Five step model: First two steps

This 40 minute presentation, the third in the full-day Learning Institute, “Social norms marketing interventions: Context, evidence, planning, implementation & evaluation," will introduce the Five Step Model for designing, implementing and evaluating a social norms marketing campaign. This model will provide participants with an eminently practical approach to creating their own site-specific and audience-specific campaigns, adhering to the principles of effective social marketing. The first step in the model is “Understand Your Audience.” This step, as much of the model, is derived directly from commercial advertising. The topics discussed with participants will include identification of conflicting priorities for your audience, audience segmentation, the role of leaders and stakeholders, and how to use “Connectors.” Connectors, as defined by Malcolm Gladwell, will be discussed in some detail, including strategies for identifying Connectors and for establishing a regular interaction with Connectors.

During the course of this presentation, participants will have the opportunity to work in small groups to complete a handout “Understand Your Audience.” The experience of trying to complete the handout will then provide the basis for a discussion with the participants highlighting gaps in knowledge about their intended audience.

This will provide a segue into the second step of the model, “Gather Data.” This part of the presentation will begin with an overview of the three primary purposes for data in a social norms intervention: to better understand your audience, to measure norms and perceptions, and to evaluate outcomes. Participants will be introduced to the acronym CRAB to determine the quality of data for a social norms intervention: Current, Relevant, Accurate, Believable. The presentation will include consideration of both quantitative and qualitative data gathering strategies, with particular attention to online surveys, intercept interviews and focus groups.

For quantitative surveys, examples will be provided of both site-specific and appropriate national surveys (for example, the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment for college students; the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and National Health Interview Survey). The presentation will conclude with a guided discussion, with the participants as a whole, of the problems of extrapolating from national data to local populations, on the one hand, and of extrapolating from convenience samples to local populations on the other hand. The importance of basing data about norms and perceptions on appropriate random samples, stratified as necessary, will be emphasized and explained.