Introduction
Drink driving is a severe problem in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). According to Budget Direct (2021), approximately one out of four fatal crashes within the ACT involve alcohol. The hypothetic anti-drink driving intervention targets men 25-40 years old living in Canberra and is based on the algorithm described by Eagle et al. (2012). In particular, the social marketing intervention planning process can be divided into seven stages: problem scoping, situation analysis, asset mapping, evaluation planning, intervention development, intervention implementation, and full evaluation (Eagle et al., 2012). Each of these stages might present practical challenges for a marketer, forcing them to undertake specific tasks. Overall, the ultimate goal of this paper lies in identifying key tasks that would be undertaken at all stages of the social marketing intervention planning process and evaluating the potential success of the plan.
Analysis and Discussion
Scoping the Problem
The first task for a social marketer would be identifying behavioural problems via secondary research. Regarding discussed intervention, a social marketer might utilize survey data and official information from government sources government. For instance, Budget Direct (2021) survey revealed that 32,7% of Australian drivers aged between 25 and 34 do not know the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) in their state. (Appendix 1). The ACT Government (no date) sets a legal BAC of 0,05g of alcohol in 100mL of blood. However, this vital information might be unknown to many drivers within the targeted group.
Situation Analysis: Planning and Implementing Primary Research
The previously mentioned Budget Direct survey on drink driving in Australia has a significant issue of lacking the ACT-specific data. Therefore, a social marketer should undertake primary research focused on male residents of Canberra aged between 25 and 40 years. For example, a social marketer might ask questions about BAC limit and BAC reduction techniques. Consequently, a marketer would understand the scope of the problem — how many drivers inside the targeted group are unaware of the legal BAC and believe that BAC can be reduced by other means than waiting.
Asset Mapping
A social marketer may face resource-related difficulties, which can undermine the intervention’s effectiveness. The partnership approach to marketing is commonly practised in solving sensitive social issues with limited resources (Bilal Akbar et al., 2021). In the case of an anti-drink driving campaign, a marketer could appeal to such stakeholders as Australian Federal Police (AFP), the ACT Government, and close relatives of the targeted population members. The AFP and ACT Government would be interested in road incidents reduction, whereas family members would be willing to protect their male relatives.
SWOT Analysis
In the third stage, a social marketer would likely have to conduct a SWOT analysis. According to Eagle et al. (2012), SWOT analysis summarises key findings of the problem scoping stage. The preliminary SWOT analysis of anti-drink driving intervention is presented below:
- Strengths: relatively low (7,7%) prevalence of drink driving in Australian males (Budget Direct, 2021);
- Weaknesses: low awareness about the BAC limit in the ACT; low awareness about the ineffectiveness of BAC reduction techniques;
- Opportunities: involvement of secondary stakeholder groups — AFP, ACT Government, family;
- Threats: inability to explain the significance of the problem; failure to reduce the number of drink driving-related incidents.
Evaluation Planning
In the fourth stage of planning, a marketer should consider the future evaluation of the intervention’s results. According to Eagle et al. (2012), this stage may include the following activities: baseline data identification, SMART objective setting, and establishing of evaluation criteria. Regarding the anti-drink driving intervention, a marketer can obtain baseline data from primary and secondary research. The SMART objective can be set as reducing the number of drink driving-related incidents in the ACT by 30% over the next three years. Lastly, the awareness percentage of BAC-related information and the total number of drink driving incidents can be selected as evaluation criteria.
Intervention Development
At the fifth stage of the planning process, a marketer would have to develop a set of practical interventions. This stage includes identifying marketing techniques helpful in achieving the desired behavioural change (Eagle et al., 2012). White, Habib, and Hardisty (2019) offer a SHIFT framework for behavioural changes. Initially developed for changing consumer behaviours, this framework can be used to promote an anti-drink driving mindset. For instance, drivers’ behaviour may be altered via such facets of social influence as norms, identities, and desirability (White, Habib, and Hardisty, 2019). In particular, the intervention may promote ideas that a socially-responsible driver knows BAC limits and understands that only sufficient waiting guarantees safety.
Intervention Implementation
The intervention implementation stage sets the task of launching the developed intervention. According to Eagle et al. (2012), a full launch should begin after completing a pilot test. Therefore, the launch of an anti-drink driving intervention in Canberra would follow a pilot test on a limited scope, such as one of the city districts. In addition, the pilot test would have to be accompanied by monitoring in order to compare preliminary results against the benchmarks set at the evaluation planning stage.
Evaluation and Follow Up Activities
Once the intervention is fully implemented, a social marketer must complete the evaluation and follow up tasks. At the evaluation stage, the data gathered after a pre-designated intervention period is compared against the evaluation criteria. The follow-up activities include result dissemination on the national and global levels (Eagle et al., 2012). Overall, the Canberran anti-drink driving intervention would be successful if the main SMART objective (30% incident reduction over three years) is achieved. Additional success criteria are the growing awareness of BAC-related information within the targeted population.
Conclusion
In summary, a marketer has to undertake multiple challenging tasks throughout the seven stages of the social marketing intervention planning process. On the hypothetic example of anti-drink driving intervention targeted at men of the 25-40 age group living in Canberra, one can see the immense complexity of social marketing planning. A marketer has to conduct primary research in case secondary research data is insufficient, map the assets to find collaborators, choose the correct behaviour-changing intervention, implement it, and evaluate success.
In the case of the anti-drink driving campaign in Canberra, the hypothetic SMART objective is a 30% reduction in drink driving incidents over three years. Additional criteria are awareness increase of BAC-related information, such as the legal BAC limit in the ACT and waiting as the only effective way of BAC reduction. The success of the intervention would be evaluated via a comparison of the intervention’s results against the main SMART objective and the measurement of post-intervention data on BAC-related awareness.
Recommendations
Analyzing the social marketing intervention planning process allows one to formulate four practical recommendations. Most importantly, a social marketer should treat intervention planning as a complex individual process. There is no universal recipe for success, and only general guidelines exist. However, a marketer should understand that including certain stages might be necessary. For instance, a hypothetic anti-drink driving intervention in Canberra would require additional primary research due to the lack of secondary research data. In addition, a marketer should follow the guidelines for completing specific stages of intervention planning. A stage should include all mandatory tasks; for instance, the evaluation would be incomplete without follow-up activities. Finally, the key aspects of the intervention — behavioural changing techniques and choice of collaborators and partners should be tailored to the targeted population group. Misjudgment in that component would decrease the intervention’s effectiveness to the point of complete failure.
Reference List
ACT Government (no date) Drink and drug driving. Web.
Akbar, M. B., et al. (2021) ‘An analysis of social marketing practice: factors associated with success’, Health Marketing Quarterly, pp. 1-21.
Budget Direct. Australian drink driving survey & statistics 2021. Web.
Eagle, L. et al. (2012) Social marketing. New York: Pearson.
White, K., Habib, R., and Hardisty, D. (2019) ‘How to shift consumer behaviors to be more sustainable: a literature review and guiding framework’, Journal of Marketing, 83(3), pp. 22-49.
Appendix 1: Awareness of Legal BAC Limit in Australia by Driver’s Age
