Developing benchmark criteria for assessing community-based social marketing programs: A look into Jack Johnson’s “All at Once” campaign
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to propose that increased guidance on the implementation of social marketing principles for sustainability issues can advance both implementation and empirical evaluation. The primary goal of this paper is to ignite further empirical investigation of social marketing for sustainability by first presenting benchmark criteria for one social marketing model – community-based social marketing (CBSM) – and second, applying this framework to the case study of musician Jack Johnson’s “All at Once” (AAO) campaign.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is twofold. First, based on Doug McKenzie-Mohr’s CBSM model, a series of 21 benchmarks for assessing the key components of an effective CBSM initiative was developed. Second, this tool was applied to information gathered from Jack Johnson’s extensive outreach promoting AAO initiatives including reports, videos as well as interviews and in-person meetings with the Jack Johnson team.
Findings
Application of the benchmark criteria to the Jack Johnson case study showed that seven out of the 21 benchmarks were integrated into the AAO campaign; seven were partially integrated and seven were not integrated in the program’s design. In particular, the use of commitments, incentives, norms and social diffusion was clearly present as was a final evaluation of the full-scale implementation of the campaign.
Originality/value
The CBSM benchmarks are meant as a starting point to further assess and compare the effectiveness of CBSM initiatives. Further research should be done to explore how criteria should be weighted and which of the 21 principles need to be present in the design and implementation of an effective CBSM program.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the support received from the Jack Johnson team as well as from Dr Doug McKenzie-Mohr who provided valuable feedback on our proposed CBSM benchmark criteria. The authors would like acknowledge the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo for its financial support toward the All at Once case study.
Citation
Lynes, J., Whitney, S. and Murray, D. (2014), "Developing benchmark criteria for assessing community-based social marketing programs: A look into Jack Johnson’s “All at Once” campaign", Journal of Social Marketing, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 111-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-08-2013-0060
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited