1. How do you persuade the masses to be safe and healthy? Communication Campaigns Lecture 3

2. Social Marketing- more macro approach Planning Use of theory Communication analysis (audience, form of mass media) Implementation Evaluation and Reorientation

3. Social Norms Marketing Targets perception of how prevalent a behavior is People generally follow social norms Social Proof

4. Social proof and persuasion Trigger feature  fixed-action pattern Social proof  Must be good if everyone else is doing it “fastest-growing” “largest selling” “most popular”

5. Example Please don’t remove the petrified wood from the park. Many past visitors have removed petrified wood from the park, changing the natural state of the Petrified forest. Please don’t remove the petrified wood from the park, in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified forest. No sign condition

6. Example: Reusing hotel towels Original message: Reuse your towels. It will save the earth. Social proof message: “JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. The majority of guests….

7. Similarity increases persuasion from social proof More likely to use similar others as guide to behavior Example: “75% of guests in exactly your situation — who stayed in the same hotel room #000 have reused their towels.” This led to an additional increase (5%) in towel reuse from the regular social proof message

8. Energy use Providing data on neighborhood energy use (with smiley faces for below norm use) reduced energy consumption 2% Positive reinforcement avoided boomerang effect

9. Uncertainty increases persuasion from social proof Uncertainty strengthens the effect of social proof Pluralistic ignorance: using others as a guide to behavior, when everyone else is using each other as a guide for behavior but assumes others know what they are doing How to combat pluralistic ignorance

10. Social proof and persuasion Be aware when you are using social proof to be persuaded. Recognize when you are presented with false social proof evidence ex.) canned laughter Recognize that the crowd can be wrong