The benefits put forward by a nonprofit organisation or community group can quite often be different to the aims and goals present in the minds of its stakeholders.
While there is strong pressure in the charity sector to deliver a powerful response while using minimal resources, marketing expert Nancy Schwartz says that it is possible to deliver informative and motivating programs that do not conflict with these different viewpoints.
At the Connecting Up Conference 2012, Ms Schwartz gave the example of an anti-littering campaign executed by community organisations in the US state of Texas.
In a large state that contains a substantial number of roadways, the volume of rubbish thrown out the windows of moving vehicles by drivers and passengers was reaching troubling levels.
With a little research, the charity organisations found that the greatest contributors to the roadside trash were young males aged between 16 and 25 years old.
Appealing to their sense of civic duty or environmental responsibility may have worked with a different audience, but given demographic there was a distinct possibility that such messaging would be met with polite indifference at best – and outright dismissal at worst.
Instead, the team responsible for marketing chose to deliver a branded communication that spoke to them on a different level – the image of Texan manhood.
A number of well-known male celebrities hailing from the state were contacted to lend their voice and imagery to the campaign, which put forward the consistent message that 'real men' did their bit for the Lone Star state and that You Don't Mess With Texas.
The result was much better than could have been expected with other, more civically-oriented messaging and channels - young men started actively extolling the clean message on their peers and took it as a note of pride that they disposed of their waste in a responsible manner.
In turn this has become something of a self-sustaining campaign - as young people get to the age where they are legally allowed to drive, their older counterparts take it upon themselves to make sure that they follow their lead and keep the streets free of clutter.
This is a great example of how effective a breakthrough marketing message can be - with the right amount of planning and research into the attitudes and behaviours that are to be targeted, a cultural shift can not only be promoted - it can be sustained indefinitely.
