Social marketing and value in behaviour?

Abstract

Purpose Drawing on value theory, this study aims to explore the perceived value of using energy efficiently amongst a low-income older population group. It aims to provide an empirical exploration of the concept of value-in-behaviour, and, in doing so, identify that it is a logical addition to the extant concepts of value-in-exchange and value-in-use. Design/methodology/approach Exploratory focus group research was conducted to explore older, low-income people’s perceived value towards using energy efficiently in the contexts of their everyday lives. The research was conducted in regional New South Wales, Australia, with 11 focus groups of 59 people (40 females, 19 males) aged over 60 with a personal disposable income below $26,104 per annum. Findings Using this framework, functional, economic and ecological value appeared to be the most pertinent value dimensions for using energy efficiently, while social or emotional value was less relevant. Attention is drawn to how value in using energy efficiently emerges within the everyday contingencies and constraints configured by individual households’ financial, social, material and cultural contexts. These findings suggest that programmes in this area and with similar target groups would benefit from trying to promote and co-create such value. Originality/value The present study provides empirical evidence that consumers in a social marketing context appear to perceive value-in-behaviour in relation to using energy efficiently. This approach inspires social marketers to foster individual behaviour change through a better understanding of how value is created in everyday practices. This builds upon existing work on value in social marketing and suggests that value is an important concept that warrants continued theoretical, empirical and practical exploration.

The importance of customer trust for social marketing interventions: a case of energy-efficiency consumption

“…Introduction Social marketing is described as the application of commercial marketing principles to the analysis, planning, execution and evaluation of programmes designed to influence behaviours that will benefit society (Andreasen, 2006). Although social marketing is not confined to applying commercial marketing principles (French and Russell-Bennett, 2015), its core tenets emulate those of commercial marketing (Butler et al, 2016;Gordon et al, 2018;Lee and Kotler, 2016;Mulcahy et al, 2015). However, since inception, social marketing has largely embraced the transactional paradigm of the commercial marketing toolbox and been slow to adopt its relational thinking (Hastings, 2003;Marques and Domegan, 2011;Díaz Meneses and Rodríguez, 2015).…”

Social marketing through a music festival

“…Overall, this paper contributes to filling a gap in social marketing research by discussing how consumer perceived value is created and exchanged (French and Russell-Bennett, 2015). More specifically, in relation to previous studies in this line of research (Butler et al, 2016;Henderson and Musgrave, 2014;Russell-Bennett et al, 2009;Zainuddin et al, 2011;, this article contributes by applying Holbrook's (1999) theoretical perspective of consumer value to an empirical context. The framework was applicable to an analysis of empirical data, and it helped identify central processes in which consumer value is attained when adopting a new behaviour in the setting of an event.…”

“…A recent conceptualization of consumer value within social marketing (Russell-Bennett et al, 2009) adopted the holistic view of consumer behaviour considered above. This conceptualization was adopted, empirically applied and thus further developed by Zainuddin et al (2011), Zainuddin, Russell-Bennett andPrevite (2013) and Butler et al (2016). This framework is used in this study because: it builds on a theoretical perspective developed within marketing; it applies a process perspective of consumption, which assumes that perceived consumer value varies over time and is important in relation to the study's focus on behaviour influence and maintenance over time; and it supports an experiential view of consumer value and, hence, emphasizes emotional and interactional aspects, which resonate with marketing's theoretical foundation and with the empirical setting examined in this study.…”

Cognitive dissonance revisited

“…As anticipated, the fact that just four participants were sought allowed a time to be scheduled for bringing the requisite participants together that might otherwise have proved problematic (McDaniel and Gates, 2019). And, since the aim of the focus groups was to encourage a vibrant exchange of stories and discussion among participants, four was considered to be a number that would help to facilitate a more vigorous contribution from each person (Butler et al, 2016). Flipchart notes and video were used to record information during the session, with the understanding that, upon completion of the project, they would be destroyed in order to protect the identities of the individuals involved.…”