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Dive into the world of social marketing! Join us for a four-part, cohort-based workshop series, where we will explore the tools and tactics that businesses can use to influence behaviour to achieve positive social change.
Each Thursday from May 22 to June 12, our cohort will be led by renowned educator in strategic sustainable management, Maureen Cureton (see bio below).
Who should join? Businesses looking to drive customers towards their own sustainable, circular, low-to-no waste products and services! Including but not limited to mall repair shops & refurbishers, rental businesses, resale shops (e.g. – thrift and consignment stores), creative reuse and upcycling businesses, deconstruction and reclaimed building materials professionals, and those offering products or services that support sustainable lifestyles! Open to one to two representatives per business.
Where will this be? Online, links for each date will be sent upon registration.
What is the commitment? Since this is a cohort-based series, businesses are expected to have a representative at each session. A business can have no more than two representatives join.
What is the cost? Tickets are $25 for the full series. Discounted tickets (25% off, 50% off) are available by request if the full cost presents financial hardship. Contact Sydney at gro.doogelttaes@yendys to inquire about receiving a code for a discounted ticket.
Social marketing is the application of (commercial) marketing principles and techniques to influence people’s behavior in order to achieve positive social change. Social marketing focuses on promoting behaviors and actions that generate environmental and/or societal benefits, rather than solely pursuing commercial interests in selling products/services and making a profit. Social marketing leverages (commercial) marketing strategies and behavioral influence tactics to encourage desired behaviors like waste reduction, circular behavior and low-carbon lifestyles.
Participants in this program will…
• … define Social Marketing and elements of behavior influence.
• … explore what influences behaviors relevant to sustainability-related businesses and organizations.
• … identify specific behavioral influence (social marketing) tools and tactics.
• … identify social marketing tools and tactics relevant and impactful for your business/organization (select your tactics).
Each 2.5-hour session will introduce key social marketing concepts and factors that influence behavior – with particular focus on factors relevant to social purpose and sustainability-focused businesses and organizations. We will start by examining key concepts and factors that influence or impede positive sustainability-related behaviors and actions (such as energy conservation, reuse and recycling activities).
Each workshop explains key concepts and introduces social marketing tools and tactics relevant to each factor. Participants will work individually, in small group break-outs and engage in large group activities to identify tools and tactics relevant to their target market(s)/audiences. After each workshop additional resources will be disseminated for those participants interested in diving deeper into their learnings.
Introduction to Social Marketing: Influencing Behavioural Change
• Define Social Marketing and elements of behaviour influence
• Explain what influences behaviours
• Identify the specific behaviour you want to influence
• Explain the intention-action gap in context of influencing low-carbon or other sustainability-related behaviour
• Identify barriers or other factors that may influence uptake of your behaviour
• Explain social poof & social influence – a key social marketing tool.
Behaviour influence: Who & How? Targeting Individuals’ Motivations & Social Influence
• Identify what influences behaviours, and barriers to a desired behaviour
• Identify your target market(s)/audience(s) – psychographics
• Explore Individual motivations and the Lighter Living Motivations
• Identify which Lighter Living Motivations are relevant to your stakeholders
• Identify opportunities to leverage social influence tools & tactics.
Behaviour influence: How? Targeting Habit formation and Feelings & Cognition tactics
• Explain habit formation –an approach for overcoming barriers to sustainable behaviours and actions
• Identify habit formation tips & tactics relevant to your target market(s)/audience(s)
• Explain how emotions influence our target markets’ behaviour
• Identify social marketing tips & tactics that tap into how your target market(s)/audience(s) thinks & feel.
Behaviour influence: How? Making it tangible; and how to select the right approach for your social marketing initiatives
• Explain the challenges of the abstract and how to make behaviours and outcomes feel real
• Identify tips & tactics for moving from abstract sustainability outcomes to tangible results
• Review social marketing tools & tactics
• How to select the right approach (tools & tactics) for your social marketing campaigns and initiatives.
Additional office hours will be made available for cohort participants throughout the series for those seeking additional guidance.
Maureen’s first experience in the environmental sector was managing research and development for an organic recycling technology. Later she was a Project Manager at Rocky Mountain Institute, a world-renowned ‘think tank’ on market-based solutions for sustainability.
Since then, she’s worked with a variety of businesses from start-up to multi-national, including more than 10 years as Green Business Manager for Canada’s largest credit union and, later, Manager, Sustainability for HSBC Canada.
Recently Maureen completed a 2-year collaboration with arts sector organizations committed to advancing circular solutions. Among the project outcomes is Toolkit on circularity for this sector (https://sage-toolkit.com/) and an online materials trading platform.
Maureen designed and delivered social marketing training workshops (SHIFT Lite and SHIFT Forward) for the Share Repair Reuse Initiative (SRRI), and she’s designed and taught business and sustainability courses for the University of British Columbia, Royal Roads University, City University of Seattle and others. She continues to train businesses privately on strategic sustainability management – having trained more than 800 businesses to date, and she’s trained almost 400 businesses to measure and manage carbon footprint.
Maureen co-authored 3 books on sustainability, two of which are used as textbooks at universities, and she holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental & Natural Resources and an MBA.
This series is hosted by Seattle Good Business Network and Repair x Reuse Washington, with funding from the Washington State Microenterprise Association.
Questions? Contact Sydney at gro.doogelttaes@yendys
