Social Marketing (or Behavior Change Communication) is the art of applying marketing principles to affect behavior for the common good, benefiting the audience not the marketer.
Social Marketing can inform product design, community engagement, education or sales.
Social Marketing initiatives require a commitment to work towards altering the beliefs, knowledge, and behavior of a target audience that in the long-term create far more sustainable outcomes than soliciting a one-time action.
Nuru Kenya’s Social Marketing Program was created as a support program to aid other Nuru Kenya Impact Programs to achieve their intended goals. The program aims to accomplish Nuru Kenya’s goals through sustainable and scalable approaches. Nuru Kenya’s Social Marketing Program does this by developing and executing Social Marketing Strategies and guidelines crucial to expanding and deepening community engagement. The Social Marketing Program also works cross departmentally and across the organization to provide strategic marketing support and leadership as well as prioritized tactical influence and involvement to ensure successful program outcomes.
So far the Social Marketing Program has covered 3 major campaigns:
- Nuchoo: A campaign aimed at improving the sales of Nuru Kenya’s dry latrines.
- MLND Campaign: Raised awareness on MLND (Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease) and communicated transparently about the risks of planting maize in the long rains of 2013.
- 4ANC: A campaign aimed at encouraging expectant mothers to attend antenatal clinics.
Before launching any campaign, we design the campaign by using the approach below:
We promote merit goods and messages to the community that will result in a social gain by a variety of methods including word-of-mouth, posters, fliers, banners and SMS messaging. With the Social Marketing Program activities and continued community engagement, Nuru Kenya is definitely on its path of achieving its mission of ending extreme poverty.