social marketing

Marketing your product/service/idea does not have to be all glitz and glam. It can be educational too. Many times marketers default to using status and jealousy as a social tool to market their products, but isn’t there a better way? Can we have integrity in marketing, in persuasion, and in advertising? Can we educate and teach while also persuading our market audience to abandon a certain behavior and adopt another one?

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Photo by Toni F.

This is a great question as we continue to head in a direction of transparency and 24/7 access to information in this digital age. The one caveat to educational/social marketing is this: the data behind the knowledge being shared must have integrity. This “integrity of data” has become a hot topic as the Climate Research Unit (CRU) has come under fire over the last couple months due to a leak of self-incriminating emails detailing their conspiracy to massage data to point to the outcome they so desperately desired. “The CRUtape letters,” as they are being called brought attention to the fact that, especially in social/environmental matters – the data have integrity!! I reminded of a book I read in grad school – “How to Lie with Statistics,” which highlights the ease at which data can be skewed (using biased formulas) to reach the conclusion desired (with the statistics to back it up). This is important to anyone marketing non-profits services, social good products, and environmental agendas — we must be careful in our persuasion. In social/educational marketing factual integrity is just as important as fictional projection is in advertising that uses jealousy and envy as the social tool…. even though this may be a juxtaposition, it doesn’t make it any less true.

So. Having said all that, I bring to the table a marketing piece by Online Education. I believe this is a great example of persuasive social marketing that has integrity – using a great design and layout to tell their story. While also citing where the information was gathered in the bottom right hand corner, giving the consumer a place to dig deeper.

What do you think?