Macro-Social Marketing Insights

Systems Thinking for Wicked Problems

Ann-Marie Kennedy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429839290
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Macro-social marketing is an approach to solving wicked problems. Wicked problems include obesity, environmental degradation, smoking cessation, fast fashion, gambling, and drug and alcohol abuse. As such, wicked problems are those problems that are so complex and multifaceted, it is difficult to define the exact problem, its contributing factors, and paths to a solution. Increasingly, governments, NGOs, and community groups are seeking to solve these types of problems. In doing so, the issues with pursuing macro-level change are beginning to emerge. Issues stem from the interconnected nature of stakeholders involved with a wicked problem—where one change may create a negative ripple effect of both intended and unintended consequences.

Macro-social marketing, then, provides a holistic and systemic approach to both studying and solving wicked problems. Within the chapters of this book, macro-social marketing approaches to analysing and defining wicked problems, to identifying stakeholders and potential ripple effects, and to implementing macro-level change are presented. In this emerging area of academia, the theories, models, and approaches outlined in this book are cutting edge and provide a critical approach from top researchers in the area. Both practical and theoretical aspects are presented as well as caveats on such societal and/or country-wide change. A must-have for social marketing academics and those interested in macro-level change at a practical or theoretical level.

1 Macro-Social Marketing Overview

Ann-Marie Kennedy

Introduction

Social marketing is evolving from a strictly individual-based approach to behaviour change. Traditionally the individual was assumed to be in control of their behaviour, and thus pure exchange and persuasion were considered “de rigueur.” Ultimately, however, difficulty in identifying sustainable change from interventions, unintended consequences, victim blaming, and created stigmas has led to an acknowledgement that a person may not be in complete control of their own behaviour—as is the case with wicked problems.

Wicked problems are complex, multi-layered issues, such as obesity, which have multiple causes, perpetuating factors, and solutions. Each intervention also has the potential for positive and negative unintended consequences, making intervention planning difficult (Kennedy & Parsons, 2014). They require a holistic, systemic approach to create change and a recognition of the embeddedness of an individual in their social context. Macro-social marketing considers social change in a holistic manner and is especially pertinent with wicked problems. Macro-level social marketing proposes that such issues should be approached holistically, at multiple levels concurrently—micro, meso and macro. As such, “macro-social marketing seeks to use social marketing techniques in a holistic way to effect systemic change, as opposed to individual level change” (Kennedy, 2016, p. 354).

Since the first mentions of the words “macro-social marketing” by Domegan (2008), the area has blossomed with theoretical and methodological development. Multi-level perspective (MLP) theory, behavioural ecology, institutional theory, and mechanism, action, structure (MAS) theory (Layton, 2015) are among those theories that have been applied to solving wicked problems through macro-level social marketing. While these seem broad, authors have one thing in common—they all apply a systems perspective to the area. So consistent is this view that Domegan has coined the term systems social marketing (SSM) (Domegan & Layton, 2015) as the overall approach to macro-level social marketing. This book sets out to showcase the latest thinking in macro-social marketing. But first, this chapter will provide an overview of the field thus far. The major theoretical developments in macro-social marketing for wicked problems will first be explored, followed by the current methodologies to approach macro-level change. Lastly, an overview of the book’s chapters is provided and linked to aid the reader.

Social Ecology

Applying social ecology to social marketing, Collins, Tapp, and Pressley (2010) were some of the first to apply systems-related theory to holistically address wicked problems. While not directly referring to wicked problems, they noted the complexity of problems such as obesity. Ultimately, the application of systems thinking called for social marketers to address the broader social context of an issue rather than focusing on individuals (Stokols, 1994). Individuals do not always have the ability to change perpetuating factors contributing to their obesity or addiction, etc. (Hastings, MacFayden, & Anderson, 2000), and this can create stigma and victim blaming (Green, 1984). As a response, Collins et al. (2010) applied social ecology theory.

Social ecology looks at the context or system surrounding an individual throughout their life—all the social influences in their environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). For instance, at the micro level, a person’s family and friends are seen to influence them. At the meso level, the influences include their school, community, church, and workplace (to name a few), while at the exosystem level, influences can arise from their political, legal, and economic contexts, along with the media. The final macrosystem level is the culture and belief system which shapes the other levels (Bronfenbrenner, 1994).

Using this theory and the work of Gregson et al. (2001), Stokols (1994), and Dresler-Hawke and Veer (2006) in the area, they present their social ecology framework. The framework explains what information needs to be collected at each level and suggests research methods to achieve that. The information should then be theorised as either facilitating the desired behaviour change (positive) or obstructing it (negative). For each combination of positives and negatives, the authors provide social marketers with specific questions to explore what levels and aspects marketers should seek to influence.

