The Communications Landscape in Vietnam: Social Marketing Implications
by Lukas Parker
Co-authored with Linda Brennan
Social marketing purports to use a marketing mix or toolkit for engendering individual behaviour change. The toolkit... more
Social marketing purports to use a marketing mix or toolkit for engendering individual behaviour change. The toolkit is based on commercial marketing techniques which have been established within a Westernised context. While much effort is spent by organisations such as the WHO and UNICEF to date we have not found evidence to suggest that theories of social marketing can be applied to the Vietnamese context without consideration for the communications environment.
Social marketing promotion efforts are often aimed at the individual but in Vietnam the level of promotion may need to be more focussed at the family, and possibly the community and societal level as well. However, normal collectivist strategies might not work considering the tension between young and older family members. More research in this domain is required to ensure that campaigns are effectively targeted.
Social marketing in Vietnam needs to be upstream (towards government) before considering down stream techniques, this is to increase the likelihood of smooth implementation and to ensure compliance with law. Moreover, while literacy levels are high, taboo subjects are still limited politically and culturally. As a consequence promotional messages need to be mindful of cultural and political sensitivities, but also careful so as not to be diluted to the point of blandness.
As with much of the developed world, downloadable applications, social media and other mobile online initiatives will be an important growth area in social marketing when it comes to young people. Vietnamese consumers are increasingly sophisticated Internet users and access to Internet has infiltrated even the most isolated rural communities.
Social marketers need to take into account these political, legal, economic, social, cultural and technological influences and combine this with Vietnam’s unique mediascape. This will ensure better tailored promotional campaigns and hopefully maximise behavioural change results.
The Communications Landscape in Vietnam: Social Marketing Implications
by Lukas Parker
Co-authored with Linda Brennan
Social marketing purports to use a marketing mix or toolkit for engendering individual behaviour change. The toolkit... more
Social marketing purports to use a marketing mix or toolkit for engendering individual behaviour change. The toolkit is based on commercial marketing techniques which have been established within a Westernised context. While much effort is spent by organisations such as the WHO and UNICEF to date we have not found evidence to suggest that theories of social marketing can be applied to the Vietnamese context without consideration for the communications environment.
Social marketing promotion efforts are often aimed at the individual but in Vietnam the level of promotion may need to be more focussed at the family, and possibly the community and societal level as well. However, normal collectivist strategies might not work considering the tension between young and older family members. More research in this domain is required to ensure that campaigns are effectively targeted.
Social marketing in Vietnam needs to be upstream (towards government) before considering down stream techniques, this is to increase the likelihood of smooth implementation and to ensure compliance with law. Moreover, while literacy levels are high, taboo subjects are still limited politically and culturally. As a consequence promotional messages need to be mindful of cultural and political sensitivities, but also careful so as not to be diluted to the point of blandness.
As with much of the developed world, downloadable applications, social media and other mobile online initiatives will be an important growth area in social marketing when it comes to young people. Vietnamese consumers are increasingly sophisticated Internet users and access to Internet has infiltrated even the most isolated rural communities.
Social marketers need to take into account these political, legal, economic, social, cultural and technological influences and combine this with Vietnam’s unique mediascape. This will ensure better tailored promotional campaigns and hopefully maximise behavioural change results.
Are You Experienced...Too Bad!
by Ken Duggan
As the U.S. economy selectively improves, why aren't more of the experienced and Baby Boomer workers looking outside... more As the U.S. economy selectively improves, why aren't more of the experienced and Baby Boomer workers looking outside of the traditional job market to change their unemployment/under employment circumstances?
4 views
Seen by:
Download (.doc) Persuasive brand management: How managers can influence brand meaning when they are losing control over it
Iglesias, O. and Bonet, E. (2012) Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 25 Issue 2, pp. 251 165
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build a conceptual framework that enables an improved comprehension... more
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build a conceptual framework that enables an improved comprehension of how brand meaning is constructed.
