The role of social marketing in achieving the planet sustainable development goals (SDGs)

To achieve the environmental SDGs, citizens must behave pro-environmentally. Pro-environmental behavior is “behavior that seeks to protect the environment or harm it as little as possible” (Steg & Vlek, 2009, p. 309). Examples of pro-environmental behavior include energy conservation, water conservation, recycling, and sustainable transport. Several strategies can be adopted to promote environmentally responsible behaviors by citizens. Traditionally, regulation and information-intensive campaigns have been the most common strategies used in relation to the environment (Jackson, 2005; Rothschild, 1999). As discussed later, social marketing can complement these two strategies by overcoming some of their drawbacks.

Legislation (or regulation) often promotes socially responsible behavior in citizens through the threat of punishment for non-compliance in the form of, say, fines (Kennedy, 2010). Therefore, it is coercive rather than voluntary, attempting to control human behavior (Geiger et al., 2021). Research has shown the mixed effectiveness and unintended consequences of using bans and levies. For example, Mathew et al. (2023) reported that these initiatives in the case of single-use plastic reduction can decrease individuals’ intrinsic motivation, leading to a greater probability of negative community reactions and negative spillover effects. Therefore, while coercive efforts undoubtedly change behavior in the short-term, less controlling approaches to behavior change are also needed. For instance, autonomy-preserving interventions based on voluntary behavior change could provide a valuable alternative. Social marketing interventions offer just such an approach. In social marketing, effective behavioral interventions begin by analyzing the benefits and barriers (internal or external) that people perceive when performing a specific activity. The aim of this analysis is to overcome barriers and increase benefits to achieve voluntary long-term change (Andreasen, 1994, 2002). This approach gives individuals a greater feeling of autonomy and greater intrinsic motivation than approaches based on controlled motivation (Geiger et al., 2021).

Research has shown that information-intensive environmental campaigns are useful to increase pro-environmental attitudes but that information alone does not generally lead to behavior change (Liu et al., 2020). There are several reasons why information-intensive campaigns have failed to change individual pro-environmental behavior (see Jackson, 2005). These failures highlight the areas where social marketing can add value. For example, individuals may lack knowledge or understanding to translate information into action. Social marketing addresses the reasons for this gap and can offer specific tools for each barrier and action. One example of how social marketing works in this way is by simplifying complex information and presenting it in a manner that can be easily understood by specific segments of the population (Sewak et al., 2021). Likewise, social marketing can provide individuals with specific steps or tips to help them tackle a complex issue (Schultz, 2014). Another reason why information-intensive campaigns fail is that individuals may be aware of the environmental consequences of their behavior but still choose not to change their behaviors because they have other priorities or values. Social marketing involves in-depth analysis of the factors that influence the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., beliefs, social norms, values, self-efficacy, moral obligation, and problem awareness). This in-depth analysis provides a better understanding of possible barriers and the ways to overcome them. In this analysis of facilitators and obstacles that prevent the adoption of a desired behavior, social marketing also entails analysis of what or who may be influencing members of the target audience to act the way they do, for example in the form of competition (Andreasen, 2002). This analysis of the competition can take many forms, including similar programs or campaigns, other behaviors, products or services, or even messages. This competition analysis is crucial because it helps social marketers understand the strengths and weaknesses of their own programs in relation to those of their competitors. Armed with this information, social marketers can refine strategies, adjust messages, and identify opportunities for reaching and engaging with the target audience.

Social marketing can therefore offer an effective approach for the design and execution of environmental programs, which should contribute to the way governments and public administrations develop and choose public policies. Social marketing can also support the way services are provided and can create lasting relationships with citizens and other interested organizations (Tkaczynsk et al., 2020). Furthermore, social marketing researchers can make a major contribution by creating and experimentally evaluating useable strategies (interventions) to support the achievement of the environmental SDGs.

In social marketing, the community-based social marketing (CBSM) framework has commonly been used to design and deliver programs that foster pro-environmental behavior (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011)¹. The CBSM framework has five steps (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011). The first consists of carefully selecting the behavior targeted by the program. This behavior should be non-divisible (i.e., it cannot be further divided) and an end-state behavior (i.e., it has a direct impact on the goal). Prior to selecting this behavior, the target audience should be established (segmentation). The second step is to identify the barriers and benefits of the chosen behavior. Barriers include factors that are internal and external to the individual that make it less likely to engage in the desired behavior. Benefits refer to the positive outcomes associated with the behavior. In step three, a strategy is designed based on behavior-change tools (e.g., social norms, feedback, or prompts) to reduce or remove the analyzed barriers and increase benefits (see McKenzie-Mohr and Schultz, 2014; Schultz, 2014). Step four consists of testing the intervention with a small subset of the community. Finally, step five involves assessing the program’s effects once it has been broadly implemented.

