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Behaviour Change and Corporate Social Responsibility Conference Report 28 & 29 March 2011
IntroductionThe NSMC was established by the Department of Health in 2006 to build capacity and skills in social marketing in the NHS. Over the last four years it has trained over 6000 people, worked with 13 national and international government departments and developed over 30 resources and events on social marketing and behaviour change.
The NSMC has now become a social enterprise and at the end of March it organised a Behaviour Change and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Conference in London. The conference included industry leading speakers from around the globe speaking about how business, government and NGO’s can work together to achieve business objectives and improve society. Unilever, who spoke at the conference are leading the way in this area with their Global Plan aiming to double their business growth while halving their environmental impact.
In addition to the conference The NSMC held a two day Social Marketing Academy accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. The Academy provided an introduction to developing behaviour change programmes using social marketing and all delegates who successfully completed the Academy received The NSMC’s Level 4 Social Marketing Award.
The conference was designed to be a participatory event where delegates had the opportunity to discuss presentations and provide their own views on the issues around CSR and behaviour change. For this reason spaces were limited to a maximum of 75 delegates.
The event attracted delegates from a wide variety of organisations and countries interested in learning more about how they could improve the behavioural impact of their organisation’s CSR programmes. This document provides a summary of the conference proceedings and key recommendations arising from the presentations and delegate discussion groups. Further information about the conference including some of the presentations, videos and handouts are available to download at www.thensmc.com
Delegate feedback‘I was very impressed with all your speakers and found the discussion sessions fascinating.’Lucinda Shaw, Consultant
‘Thank you for inviting me to be part of the conference. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed talking with the audience, especially with the CSR folks since I have not had as much exposure to them’Jeff Jordan, Founder, Rescue Social Change
‘Just a word of thanks again for all your kind assistance during our thoroughly enjoyable stay in London. The conference was extremely interesting for us and the learning will certainly inform our work going forward.’Bess Bezirgan, Senior VP, Social Marketing Ogilvy PR
‘It was a very valuable and productive conference. In particular, I liked the way that it allowed examination of what behaviourchange techniques can bring to private-public partnerships that seek to create genuine social impact work (both positive and negative/risks).More importantly, perhaps, I felt there were many shared areas of interest, collaboration and opportunity with attending delegates.’Lindsay Linton, Director, Advance Behaviour Change
‘It was really well run with some very thought provoking content. The break-out sessions worked particularly well and I hope that you were able to create useful content from the debates.’Cath Lovatt, Social and Local CIC
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Conference Recommendations
Delegates and presenters contributed to a wide range of discussions and sharing of best practice during the conference. The main recommendations from these discussions are presented here:
The public and private sector should share more market intelligence and insight to address common social issues. This should become one of the UK Government’s Responsibility Deal pledges.
We need to encourage organizations to make behaviour change methodologies a key part of their CSR programmes and we need to help CSR professionals build greater capacity in this area. Tom Beall and his colleagues at Ogilvy PR have recently launched a publication ‘From Cause to Change’ on this issue.
There is a need to highlight best practice and learn from it. Unilever’s example should act as a catalyst for other companies to review their entire value chain and to take greater responsibility for the actions of their consumers
Public sector organizations can build more successful and longer term partnerships with private sector organizations if they develop a better understanding of the values behind their missions and brands
Partnerships between public sector, government, NGOS and the private sector work best when there are agreed shared values and purpose
There is a need for all sectors to become more creative in developing new strategies and programmes to influence customer’s behaviours. As well as sharing insight, the public and private sector need to share and combine creative resources.
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Conference Agenda28 March10.00-10.50 Welcome address
The role of social marketing in improving CSR programmes and business objectives John Bromley, Director, The NSMC
11.00-11.45 How government and big business can use behaviour change to address key national challenges. Pat Govender, Managing Director, ACTIVIST SA (A division of DraftfcbSouth Africa)
12.00–12.30 How can the public and private sector work together at a local level to change young people’s drinking behaviour.Tanja Kamin, University of Ljubljana
12.30-13.15 'From cause to change - the business of behaviour' How business should lead on social behaviour change programmesTom Beall, Managing Director, Ogilvy PR
14.15-14.45 Introduction to break out sessions debateWhat is the role of business in improving the health and wellbeing of society?Conference breaks into facilitated workshopsJohn Bromley, The NSMC
14.45-16.30 Working sessions16.30 Sessions closed by NSMC facilitators
29 March10.00 -10.15 Welcoming address
John Bromley, The NSMC 10.15 – 10.45 Working with business to influence health behaviours
Tabitha Brufal, Public Health Responsibility Deal, Department of Health10.45 – 11.15 Government and NGOs - Critical Partnership for People's Welfare
Mika Pyykko, CEO, Finland’s Slot Machine Association
11.35 – 12.05 Real Change or Window Dressing? How CSR campaigns can utilize brands to change behaviour and make a difference with young peopleJeff Jordan, Owner, Rescue Social Change Group, USA
12.05 - 12.40 'Why Unilever are inspiring sustainable living. Unilever's Five Levers for Change.'Matthew Neilson, Global Sustainability, Unilever
13.30-14.15 Working sessions – Review discussions from the previous day and finalise recommendations to the full conference
14.30- 15.45 Presentations from working groups to conference15.45-16.15 Speaker’s Panel discussion responding to working group presentations16.15-16.45 Conference closing address
John Bromley, The NSMC
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Presentation summariesJohn Bromley, The NSMCJohn opened the conference by talking about the need for the public and private sector to work closer together to address a number of the current health and social challenges. He also spoke about the need for CSR programmes to become more effective in their behaviour change initiatives.
