Identify Target Audience Barriers,

Benefits, The Competition, &

Influential Others
Objectives
 Define & describe the factors a social marketer is
most interested in knowing about target audience
 Cite some qualitative and quantitative surveys
 Discuss the behavior change theories and models
Step 5: Identify Target Audience Barriers,
The Competition, & Influential Others
1. Describe the plan background, purpose and focus
2. Conduct a situation analysis
3. Select a target audience
4. Set objectives
5. Identify target audience barriers, benefits, and the composition
6. Craft a desired positioning
7. Develop a strategic marketing mix/ 4 Ps
8. Outline a plan for evaluation and monitoring
9. Establish budgets and find funding sources
10. Complete an implementation plan
 Exchange Theory
 For an exchange to take place, target
audience must perceive benefits
equal or greater than perceived costs.
(Kotler 1972)
 Theory applies to more than the
purchase of tangible goods and
services, that it can in fact involve
intangible or symbolic products, (e.g.,
recycling), and that payments are not
limited to financial ones (e.g., time
and effort maybe the only major
perceived costs). (Kotler 1969)
Exchange Theory
Exchange Theory
You Give Me You Get
$1.00 A Pepsi
 a thirst quencher
 good taste
 fun
 youthful feeling
 girl/boyfriend
Exchange Theory
You Give Me You Get
Money An immunization
Time  better health
 avoidance of greater
Momentary discomfort
discomfort (sickness)
 ability to go to school,
work, travel
 4 Target Audience Perspectives
 Barriers
 Benefits
 Competition
 Influential Others
4 Target Audience Perspectives
1. Barriers – What do they
think they will give (up) in order
to perform the behavior? What
concerns do they have
regarding the behavior? These
could also be thought of as the
“costs” the target audience
perceives.
 Internal – e.g., personal
knowledge, belief, skills,
abilities
4 Target Audience Perspectives
 External – e.g., existing infrastructures, technology,
economics, natural or cultural differences
 Real (e.g., taking the bus will take longer than driving
alone to work) or Perceived (e.g., people who take the
bus can’t really afford any other mode of transportation)
 4 Target Audience Perspectives
Table 7.1 Example of Potential Barriers for Small Farmers in Africa to Use Chemical Fertilizers
High-Yield

Type of Barrier Example

Doubt or don’t value the potential benefits
Lack of understanding or knowing what this is
about
Self efficacy – a concern w/ being able to
perform the behavior or not having the know-
how
Too much time, effort, energy
Physical discomfort
Concern with potential “side effects” or
unintended consequences
Reduced pleasure or pride
They won’t help my crops that much.
How are these fertilizers and seeds different
from ones I am using now?
Fertilizers are tricky and have to be done just
right, or you could burn your crop.
Switching to different seeds means I’ll have to
make all kinds of changes, like how I store and
sow them.
Those fertilizers smell.
The fertilizers are chemical-based.
This could harm my livestock.
I feel better knowing that I improved my crops
w/o aid from the government or donors.
 4 Target Audience Perspectives
Table 7.1 Example of Potential Barriers for Small Farmers in Africa to Use Chemical Fertilizers
High-Yield
Type of Barrier
Costs too much
Lack access, or not available to me
Not a norm, or others aren’t doing it
Concern with what others are doing or will think
Example
I have no extra money for new seeds or
fertilizers.
There’s no place in our village to get to them.
This isn’t how we farm in our village.
What if I get a coupon but my neighbor doesn’t?
I wouldn’t seem fair.
4 Target Audience Perspectives
2. Benefits - are reasons your
target audience wants, or might
want, to adopt the behavior.
They answer the question
“What’s in it for me?”, often
referred to as the WIFM factor.
These are also sometimes
referred to as potential
“motivators” for the target
audience.
4 Target Audience Perspectives
Types of Benefits
Typical benefits that marketers appeal to are as follows:

 Health  Relationships
 Safety  Self-esteem & recognition
 Physical comfort & pleasure  Growth & development
 Entertainment  Self-actualization
 Economic status  Environmental protection
 Employment  Contribution to others & the
community
4 Target Audience Perspectives
3. Competition – “behaviors and benefits that target audience is
accustomed to-or may prefer-to the behavior you are promoting”;
the target audience is doing something instead of behavior you
want them to do
 E.g., possible competing activities for physical activity in
teens
 Watching TV
 Playing on the computer
 Talking on the phone
 Going to the mall/shopping
 Spending time with friends
 Doing homework
4 Target Audience Perspectives
3 major Types of Competitor

Behaviors they
Behaviors that
(and others) have
target audience
been doing
would prefer to do
“forever” that they
instead of the one
would have to give
being promoted
up

