Let’s play to win!

Citation

Rundle-Thiele, S. (2015), "Let’s play to win!", Journal of Social Marketing, Vol. 5 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-02-2015-0012

Let’s play to win!

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Social Marketing, Volume 5, Issue 2

Considerable debate continues to surround social marketing, challenging the boundaries and underlying assumptions that govern both our research and practice. This issue contains three papers to stretch our thinking further. Consumer orientation and the creation of value through meaningful exchange is an issue that is once again taken up by Professor’s Jeff French and Rebekah Russell-Bennett in this current issue. Creation of value using audience insights is a key characteristic that distinguishes social marketing from other behaviour change disciplines.

A second characteristic distinguishing social marketing from other behaviour change disciplines is our competitor focus. In commercial marketing, both direct and indirect forms of competition are considered. Marketers seeking to sell a 2-l bottle of branded freshly squeezed orange juice in supermarkets undertake a full assessment of direct competitors, which comprises other 2-l bottles of branded freshly squeezed orange juices and generic branded 2-l bottles of branded freshly squeezed orange juices. They know the product composition, pricing, retailer trading terms for their own and their competitors’ products, and they understand how their brand is positioned in the minds of consumers in comparison to their direct competitors.

In the field, their representatives’ work closely with retail outlets to develop a trusted and strong relationship which, at all times, is focussed on gaining more space within the retail setting. Securing precious shelf space is a key focus for sales and marketing staff. Product displayed in premium locations in supermarkets sells more. It is this aggressive mindset that drives commerce. This is not the only level of competition that is competing for the dollar-spend of the target market. It is more complicated than that. There are also indirect levels of competition. Orange juice is a beverage and indirect competition includes all other forms of beverages from coffee to soft drinks and competition also comes from food, creating a whole additional level of complexity to growing market share and competing for a consumer’s share of wallet.

In commercial marketing, each year more is asked through budgets whose sole aim is to stimulate growth, which, in turn, builds company profitability and wealth. Ambitious growth targets are set, and in the absence of population growth, sales are at a competitor’s expense. For this reason, we cannot operate in a silo. Any marketing attempts are not occurring in isolation, they are occurring in a highly competitive landscape.

Competition is not unique to the commercial environment. Sport is competitive. For those of you who have played in a team sport or competed in individual events, sport involves setting a goal and trying to reach that goal to the best of your ability. Most people playing a team sport want to win. However, in a sporting game, your every action is countered by a competitor who is seeking to beat you. In a team sport scenario, to win you have to place the best team to beat the competition and you have to respond to the competition if your initial placement fails to bring your team out on top. Winning teams adapt in the face of adversity.

Since transitioning from commercial marketing across to the social marketing profession, one thing is clearly evident to me. Social marketers need to think far more aggressively. We need to adopt a competitive mindset if we are serious about changing behaviour for the better. Systematic reviews undertaken by the Social Marketing @ Grififth team indicate that consideration of competition in social marketing is limited (Kubacki et al., 2015a, 2015b). For example, in a review of interventions seeking to minimize harm from alcohol, five studies (out of a total of 23) reported clear evidence of some form of competitive analysis, recognizing competition either as alternative behaviours or messages received by target markets. A social marketing intervention aiming to reduce alcohol consumption among university students, identified traditional drinking occasions, bars and house parties (Glider et al., 2001) as a form of competition fuelling students’ drinking. While, Glik et al. (2001) observed that their target market, pregnant women, were exposed to many mixed messages about the dangers of drinking while pregnant, and often were confused about the risks associated with some types of alcohol.

Social marketing’s consideration of competition has to be more extensive. If we want to reduce alcohol drinking, we have to ask: What is better than an alcoholic drink? Whenever this question is posed to people who drink alcohol, there are very few alternatives that are considered to beat alcohol drinking. The two most commonly cited answers to this question are sex and sport. It is this critical mindset that we have to apply to the behaviour we are seeking to change. If we want pregnant women to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy, we have to know their current understanding of the potential harms from drinking alcohol while pregnant, the wide array of different messages that are in the market place warning women of the dangers of drinking while pregnant and we have to understand what attractive and convenient alternatives can be offered for purchase to women who are planning or are currently pregnant.

In their work dating back to the 1980s, Al Ries and Jack Trout referred to the “Art of War” originally put forward by Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy, and it was this analogy that prominent positioning experts Al Ries and Jack Trout borrowed. For social marketers, reaching the target market both physically and through mind share must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs held by the target market about the competitive actors in that environment. Relying on messaging alone to counteract commercial offerings that are available at a time and place that is convenient for consumers is not enough. A no or safe alcohol drinking programme relying on communications only is not enough to truly counteract alcohol drinking in nightclub settings. We need to offer viable low or no alcohol alternatives that are attractive to the target market with messaging that serves to initially attract and later remind the target audience if we are to reduce drinking. Too few examples of this are evident in both academic and grey literature.

Social marketing strategy cannot be approached as a checklist to be worked through. Rather, strategy requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations. Just as a sporting game is dynamic with moves and countermoves occurring, a market is ever changing. Every action causes a competitive reaction. Social marketers need to develop, implement and evolve compelling offerings that take the competition fully into account and are valued by the target market if they are to sustain.

It is time to play the game for a win!

Sharyn Rundle-Thiele - Director

References

Glider, P., Midyett, S.J., Mills-Novoa, B., Johannessen, K. and Collins, C. (2001), “Challenging the collegiate rite of passage: a campus-wide social marketing media campaign to reduce binge drinking”, Journal of Drug Education, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 207-220.

Glik, D., Halpert-Schilt, E. and Zhang, W. (2001), “Narrowcasting risks of drinking during pregnancy among African American and Latina adolescent girls”, Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 222-232.

Kubacki, K., Rundle-Thiele, S.R., Parkinson, J. and Lahtinen, V. (2015a), “A systematic review assessing the extent of social marketing principle use in interventions targeting children (2000-2014)”, Young Consumers.

Kubacki, K., Rundle-Thiele, S.R., Pang, B. and Buyucek, N. (2015b), “Minimising alcohol harm: a systematic social marketing review (2000-2014)”, Journal of Business Research.