Pat Govender, ACTIVIST SA (A division of Draftfcb Social Marketing)Pat discussed the importance of empowerment within South Africa culture, stemming from the fight against apartheid. There was a need to continue that empowerment so the public can become more active participants in society rather than active service recipients. He suggested that all delegates should read the work ‘Coronary Capitalism’ by Kenneth Rogoff and that now, more than ever, there is a need for more creativity in the way in which strategies, products and services are developed to influence behaviour.
Tanja Kamin, University of LjublianaTanja presented a project she was managing on reducing alcohol consumption amongst young women in Slovenia. Their research analysis showed the reasons young women drink were the same across many countries - for social reasons and feeling part of a group rather than the physical effects of drinking. Tanja also suggested that alcohol companies are targeting young people as alcohol sales in older people are declining. Tanja outlined what had gone well and not so well in her project and a number of the lessons learnt for future projects.
Tom Beall, Ogilvy PRTom discussed the need for organisations to take a corporate social marketing approach to enhance their CSR programmes. He suggested that many successful businesses are taking more of an interest in sustainable practices and improving the welfare of their communities. However, while businesses were changing, the behaviour of the public wasn’t and therefore businesses need to review their way of working if they are serious about influencing behaviour. Tom used the Red Dress campaign from the United States as an example about how businesses can influence behaviour for a social goal (reducing the risk of heart disease amongst women).
Tabitha Brufal, Responsibility Deal, Department of HealthTabitha outlined the history behind the launch of the Responsibility Deals and why the coalition government was looking for a new approach to behaviour change other than just legislation (which can take time to implement). She also outlined the different Responsibility Deals that are in place across government and a number of the programmes that are part of the Public Health Deal.
Mikka Pykka, Finland Slot Machine Association (RAY)Mikka provided an overview of the Slot Machine Association , the leading funder of NGOs in Finland. Mikka also spoke about some of the main social issues facing Finland and RAY’s efforts to support the introduction of a social marketing approach to address these issues..
Matthew Neilson, UnileverMatthew spoke about why Unilever launched their sustainability plan and its goal of cutting the organisations carbon footprint by half while doubling the size of its business. By reviewing its value chain (from sourcing resources to disposing of consumer waste) Unilever has worked to understand how the organisation can reduce its environmental impact. This has helped the company to reduce costs improve relationships with suppliers and strengthen its brand’s reputation. Matthew spoke about the 5 levers they use when running behaviour change programmes.
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Jeff Jordan, Social Rescue Change GroupJeff spoke about 4 myths surrounding behaviour change programmes and the difference between between preference change (choosing a product over a competitor’s product) and behaviour change. Jeff made the key point that with young people in particular, identity and who you are is a more powerful motivator than what you know. He suggested that to influence behaviour through identity you need to understand the culture that groups of young people identify with and who the key influencers are within that culture.
Discussion group summariesDelegates and presenters were split into 5 different groups to discuss the morning presentations and two topics around behaviour change and CSR. The first topic all the groups discussed was an activity presented by Business in the Community around the importance of behaviour change programmes fitting with an organisation’s or products brand values. The activity was of particular interest to delegates from the public sector as a way of selecting which commercial organisations they should look to partner with and what exchange they could offer to fit with their brand values.
The five different topics and the key points raised in the discussions are outlined below
1. What are the benefits and barriers of Public health organisations engaging with commercial organisations
One barrier to partnership working is that it can take a long time to get approval for a public sector organization to work with the private sector, often because of the long lead times needed to seek ethical approval. Can this be improved so opportunities are not missed?
Public health organisations should relook at the benefits they offer businesses to form partnerships as they have been similar for a number of years (e.g. that the organization achieves better productivity with a healthier workforce etc)?
Should one of the ideas for the Responsibility Deal Pledges be that organisations share their research and insight?
Public health training should include marketing (and that commercial marketing should include social marketing)
2. Doing less harm or doing more good - Are there companies that cannot get involved in corporate social responsibility?
The group discussed whether all companies could get involved in some aspect of CSR, for example weapons companies could support military families of wounded soldiers, tobacco companies could increase the yield of tobacco and other crops and fossil fuel energy suppliers could look to switch to providing renewable energy and seek to reduce energy consumption within their customers. The discussion also looked at whether this was CSR or just offsetting damaging business practices and that organisations can’t demonstrate good CSR practices just some of the time.
