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Social marketing for social change

Social marketing, a new concept, combines the best elements of traditional approaches to social change in an integrated planning and action framework and utilizes advances in communication technology and marketing skills, says Pradeep Kashyap, a development practitioner.

"Why can’t you sell family planning like you sell soap?" was the innocent plea of a development practitioner at a recent workshop. How right he was ! The moe a social programme resembles a commercial product campaign, the more successful it is likely to be because market segmentation, social product positioning, promotional strategy, cost benefit and other aspects are carefully considered and researched. For example, in the Nirodh campaign the product may be more effectively positioned as ‘ the use of condoms (and not side effect-producing birth control pills to be used by women) is what wives expect of husbands, and loving husbands owe it to their wives to use them’. Or consider the oral Rehyderation Therapy (ORT) which is being promoted through government programmes as ‘ a convenient home-made remedy against diarrhoea, the number one killer of infants in our country ‘. However, a more effective product position would be’ a convenient, easy to follow means that any responsible, loving mother can take recourse to when her child has diarrhoea’.

Social marketing is a new concept and the term was first used in 1971. It combines the best element of traditional approaches to social change in an integrated planning and action framework and utilizes advances in communication technology and marketing skills.

Mass media for communication is inevitable as most social programmes attempt to inform and persuade, within a given period, the largest possible number of target adopters. But it is important to conduct research to decide what communication objectives should be set; what to say in the communication; how to say it, where to place the communication and how to time the communication. It would be unfair to expect government officials alone to find answers to these complex issues without seeking help from communication experts. Mass media oriented communication needs to be supplemented by face-to-face communication so that people can discuss what they see or hear with others. This allows people to process information better and they are more likely to accept change. NGOs utilize this personalised approach very effectively in implementing development programmes in rural areas. But, unfortunately, blissfully ignorant bureaucrats continue to believe that mere posters and hoardings can bring about social tansformation and therefore keep increasing their publicity budgets in the hope that DAVP will do the rest.

A social marketing plan needs to be developed finally, once information on profile of target adopters, their current knowledge, attitudes and practices has been collected and having decided on the media message and strategy. This plan must establish standards for implementing the programme and evaluating its outcomes.

Given the fact that government is involved in bringing about profound social changes in so many development sectors like health, family planning, education, environment and community development by spending thousands of crores of rupees, it is important that we develop effective and efficient programmes. And while planning these programmes government should set specific, measurable and attainable social change objectives so that peformance can be monitored and corrective steps taken as required thereby improving monetary and impact efficiencies of such programmes. Objectives like improving the quality of life in our rural areas or empowering women being currently advocated by government are non-specific and therefore non-measurable. Government should make use of scientific knowledge and technology rather than relying simply on adhoc, intuitive hunches and approaches in delivering development. Social marketing is an effective, modern technique for bringing about planned social change and needs to be integrated into our development efforts.

RECLAIMING WASTE WATER

Earth has massive amounts of water - some 1,400 million cubic kilometers of it - yet the supply of fresh water is limited. About 98% of the water is in the oceans and seas, and most of the rest is locked up as ice. we do with a tiny .027 percent of freshwater from rivers, lakes, springs, and underground aquifers.

Industrial development and population growth over the years have produced water shortages in many parts of the world. Meanwhile, human and industrial wastes are increasingly contaminating this precious resource. For example, the Ganga has been polluted severely, and India has mounted a massive effort to cleanse it.

Most methods used for waste water treatment have been mechanical. They are costly and energy intensive. In the search for alternative technologies that are simple, efficient, and cheap, scientists have demonstrated that aquatic plants, such as the water hyacinth, have great potential for wastewater treatment and reclamation because of their photosynthetic systems.

The biological process works something like this : the plants are grown hydroponicall in a filter made of rocks through which waste water flows. The roots, which are home to large numbers of bacteria and other micro-organisms, extend into the waste water. These microbes feed off the minerals and organic chemicals that pollute the water. While digesting the pollutants, the microbes produce by-products such as sugars and amino acids, which are absorbed by the plant roots as food. The plants, in turn, supply oxygen and nutrients to the micro-organisms for their rapid growth.

This symbiotic relationship allows waste water to be purified by the plant roots, and, moreover, the plants’ abundant new leaves help restore oxygen to the air and also regulate the level of carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gases. The large amount of harvested plant material resulting from the process is a potential source of energy, animal feed, fertilizer, and other valuable products.

In the past few years, a number of cities have installed various versions of this aquatic plant-based technology for purifying their waste-water. for example, San Diego, California, has set up a water treatment plant using water hyacinths and Denham Springs, Louisiana, uses cannas lilies for treating its waste water.