Alcohol social marketing in-depth

What are the key stages involved?

In line with all good planning and development tools, social marketing has key stages. The diagram below summarises these in the National Social Marketing Centre's 'total process planning model'.

The front end 'scoping' stage needs to drive the whole process. The primary concern is with establishing clear, actionable and measurable behaviour goals to ensure focused development across the rest of the process. Social marketing programmes are ultimately measured against behaviour change.

Social marketing uses audience insight. It is critical to understand the importance attached to understanding where the audience is starting from, their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, along with the social context in which they live and work in order to determine what levers can influence their behaviour. Some of this work has already been undertaken by the Department of Health and this insight and segmentation can be used to support local activity. See section 'How to carry out your own social marketing activity'.

The National Social Marketing Centre now has a showcase of best-practice examples, including the Alcohol Strategy, at www.nsmcentre.org.uk .

How can social marketing tackle higher risk alcohol use?

Social marketing can be an effective tool in tackling and changing the behaviour of higher risk drinkers. By identifying different types of higher risk drinkers, we can get a deep understanding of the kind of people they are. This means looking at not only why they drink, but other factors in their lives - for example, where they live, what media they consume, how they spend their money and what motivates them to think about their own health.

By identifying different kinds of drinkers, we can target those who are risking their health the most. By getting an insight into their lives, we can try and engage them in a way that they can relate to and encourage them to change their behaviour so that they can reduce their drinking to lower risk. For example, Lincolnshire PCT found that although dependent drinkers might contact alcohol services, higher risk drinkers would be more likely to access information online. This knowledge helped them to develop a website that helped higher risk drinkers to evaluate how much they drank and to get help with cutting down. See the case study for more information.

The impact of social marketing on higher risk drinking can be measured in a number of ways - for example, increased awareness of services amongst the target audience, the take up of treatment or a fall in alcohol-related hospital admissions.

Stages of behaviour change

Social marketing uses behavioural theories, one of which is the stages of change model. This model recognises that audiences fit into different 'stages of change' or likelihood to respond or change behaviour. The stages are listed below along with examples of how higher risk drinkers might behave at these stages:

• Pre-contemplation: these people aren't concerned about their drinking and are not thinking about changing
• Contemplation: these people might be aware that they are drinking too much and could be thinking that they need to do something to change
• Preparation: these people are thinking about changing their behaviour and are getting ready to act - for example, they may have picked up a leaflet about alcohol use or found out where they could get help
• Action: these people are doing something about their drinking. They may have attended an appointment with their GP or an alcohol service
• Maintenance: these people are no longer higher risk drinkers. They are drinking at lower risk levels
• Transformation/closure: these people have remained lower risk drinkers. Low risk drinking is now normal behaviour for them