Organizations and influential

individuals who are sending
messages that promote an
alternative behavior or
oppose the desired one
4 Target Audience Perspectives
 The Competition for Desired Behaviors
Desired Behavior
Finish High school.
Read to your child everyday.
Breastfeed babies exclusively for
six months.
Postpone having another child.
Wash your hands before returning
to work.
Competition: Behaviors, Organizations or
Important Influential Others
I play video games at night instead of doing
homework.
We watch television together as a family every
night.
This village has a taboo that prohibits sex
while breastfeeding.
Having another child soon is important on
helping on the farm.
Wiping my hands on my apron has worked
fine for 30 years.
McKenzie-Mohr & Smith 4 Tactics…..
4 Target Audience Perspectives
4. Influential Others - Relative to your desired behavior, who
does your target audience listen to (most)? Are these influential
others engaged in the desired behavior?

Social Audience
Groups finds
trustworthy,
credible and
Facebook likable
friends,
coworkers, Highly
family regarded
members, scientist or
physicians entertainer
Qualitative & Quantitative Surveys
Quantitative & Qualitative Research
Designs
Qualitative Quantitative
o Phenomenology o Descriptive design & descriptive
o Focus groups statistics
o Grounded Theory o Correlational & Causal
o Qualitative interviewing Comparative Studies
o Ethnography/participant o Experimental Designs
observation o Survey Research
o Discourse & conversation analysis o Inferential Statistics
(Language based approach) o Validity & Reliability
o Case Studies o Case Control
o Cohort
o Ecological Study
Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Exchange Theory
• The target audience will compare the
costs and benefits of performing the
behavior before choosing to adopt it.
• The exchange should increase the
perceived benefits of target behavior and
minimize its costs. Or
• It could increase the perceived costs of
the competing behaviors and minimize
their benefits. It can be
• Tangible (paying a higher price for a
healthier vending machine option),
• Intangible (giving up a TV show to go for
a walk to improve one’s health).
Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Social Norms Theory

 Behaviors influenced by what

we think others we like/respect
do
 Increase perception that
“everyone” is doing the desired
behavior
 Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Diffusion of Innovations
Model
1. Innovators – motivated by a need for
novelty and a need to be different
2. Early adopters – drawn by the product’s
intrinsic value
3. Early majority – perceive the spread of a Show me – Have the value &
Behavior; Just tell me
product & decide to go along with it out of what you want me to do

their need to match & imitate

next

Help me – Have the value,

4. Late majority – jump on the bandwagon but not the behavior; I am
interested but have barriers
after realizing the “most” are doing it & lack motivations

5. Laggards - follow suit as the product Make me – Don’t have the

Value or the behavior; And I
attains popularity & broad acceptance am not likely
to
Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Health Belief Model
Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Health Belief Model  Cues to Action - Strategies
to activate "readiness“
 Readiness to Act
1. Perceived Susceptibility - one's opinion  Self-Efficacy - Confidence
of chances of getting a condition in one's ability to take action
2. Perceived Severity - One's opinion of
how serious a condition and its
consequences are
3. Perceived Benefits - One's belief in the
efficacy of the advised action to reduce
risk or seriousness of impact
4. Perceived Barriers - One's opinion of the
tangible and psychological costs of the
advised action
 Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Ecological Model
1. Individual factors – demographics,
personality, genetics, skills,
religious beliefs
2. Relationship factors – friends,
families, colleagues
3. Community factors – school, work
sites, healthcare, organizations,
media
4. Societal factors – cultural norms,
laws, governance
 Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
 Intention is determined by 2 major
factors:
1. our beliefs about the outcomes associated
with the behavior
2. our perceptions of how people we care
about will view the behavior in question
In 1998, Ajzen extended the TRA to
include:
3. Influence of beliefs & perceptions
regarding control (e.g., self efficacy)

Target audience is most likely to adopt a

behavior when they have a positive
attitude toward it, perceive that
“important others” would approve, and
believe they will be successful in
performing it.
Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
 Learning of specific new behaviors has 3 major
components:
a. Sequential approximation – acknowledges that individuals do
not often instantly leap from not doing a behavior to doing it
(e.g., one way of teaching smokers how to adopt a nonsmoking lifestyle is to reduce
their consumption step by step)
b. Repetition (practice)
c. Reinforcement
 Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Behavior Economics Framework &
the Nudge Factor

 Behavioral economics is a growing body

of science that looks at how
environmental and other factors prompt
personal decisions.
 Behavior Change Models, Theories,
and Frameworks
Science of habit framework
 That many products we are use every
day-chewing gums, skin moisturizers,
disinfecting wipes etc. – are results of
manufactured habits.
 Considered opportunities to
“manufacture” new habits (e.g.
walking a new puppy 30 mins. a day),
or try embedding a new behavior into
an existing habit (e.g., flossing your
teeth while watching your favorite late
night show).