The CBSM framework has primarily been used by practitioners in citizen-centered programs at the community level to promote pro-environmental behaviors such as reducing waste, protecting the habitats of fish and wildlife, and reducing water use.² However, most of these programs do not fully apply the concepts and principles of social marketing, especially in terms of benchmark criteria (Tkaczynski et al., 2020). This feature is also true of many academic studies (Rodriguez-Sanchez et al., 2023). According to past evidence, assessing the extent of criteria used in social marketing programs is important because interventions are more likely to result in positive behavior change when more criteria are used and properly reported (Tkaczynski et al., 2020). Lynes et al. (2014) and Fries et al. (2020) proposed several benchmark criteria (see Fig. 1) based on the CBSM framework and the six benchmarks listed by Andreasen (2002). From the perspective of these benchmark criteria, these programs could be improved and made more effective.

For example, regarding behavior selection (first step of CBSM benchmark criteria analysis), many studies fail to identify the target audience (e.g., Frame and Newton, 2007) or do not choose non-divisible behaviors (e.g., Gray and Bean, 2011). Similarly, concerning the identification of barriers and benefits (second step of CBSM benchmark criteria analysis), even though many studies examine the barriers and benefits of the chosen behavior, very few distinguish between internal and external factors (e.g., Miller et al., 2009). Finally, concerning the evaluation of the broad-scale implementation of the intervention (fifth step of CBSM benchmark criteria analysis), very few studies measure the behavior before and after the implementation (e.g., Mulcahy et al., 2020) or provide evaluation data to give feedback to the community (e.g., Velde et al., 2018). Therefore, although the CBSM framework, and more specifically the benchmark criteria, offers a potentially effective tool for the design, implementation, and evaluation of social marketing programs to achieve pro-environmental behavior, very few programs fully implement it. Hence, to date, it is an underused tool.

Furthermore, two key issues should be addressed in environmental social marketing programs. These issues, which relate to two CBSM framework steps, are as follows: (1) ensuring better use of formative research and theory for the analysis of the determinants (barriers and benefits) of the target behavior (Step 2), and (2) making more effective use of communication as a behavior change strategy (Step 3).

Formative research and theory are the two basic methods in the second step of the CBSM framework. Traditional research techniques such as surveys and focus groups are the most common methods in formative research for examining factors associated with the desired behavior as well as the effectiveness of the strategies used in programs (Carins et al., 2016). However, although these techniques have some advantages such as fast data collection and low cost, they also have major disadvantages. For example, social desirability bias becomes an issue when participants must answer questions about the environment (Vesely & Klöckner, 2020). Recent studies have also highlighted limitations in objectively capturing the cognitive and emotional processing of environment-related messages (Lange & Dewitte, 2019). Thus, instead of focusing only on traditionally methods and research pathways such as surveys or focus groups, social marketers must be open to alternative ways of conducting research. The book “Expanding the Formative Research Toolkit” by Kubacki and Rundle-Thiele (2017) is useful in this regard. In addition to traditional research methods, they propose the use of innovative techniques such as big data, consumer diaries, mechanical observation, and cognitive neuroscience in social marketing.

Applying tools and knowledge from cognitive neuroscience to consumer behavior (i.e., consumer neuroscience) can be useful in formative research because doing so can provide accurate information on cognitive and emotional processing of messages and decision making (Kapoor et al., 2023). Furthermore, methods from neuroscience (e.g., fMRI) can explain the neural mechanisms that determine how persuasively messages promoting pro-environmental behavior are conveyed (Casado-Aranda et al., 2018). As indicated by Gordon and Ciorciari (2017), in relation to social marketing, these neuroscience tools can be used to complement traditional research techniques and thus provide deeper insight into human behavior. Gordon and Ciorciari (2017) also suggest that cognitive neuroscience can be used for formative research in social marketing and for pretesting of marketing tools (pretesting research) for subsequent social marketing interventions (e.g., advertising, videos, and brochures).

