Consumer behaviour analysis and social marketing practice

From encouraging recycling to promoting ‘safe sex’, social marketing seeks to encourage changes in behaviour that benefit the individual, community, and society at large. To date, however, the discipline has generally been regarded as conceptually weak, relying upon the application of standard marketing management techniques at the expense of any substantive engagement with behavioural change theory. In an attempt to address this apparent gap in understanding, this paper explores the potential of consumer behaviour analysis as a possible theoretical basis for a more robust approach to social marketing practice, taking the behavioural perspective model (BPM) as its elected explanatory framework. Following the introduction of the key elements of the model and their rationale, the paper proceeds to apply the BPM to the interpretation of three broad areas of behavioural intervention: public health, environmental conservation, and neighbourhood crime. On the basis of the interpretive analysis developed, the authors draw some tentative conclusions as to the viability of an ecological approach to social marketing outlining potential directions for future research applying the BPM explanatory framework.