What Makes Social Marketing Different?

Example

Proposed Exchange: Audience will give up time and effort to prepare fruits and vegetables as snacks to replace higher calorie snacks. In return, they may lose weight and gain peace of mind knowing they are doing something to prevent future chronic diseases.

Note: This exchange works with an audience whose members are primarily concerned with weight, health, and disease prevention. It would not work as well with an audience that is already of a healthy weight or not as concerned with the long-term health consequences of their diet.

Exchange

For every choice we make, there is an exchange that occurs: we give one thing up in return for something else. In the commercial marketing world, this exchange can be tangible (pay an extra quarter and get more fries), or it can be intangible (buy a brand-name pair of shoes and get the image that goes with the brand). While the exchange can be tangible in social marketing (paying a higher price for a healthier vending machine option), the exchange is often intangible, such as giving up a TV show to go for a walk to improve one's health.

The target audience will compare the costs and benefits of performing a behavior before choosing to adopt it. You must determine what your target audience values and what costs they perceive to create an exchange that persuades them to adopt your behavior over the competition. The exchange should increase the perceived benefits of the target behavior and minimize its costs. Or it could increase the perceived costs of the competing behaviors and minimize their benefits.