Social Marketing is the application of commercial practices using a social science framework. It is particularly used for public information campaigns. The aim is to understand social behaviour and affect positive social change. This is done through targeted research on a particular community and in partnership with stakeholders.

Social scientists work with governments, community groups and businesses who need to communicate with hard to reach or vulnerable groups.

Examples of social marketing campaigns include:

• Reducing road fatalities;
• Introducing public health campaigns;
• Informing people about complying with new laws;
• Educating marginalised groups, such as new migrants and refugees, where to find social services.

In one of my research projects, we used social marketing to study how vulnerable consumers understand where to find support to manage finances and debt. We analysed data from 120 semi-structured in-depth interviews with people receiving welfare from Australia’s national social security service provider. The welfare types we studied include: disability; youth; unemployed; aged; single parent; and partnered parent.

The interviews covered people’s attitudes towards debt. This includes: how individuals define debt, how they classify their debts according to acceptability, and why the participants fail to see some liable consumer practices such as credit and mortgages as debt.

We also explored how the participants understood their social welfare reporting obligations, which require them to report their income to their social security provider. Higher earnings impact welfare payment entitlements, and can incur debt if recipients under-report, as they are then required to repay this debt.

Our research shows that vulnerable consumers are aware of reporting requirements, but they knowingly under-report income because they are overwhelmed with basic living costs and other debts.

We explored how existing public marketing campaigns communicate rules and policies. We find that many campaigns rely on negative emotions, specifically shame and guilt, however, these are ineffective in improving compliance, as negative emotions only resonate with people who already comply with rules, and have the means, opportunity, and motivation to do the right thing.

We argue that it’s better to first approach the group of interest using interviews and surveys to see how they understand compliance issues, and then focus marketing on empowerment. Rather than making people feel bad, we focus on what they do well and then educate them about their options.

Our study makes recommendations about how social marketing can be applied to potentially assist vulnerable consumers receiving social welfare.

The study was headed by Professor Linda Brennan, and co-authored by myself and Wayne Binney.