twenty strategic questions

To ask when developing a social marketing programme
Professor Jeff French
PhD, MBA, MSc, Dip HE, BA, Cert.Ed
www.strategic-social-marketing.org
jeff.French@strategic-social –marketing.org
The following list of questions can be used in the scoping phase of developing a social
marketing programme. The questions are weighted towards the scoping stage as in
any initial exploration many of the fundamental intensions of the programme will need
to be clarified. They questions can and should be revisited as the programme develops
in response to learning and evaluation. The questions are set out under a four stage
planning model. The answers to these questions will help develop a clear descriptor of
the project focus and purpose and will hep to guide the development of specifications
for specific research, intervention and evaluation elements of the programme.
1. What is the social challenge to be addressed?
2. Why has this challenge been identified as a priority?
3. Who precisely is the target audience or audiences? (Customer focus and

segmentation)
4. What is the specific behavioural objective/s? (SMART objective)
5. What will be the key benefit for each audience if they adopt the proposed
behaviour and what will be the cost (The exchange)
6. What are the causes, direct and indirect of the behaviour what is being
offered? (Competition, risk factors and risk conditions analysis)
7. What are the protective forces that encourage or enable the desired
behaviour?
8. What research evidence about effective interventions do you have or need

to be gathered?
9. What do you know about the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of
the target audience/s? Specifically: (See Annex 1 for supplementary
questions)
10. What theory has been used or could be used to help understand the
challenge and develop the programme? (Theory informed)
11. What is known about the best time and place to reach the target
audience/s?
12. What conclusions and insights about how to intervene based on evidence,
market research and theory have been formulated?
13. What mix of interventions is indicated from the data, market research,
evidence and data you have collected?
14. What will be the process of developing and testing and selecting the
intervention mix?
15. How will or could the target audience/s be segmented?
16. Have community assets that could help with the programme been mapped
and secured
17. Has a budget been set or is it dependant on the development of a business

case?
18. Does the organisation have the resources, reach and authority to carry out this
strategy alone and if not, where could it find useful partners?
19. Has an evaluation plan been developed capable of measuring: Short term
change (impact evaluation) the efficiency of interventions (process evaluation)
and the desired behavioural shifts (outcome evaluation)?
20. How could the learning from the programme been captured and shared?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annex one
• Is the current behaviour seen as a problem?
• How rewarding is the undesirable behaviour? And in what ways?
• How costly is the current behaviour?
• How complex is the behaviour ( does it involve several elements)
• How frequently must the desired behaviour be performed?
• How compatible is the desired behaviour with the target audience's behaviour?
• Is the current behaviour approved of socially?
• Are their major barriers to engaging with the desired behaviour?
• What information does the audience need to perform the behaviour?
• What skill does the audience need to perform the behaviour?
• What resources does the audience need to perform the behaviour?
• Are their some members of the segment who already do the desired behaviour?
• What are the doer’s characteristics?
• Could some of the doers be used to tackle the issue?
Recording format:
Name of Organisation
Key Staff
Contact details
Name of person completing the record
Date
1. What is the social challenge to be addressed?
2. Why has this challenge been identified as a priority?
3. Who is precisely is the target audience or audiences? (Customer focus and

segmentation)
4. What is the specific behavioural objective/s? (SMART objective)
5. What will be the key benefit for each audience if they adopt the proposed
behaviour and what will be the cost (The Exchange?)
6. What are the causes, direct and indirect of the behaviour what is being
offered? (Competition, risk factors and risk conditions analysis)
7. What are the protective forces that encourage or enable the desired
behaviour?
8. What research evidence about effective interventions do you have or need

to be gathered?
9. What do you know about the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of
the target audience/s? Specifically: (See Annex 1)
10. What theory has been used or could be used to help understand the
challenge and develop the programme? (Theory informed)
11. What is known about the best time and place to reach the target
audience/s?
12. What conclusions and insights about how to intervene based on evidence,
market research and theory have been formulated?
13. What mix of interventions is indicated from the data, market research,
evidence and data you have collected?
14. What will be the process of developing and testing and selecting the
intervention mix?
15. How will or could the target audience/s be segmented?
16. Have community assets that could help with the programme been mapped
and secured
17. Has a budget been set or is it dependant on the development of a

business case?
18. Does the organisation have the resources, reach and authority to carry out
this strategy alone and if not, where could it find useful partners?
19. Has an evaluation plan been developed capable of measuring: Short term
change (impact evaluation) the efficiency of interventions (process evaluation)
and the desired behavioural shifts (outcome evaluation)?
20. How could the learning from the programme been captured and shared?
Other issues / Notes

Twenty Strategic Questions To Ask When Developing A Social Marketing Programme

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Twenty Strategic Questions To Ask When Developing A Social Marketing Programme

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Strategic Social Marketing Ltd

Twenty strategic questions

1. What is the social challenge to be addressed?

2. Why has this challenge been identified as a priority?

3. Who precisely is the target audience or audiences? (Customer focus and

4. What is the specific behavioural objective/s? (SMART objective)

8. What research evidence about effective interventions do you have or need

15. How will or could the target audience/s be segmented?

17. Has a budget been set or is it dependant on the development of a business

Name of person completing the record

1. What is the social challenge to be addressed?

2. Why has this challenge been identified as a priority?

3. Who is precisely is the target audience or audiences? (Customer focus and

4. What is the specific behavioural objective/s? (SMART objective)

8. What research evidence about effective interventions do you have or need

15. How will or could the target audience/s be segmented?

17. Has a budget been set or is it dependant on the development of a

Other issues / Notes

You might also like