Regarding the use of theory, many CBSM interventions fail in the application of theory to plan social marketing programs (Hübscher et al., 2022). Environmental and social psychology can play a key role in providing theoretical models to explain a certain behavior by shedding light on the underlying psychological, social, cultural, and contextual factors that influence that behavior³. Given the paucity of formal academic research on CBSM, much work is needed to integrate academic theory into this model to make environmental social marketing programs more effective. This theoretical approach can help explain how individuals think and feel and can lead to the adoption of a broader perspective in the analysis of the systems that surround people. Thus, a theory-based approach is especially important when analyzing the barriers and benefits of a selected behavior and designing a strategy for behavior change (Van Hierden et al., 2022)⁴. A widely used theory in environmental psychology, and one that seems promising in the area of social marketing and the environment, is the goal-framing theory (do Canto et al., 2023; Rodriguez-Sanchez et al., 2022). This theoretical framework (Lindenberg & Steg, 2007) combines previous theories but offers major benefits with regard to behavior change because it is founded on the notion of the accomplishment of specific objectives. Goal-framing theory extends existing environmental psychology theories and models such as the norm activation model (Schwartz & Howard, 1981), the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the value-belief-norm model (Stern et al., 1999), and affect theory (e.g., Leiserowitz, 2005; Perugini and Bagozzi, 2001). It proposes that the path people follow to select, process, and act on information depends on how strongly they view the achievement of overall goals (Lindenberg & Steg, 2007). These overall goals can be divided into three categories: hedonic goals (to experience and feel better), gain goals (to keep or improve one’s resources, such as money or status), and normative goals (to act in a proper and moral manner). Previous environmental psychology studies have investigated the effectiveness of deploying normative, hedonic, and gain-oriented messages to promote pro-environmental behavior. However, they fail to agree on what kind of frame is most effective (Chi et al., 2021), although it seems to depend on the consumption context. Therefore, applications of goal-framing theory in different contexts are required in the field of environmental social marketing.

Regarding the design of strategies and tools to promote pro-environmental behavior, communication is fundamental to inform, educate, and persuade a target population to modify its behaviors by influencing attitudes, values, and social conduct (Kidd et al., 2019). According to Bolderdijk et al. (2013, p. 413), “the way pro-environmental behavior is advertised in environmental campaigns may influence how people feel about compliance”. Therefore, communication strategies should use persuasion techniques to encourage pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors (Martin et al., 2017). The knowledge deficit model, according to which individuals change their behavior simply by being informed about the issue, has been employed in most environmental social marketing communication campaigns (Kidd et al., 2019). However, the evidence suggests that this communication model is not persuasive enough (Kidd et al., 2019). Consumer response is not achieved using information alone. In fact, information overload can prevent an audience from reacting (Wells et al., 2011). Therefore, social marketers should focus on finding other communication frameworks (or frames) that are more effective than the knowledge deficit model (information-intensive campaigns). For example, recent research suggests that personal response efficacy (also known as perceived consumer effectiveness) may be a suitable frame to encourage individual pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., energy saving and recycling) because it focuses on the individual rather than diluting collective responsibility in terms of people or society (Chang, 2021). In addition, Florence et al. (2022) conducted a systematic review of studies of message framing and environmental sustainability. They concluded that single frames do not consistently lead to more sustainable consumer behavior. Instead, employing two message frames results in greater effectiveness.

Persuasive technology should also be used in the communication of environmental social marketing programs to encourage environmentally friendly behavior and sustainable living. Persuasive technology can use large amounts of data (to access the right information at the right time). It provides anonymity, which is useful, for example, when addressing sensitive problems (Midden & Ham, 2018). It can also deliver believable experiences through a variety of interaction modalities. Examples of persuasive technology are audio, video, games and virtual worlds. In this sense, immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) offer a sort of communication support that can have a bigger impact on behavior than conventional communication tools because they provide more dynamic and more sensory experiences (Baradaran Rahimi et al., 2022). These immersive technologies are changing the way people experience real and virtual environments (Hoyer et al., 2020). They provide novel avenues for information and communication (Rauschnabel et al., 2022). VR generates a 3D environment where a person can navigate and interact with existing objects through sensory simulation. VR thus provides total immersion and a feeling of psychological presence in an experience (Guttentag, 2010).

Environmental research based on the use of immersive technology in interventions has shown that this technology can be more effective at promoting pro-environmental attitudes than less immersive desktop interventions (e.g., Plechatá et al., 2022; Soliman et al., 2017). Although these technologies have developed substantially and their use has grown in recent years, few studies have examined their potential to influence people’s behavior in social marketing and environmental behavior. The development of these technologies has led to the concept of the metaverse. This parallel virtual universe combines immersive technology with artificial intelligence to improve physical spaces, offer goods and services, and create a setting where users share in the process of value co-creation (Buhalis & Karatay, 2022). However, to understand the behavioral effects of experiencing virtual settings, further study is required.

Another relevant line of technology is serious games. These games are not intended to entertain but can play a prominent role in the process of informing, educating, and promoting behavior change in terms of environmental sustainability (Ong & Araral, 2022; Thomas-Walters & Veríssimo, 2022). According to studies, playing games can help people become more environmentally aware, foster eco-friendly attitudes, and encourage individuals to adopt pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., Dunn and Veríssimo, 2021; Orland et al., 2014). Games are able to do so because they provide a fun, engaging, and low-pressure environment where players can experiment with different actions and see the consequences of their choices. However, some empirical studies of serious games have found no significant impact on attitudes and behavior but a significant effect on learning (e.g., Thomas‐Walters & Veríssimo, 2022). Thus, the advent of these persuasive technologies creates a new area for the research and application of social marketing programs that must be addressed in the near future.