Brennan, Previte, and Fry (2016) specifically apply the behavioural ecological model to wicked problems. They advocate it as a relational approach to change versus persuasion for individual change, which assumes rationality (Spotswood & Tapp, 2013). Their discussion of customer myopia explains that social marketers have focused on people as customers, ignoring the influence of social context on their behaviour (Smith, Drumwright, & Gentile, 2010). They suggest social marketers must partner with multiple organisations at multiple levels of the social system to ensure long-term change. They combine systems thinking with behavioural ecology, furthering the original hierarchical model to one in which the individual is embedded within the ecological layers. Layers are interrelated and intertwined, causing ripple effects from interventions. Social marketers are then encouraged to look at the way subsystems relate and interact with one another, especially addressing the actors within the subsystems.

Population Health Views

Taking a population health perspective to change, Hoek and Jones (2011) also advocate that environmental factors in an individual’s life need to be addressed to support change—rejecting the myth of individual responsibility. They suggest that uniting upstream and downstream interventions and partnering with public health specialists would drive more effective change for wicked problems. They see social marketing as a continuum from downstream to upstream interventions instead of as separate forms of interventions. The type of interventions is dictated by a policy maker’s amount of enthusiasm for them. Hoek and Jones (2011) adeptly debate the myth of individual responsibility and the need for contextual and environmental intervention for behaviour change in areas such as obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, and smoking.

Also taking a population health view, Koch and Orazi (2017) consider the epidemic life cycle of soft drink and tobacco consumption. They propose that both commercial marketing and socio-economic factors drive wicked consumer behaviour (such as consumption of high calorie food and drinks), which leads to wicked health problems such as non-communicable diseases (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease). Their framework uses consumption data to uncover the unfurling cycle of use of these products and the stages at which intervention can occur. Specifically, they

contend that the rise, stagnation and decline of tobacco and soft drink consumption follow a systematic pattern akin to an epidemic life cycle, whose outbreak is induced by the marketing activities of global manufacturers and reduced or enhanced by the timing and intensity of upstream interventions informed by medical research. The epidemic life cycle of wicked consumption behaviors follows four stages.

(p. 362)

These stages are 1) epidemic breakout; 2) epidemic multiplication; 3) epidemic intervention and host reaction; and 4) epidemic extinction or co-existence.

Systems Views

In a review of the evolution of systems social marketing, Brychkov and Domegan (2017) take an historical approach to the literature and periodise the integration of systems thinking with social marketing. They identify three periods: 1) 1950s–early 1970s, with initial use of systems in marketing; 2) late 1970s–1990s, with the beginnings of use of systems thinking in social marketing; and 3) 2000s–present, with “[d]eep integration of social marketing and systems science” (p. 79). As such, articles which use systems directly for social marketing for theory development are reviewed here, which take place from 2000 onwards, though such work clusters after 2010.

Systems thinking was applied by Kennedy and Parsons (2012) to the case of Canadian anti-smoking campaigns from 1985–2009. The Canadian government undertook a systematic approach to behaviour change that focused on the micro (individual), meso (organisational), and macro (structural) levels all at once, with several interventions. Their interventions took a systemic approach to block tobacco companies from successfully marketing tobacco products while also considering structural and individual support for change, limiting facilitating factors. Through de-marketing, in the form of increasing taxes on tobacco products to control price; limiting the places and retail display options; banning advertising and promotion; and limiting product development, availability, and packaging, the Canadian government led the way in tobacco control policy that most countries now follow.

Domegan and colleagues have championed further application of systems thinking to social marketing. Their 2016 article (Domegan et al., 2016) defines a system as being “made up of structures, actors, behaviours, motivations, values, activities and actions that have social, cultural, political and psychological characteristics” (p. 1125). Their approach to systems is based largely on Layton’s work and theory in the area of systems. However, unlike previous studies, they concern themselves less with interventions, and more with causation of a wicked problem. They use interactive management (IM – Warfield, 1974) to research “interactions among the parts of the system, the connections, the pathways and what to work on” (p. 1127) and discover failures in social mechanisms (from Layton’s Mechanisms, Action, Structure (MAS) theory – Layton, 2015).

