Economical Science/5. Human Resource Management
Poperechnyi B.
National University of food technologies
The personalised SNA has been developed in the
context of alcohol consumption and a number of sustainability domains. Three
key differences can be identified between the personalised approach and the
traditional approach. First, in the personalised approach methodology,
randomised control trials are often employed, allowing the comparison of different
intervention groups, and control groups.
In their practical guide
to the SNA, McAlaney point out that the success of SNA campaigns depends
upon ‘careful planning and an understanding of the principles involved’. This
suggests that some of the failure of the campaigns identified earlier might be
attributed to inadequate understanding, planning and/or implementation.
Research on the SNA over the past 20 or so years suggests that effective social
norm campaign have four key characteristics: they follow the basic principles
of good marketing, and – more specifically to the SNA – they feature reference
groups that are appropriate for the target group, they are credible and they
avoid inadvertent encouragement of undesirable behaviours.
Basic marketing principles. Social norm approach campaigns are no different from other marketing and
social marketing programmes in the extent to which they should follow the
principles of good marketing. McAlaney stress the importance of cyclical
research, planning (including segmentation and targeting), implementation and
evaluation phases. Perkins and Craig emphasise the use of integrated marketing
communications; for instance, their Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS)
campaign discussed previously featured materials in print and electronic media,
class projects and teacher training. Researchers also highlight the hard won
nature of behaviour change and the corresponding importance of lengthy and
ongoing SNA programmes; for instance, programmes of 4 years and more are
considered appropriate . Finally, although eschewing scare or shock tactics,
effective SNA campaigns are typically highly creative.
Appropriate reference groups. Social norm approach research consistently shows that the impact of SNA
campaigns is maximised through the use in communications of the most
appropriate reference group for a particular target group. In the context of
the SNA, the most appropriate reference group is the group with which the
target group most identifies or associates with (as opposed to aspires to or
disassociates from); that is to say, people like themselves. For example, in
their SNA studies of campus alcohol consumption, researchers have showed this
with respect to gender; Neighbors and race . The main approach to
maximising identification and association is illustrated in the folowing:
In reality, most HWS students drink one to four
drinks or do not drink at all when partying.
Hobart and William Smith
Colleges Alcohol Education Project.
I DON'T SMOKE. Just like
88% of ETHS students.
Evanston Township High
School .
Your energy consumption
was above the average in your neighbourhood.
Home Energy Study .
In the HWS and Evanston
Township High School (ETHS) examples, identification and association are
maximised because the messages both refer to students at the same college as
the target group. In the latter example, identification and association is
maximised through the use of the term ‘your neighbourhood’. Identification and
association by the target audience can also be heightened visually by the use
of photographs of appropriate demographic groups (ideally real members of the
target group who may even be recognised by others) and in ways that afford
campaigns a powerful sense of locale. McAlaney suggests that a sense of
locale can be achieved, where it is possible and appropriate, through the use
of the logos of the target institution, local institutional funders and
supporters, and photographs of local landmarks.
The credibility of the data. The success of SNA programmes is also related to the credibility of the
data. For example, in the context of a failed alcohol-related SNA intervention
at a college in the USA, Granfield suggests that this may have been because of
the fact that more than 45% of the participants did not believe the social norm
data. Three key approaches to this potential problem can be readily suggested.
First, through engagement with the target audience in the planning stage, the
credibility of messages in different formats can be informed, tested and
enhanced. Second, and this technique also deepens
identification and association, is through comprehensive attribution of the
data that is cited in the communications. For instance, the HWS and ETHS
messages cited earlier are complemented by the following respective
attributions:
Data drawn from the Spring 2008 core Alcohol and Drugs
Survey conducted on a random sample of HWS students with 481 respondents.
2002 Social Marketing Survey. N = 2341
ETHS students. Funded by the Chicago Community Trust, Rotary Club of Evanston
Lighthouse and Tobacco Settlement Funds.
Finally, it is suggested
that highly visible, poster-based ‘headline’ messages and attributions, such as
those cited earlier, should be backed-up with more detailed and comprehensive
information in other formats. Such information might be provided, it is
suggested, in the form of websites and in face-to-face workshops (for instance,
see the SGNM approach discussed earlier).
Avoiding inadvertent increases in socially undesirable behaviours. The final characteristic of effective SNA
campaigns is that they avoid inadvertent increases in a
socially undesirable behaviour, a phenomena that has become known
as the ‘boomerang effect’. In their SNA study on energy consumption, Schultz
and his colleagues provided social norm feedback in the form of the average
consumption. The study noted that the energy consumption of those households
that used less than the communicated average at the outset of the study actually increased their
energy consumption during the intervention. Thus, the ‘boomerang effect’ refers
to inadvertent movement towards the norm of people in the target audience whose
behaviour is the ‘right’ side of the norm at the outset of the intervention.
Clearly, this insight
casts a shadow over the popular social marketing technique of issuing a warning
by emphasising the extent of the socially undesirable behaviour. For instance,
Cialdini cite a US Federal Drug Administration Commission announcement
that, ‘more than 3 million youths in the USA smoke and that 3000 become regular
smokers each day’. Similarly, based upon a number of studies, since 2000, the
US online media and blogosphere remains replete with the message that ‘65% of
adults are overweight’ . The boomerang effect suggests that the social norms
messages embedded in these putative warnings may increase both the social
acceptability and the prevalence of the undesirable behaviour – in these
examples, smoking and being overweight – and should therefore be avoided.
Within the context of
the personalised feedback approach, researchers and programme managers have
employed two methods to obviate the ‘boomerang effect’. First, following the
success of Schultz , the introduction of rewarding or injunctive messages
for those whose behaviour is already the ‘right’ side of the average.
Typically, these take the form of encouraging and rewarding messages,
accompanied by increasing numbers of smiley faces reflecting increasingly
‘good’ performance or behaviour. However, frowny face emoticons have been shown
to upset people and should not be used. Second, this approach is combined with
the inclusion of a more ambitious norm in the form of the average performance
of the ‘best’ 20% of the participants .
References
1. . 2010. Social
norms and energy conservation. O-POWER.
Available at http://tinyurl.com/2v72pfp [accessed on 13 June
2013].
2. , . 2007. Normative
beliefs, misperceptions and heavy episodic drinking in a British student sample. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 68(3): 385–392.
3. , , . 2010. Social
norms guidebook: a guide to implementing the social norms approach in the UK. Available at http://www.normativebeliefs.org.uk/Guidebook.pdf [accessed on 1
July 2013].
4. National
Social Norms Institute. 2012a. Evanston
Township High School Strength in
Numbers Campaign. Available athttp://www.socialnorm.org/CaseStudies/evanstonhs.php [accessed on 1
July 2013].