Design/methodology/approach – Conceptual implications are drawn from an analysis and discussion of the literature in the fields of brand management, meanings, rhetoric, and narratives.
Findings – Brand managers are progressively losing control over the multiple sources of brand meaning. Brand meaning is co-created during the consumer-brand relationship and the customer-perceived brand meaning is re-interpreted at each touchpoint that a consumer has with a managerially determined brand interface, a brand employee, or an external stakeholder.
Originality/value – “Persuasive brand management” is presented as a new approach to brand management. It considers that the main activities of managers regarding brand strategy decisions involve processes of interpreting and creating meanings; as well as persuading a wide diversity of internal and external stakeholders.
Lessons for public health campaigns from analysing commercial food marketing success factors: a case study
by Federico Jose Armando Perez-Cueto Eulert
Jessica Aschemann-Witzel1*, Federico JA Perez-Cueto2, Barbara Niedzwiedzka3, Wim Verbeke2 and Tino Bech-Larsen1
* Corresponding author: Jessica Aschemann-Witzel jeaw@asb.dk
Author Affiliations
1 MAPP-centre, Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, Haslegaardsvej 10, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark
2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
3 Institute of Public Health, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, ul. Św. Anny 12, 31-008 Kraków, Poland
Background
Commercial food marketing has considerably shaped consumer food choice behaviour. Meanwhile, public... more
Background
Commercial food marketing has considerably shaped consumer food choice behaviour. Meanwhile, public health campaigns for healthier eating have had limited impact to date. Social marketing suggests that successful commercial food marketing campaigns can provide useful lessons for public sector activities. The aim of the present study was to empirically identify food marketing success factors that, using the social marketing approach, could help improve public health campaigns to promote healthy eating.
Methods
In this case-study analysis, 27 recent and successful commercial food and beverage marketing cases were purposively sampled from different European countries. The cases involved different consumer target groups, product categories, company sizes and marketing techniques. The analysis focused on cases of relatively healthy food types, and nutrition and health-related aspects in the communication related to the food. Visual as well as written material was gathered, complemented by semi-structured interviews with 12 food market trend experts and 19 representatives of food companies and advertising agencies. Success factors were identified by a group of experts who reached consensus through discussion structured by a card sorting method.
Results
Six clusters of success factors emerged from the analysis and were labelled as "data and knowledge", "emotions", "endorsement", "media", "community" and "why and how". Each cluster subsumes two or three success factors and is illustrated by examples. In total, 16 factors were identified. It is argued that the factors "nutritional evidence", "trend awareness", "vertical endorsement", "simple naturalness" and "common values" are of particular importance in the communication of health with regard to food.
Conclusions
The present study identified critical factors for the success of commercial food marketing campaigns related to the issue of nutrition and health, which are possibly transferable to the public health sector. Whether or not a particular factor contributes to future success depends on the specific context of use, the combination of factors and the environment. Consideration of the specific applicability of the success factors identified in this study during the design of marketing activities could benefit public sector food and health-related campaigns.
Behavioral Change Starts in the Family: The Role of Family Communication and Implications for Social Marketing
With Linda Brennan. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 23(4), 367-386, 2011
This article investigates reciprocal consumer socialization in families, with a particular focus on the influence... more This article investigates reciprocal consumer socialization in families, with a particular focus on the influence young adults above age 18 living at home have over their parents. A dyadic method of analysis was used to determine the level of influence young people have on the decision making of their parents with regard to the consumption of environmentally sustainable products. Our research shows that parents are not only influenced by their adolescent children, but that they are much more likely to take their children's advice when the family foster open issue-based communication patterns with respect for others. Our findings show that when the parents initially encourage their children to develop their own opinions and at the same time uphold the family hierarchy, they are much more likely to take their children's advice as well. For social marketers seeking to address issues of sustainable consumption, these are important findings.