Following Domegan and Layton’s (2015) contention that social mechanisms, strategic action fields, and value co-creation (from MAS theory – Layton, 2015) can explain the causal dynamics of social marketing interventions, Layton’s MAS theory (Layton, 2015) was used by Kennedy (2016) in her theoretical conceptualisation of macro-social marketing. Using the case of fast fashion, Kennedy combines MAS theory and institutional theory to provide an explanation of the process of macro-level change. As such, a system includes both economic-task norms (e.g., that define expectations and boundaries for behaviour for businesses and marketers) as well as cultural-moral institutional norms (which provide meaning systems, symbolic meaning, and constitutive rules). Strategic action fields, such as social marketing interventions, can then be used to influence and change norms perpetuating a wicked problem. Interventions need to be undertaken at multiple levels in an iterative process over a longer period of time for norms to gradually change.

Using an alternative systems theory—MLP theory—Kemper and Ballantine (2017) take a different theoretical view of macro-level social marketing. Focusing on obesity, they propose a theoretical framework that explains how social marketing can be used to replace, reduce, or eliminate facilitators of a wicked problem. These social marketing interventions would be directed to challengers or incumbents to bring about change. Such change comes with promoting niche solutions and sabotaging regimes that perpetuate the wicked problem. Interventions include creating adaptive capacity and landscape pressures as well as undertaking up-, mid-, and downstream social marketing.

Cherrier and Gurrieri (2014) provide a qualitative study using Giddens’ structuration theory. They uncover the institutions surrounding alcohol consumption and suggest interventions through down-, mid-, and upstream social marketing concurrently. They provide a framework of the social marketing system of interaction which suggests that institutional orders at the upstream/macro level might surround the themes of signification, domination, and legitimation. Through interpretive schemes, resources, and norms, individuals were able to use communication, sanctions, and their own power to abstain from alcohol for a month.

Methodological Developments

Beyond theoretical developments in the area, there have also been methodological developments in macro-level and systems social marketing. Domegan et al. (2016) provide a methodology for systems thinking social marketing for wicked problems based on interactive management (IM) software. They use their study on issues occurring within a European marine ecosystem to map out the barriers to change as collected using their IM method. The IM software allows groups of stakeholders to map their thoughts and potential actions for change even with diverse and contradictory people. It uses trigger questions to develop discussion and then voting to create structural barrier maps and ways of overcoming those barriers. Duane, Domegan, McHugh, and Devaney (2016) also use IM methodology to extend the area. They consider the case of obesity and use IM to map the structural barriers and influences for long-term behaviour change. Specifically, they map the complex webs and chains of exchange surrounding the behavioural change reality programme “Operation Transformation” in Ireland. Their map allows social marketers to identify key areas for intervention to plan strategy.

Kennedy, Kapitan, Bajaj, Bakonyi, and Sands (2017) extend Camillus’ (2008) work by incorporating systems theory from Layton (2014) to provide a framework for identifying wicked problem actors, system structure, and intervention points. Using the case of fast fashion, they propose that the social mechanisms that drive system actors first need to be identified as exchange, specialisation, scale and strategic choice, uncertainty reduction, or systems transition. Once these drivers have been identified, the role of the actor should be defined as either an Incumbent, Challenger, or Governance unit, and their shared narratives used to understand the total system dynamics and areas for change.

Moving on from qualitative case studies, Domegan, McHugh, Biroscak, Bryant, and Calis (2017) apply non-linear causal modelling in the forms of fuzzy cognitive mapping, collective intelligence, and systems dynamics modelling to wicked problem dynamics mapping. They find that these forms of modelling allow for practical mapping of wicked problems when their data is collected through participatory measures allowing for strategic planning of multi-level social marketing interventions. Most recently, McHugh, Domegan, and Duane (2018) provide a participatory method to map system actors and plan for their involvement in macro and systemic change research programmes. Their seven protocols for stakeholder participation include 1) analysing boundaries of relevant systems, 2) creating a working party, 3) identifying stakeholders, 4) classif...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• 1 Macro-Social Marketing Overview
• 2 Systems and Macro-Social Marketing: Researching Wicked Problems
• 3 Macro-Social Marketing as a Tool to Increase the Share of Renewable Energy in Developing Island Nations
• 4 Using the Socio-Ecological Model as an Holistic Approach to Behavioural Change
• 5 The Power of ‘Talk’: Frames and Narratives in Macro-Social Marketing
• 6 Macro-Level Interventions in Systems of Wicked Consumption
• 7 Macro-Social Marketing and the Complexity of Value Co-Creation
• 8 Social Marketing’s Contribution to Macro-Social Policy and Economics, Beyond Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream Analysis
• 9 Co-Creating Social Change Using Human-Centred Design
• 10 Collaborative Systems Thinking for Social Change
• 11 Ethical Dimensions of Social Marketing and Social Change
• 12 Social Engineering and Social Marketing
• 13 Warmth Rationing as a Macro-Social Problem: The Application of the Chrematistics Framework
• List of Contributors
• Index