Governments are compromised when working to reduce the harm caused by a number of companies products as they also benefit through taxes on a number of the products
Many companies are selling products that people don’t need (e.g. more chocolates or clothes) and therefore they are contributing to excessive consumption. The Patagonia clothing company has launched a campaign encouraging people to recycle and not buy new clothes (while also positioning the brand so that it is high quality and will never wear out!)
Many people in the public sector are risk averse and therefore will not engage with private organisations to develop new partnerships and behaviour change initiatives.
The group defined CSR as ‘Operating the core business in a socially responsible way complemented by investment in communities for solid business reasons’
3. Can CSR programmes be consumer rather than organisation led?
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CSR programmes are primarily organisation led rather then consumer led - is that because consumers can’t articulate what should be in a CSR programme or that they are not interested in leading a programme?
People aren’t used to leading CSR programmes: how can we prepare and support people to do so if an organization wants to take this approach?
How do companies currently create social missions? It is usually around a popular issue rather than a less popular issue like gonorrhea! They are also created to provide competitive advantage and are based around the organizations core business practices and values
More companies are asking consumers to lead product design through social media – can this be translated into CSR Programmes?
However companies need to be transparent in their decision making and commitments as consumers are becoming more vocal and can damage brand reputations
Should consumers lead at all – is equal collaboration between partners and stakeholders more important and has more impact than consumer led programmes?
4. Window dressing or behaviour change – Why do companies undertake CSR and are they serious about social behaviour change in their customers?
CSR needs to focus on sustainable social indicators as well as the corporate objectives if it is to be more than a PR campaign
Are CSR programme objectives the same as business objectives e.g. to increase sales and profits, decrease costs, increase brand loyalty and market share, employee engagement etc?
In South Africa the private sector is seen as part of the solution rather than just the case of the problem which is often the opinion of the public sector in the UK
CSR programmes need to re-learn marketing and not be afraid to make mistakes when trying new programmes – it is learning from the mistakes that is important
The public sector needs to be as introspective and demonstrate as much attention to detail as the private sector – it often thinks it does but it often doesn’t have the time or the motivation
The outcomes for CSR programmes should be social (e.g. measurable health benefits) and commercial (increased profit, new audiences, higher use of products, engaged customers, competitive advantage)
5. What are the key lessons of partnership working between private and public sector organisations
There is a need to have terminology that works for both sides of the partnership (e.g. the word campaign – good or bad?)
There needs to be a shared purpose with no confusion or misalignment of goals with specific mutually agreed objectives and costs
There also needs to be a focus on retaining good behaviours as well as problem solving It has to be focused on more than just operations to be a strategic long term partnership There is a need to mitigate against personnel change and the size imbalance that
sometimes occurs between partnering organisations Partnerships work best when partners learn from each other and are not afraid of trying new
ideas. Overcoming risk aversion in the partnership is critical Clarity, respect, clear communication and shared values need to be at heart of any
partnership and a clear contract or terms of partnership need to be agreed Partners need to clearly define their vision of success and how it is evaluated, for the
partnership and for each individual partner. They also need to agree how each partner can contribute to each other’s success
Concluding remarks
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The final session of the conference offered the presenters an opportunity to respond to the findings from the discussion groups and provide any final concluding remarks
Tom Beall concluded by suggesting that no category of partner (public or private sector) are totally good or totally bad and that organizations need to judge on a case by case basis who they partner with. Tom also referred back to Tabitha Brufal’s presentation when he reminded delegates that people do business with people and not with organizations and their reputations. Tom concluded by suggesting that we often focus too much on the differences in partnerships rather than seeking and maintaining a shared purpose
Tanja Kamin called for more cooperation between NGOs as well as with the private sector and that fellow NGOs should not demonize other NGOs if they choose to work with the private sector. Tanja concluded that we need to think about empowerment issues for many of our target audiences and how we can make life easier for them
Pat Govender concluded that behaviour change training is crucial for those running CSR programmes and that the whole reason why we are working in this field is to improve people’s lives and we must remember that focus.
Matthew Neilson suggested that historically marketing has been used to create aspirations and dreams, which are now being questioned. As well as creating them, marketing can help relocate those dreams to achieve sustainability and improve people’s lives. The public sector has an important role in working in partnership to achieve this.
Jeff Jordan suggested that businesses should continue to change products to make things easier for the public to achieve social goals. However he also suggested that it should not be only down to the private sector and thatthe public sector should also come up with new products and services. He concluded by agreeing with Tom Beall that the public and private sectors need to find shared purposes and to work to improve each other’s strengths
Mika Pykka concluded by saying what he had learnt from the Conference and what he would do differently when he returned to Finland. He would encourage the NGOs his organization funds to work more in partnership with the private sector and he would look to develop a marketing education programme for NGOs
John Bromley concluded the event by suggesting that often the main difference between the private and the public sector is scale and that governments could benefit from looking at how multinational companies like Unilever are achieving significant results across multiple countries .
For more information on the conference and the work of The NSMC visit www.thensmc.com
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