Author: Tom Bowden-Green
Cars undoubtedly offer many benefits, but they also contribute to pollution and congestion within our cities. Many national and local governments around the world are therefore trying to reduce car use where alternatives are available. The long-term aim is the improvement of public health, through both increased exercise and better air quality.
This type of marketing; for broader public benefits, is often referred to as social marketing. Previous collaboration between practitioners and academics here in Bristol has, for example, included work to increase exercise and reduce alcohol consumption. Social marketing also offers many opportunities to investigate and apply a range of psychological theories outside of a typical academic environment.
From an academic perspective, there are many theories that explain our motivation to drive a car, and likewise our potential motivation to stop. We recently worked with a local authority to understand motivation to drive less according to Self Determination Theory (SDT). SDT is a theory developed many years ago, which differentiates broadly between behaviour that is internally-driven (intrinsic) and that which is guided by external reward or punishment (extrinsic).
Generally-speaking, the theory suggests that intrinsic behaviour is more likely to lead to longer-term commitment. Social marketers seeking changes to behaviour are therefore keen to develop techniques that encourage intrinsic behaviour. In relation to driving, this might mean less reliance on fines and penalties for example.
Overall, our research found that the strongest motive for driving less is ‘identified’ motivation: a blend of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation where a person ‘identifies’ the personal benefit of adopting a new behaviour to meet their own own goals.
We then also sought to understand what communicators can do to encourage such behaviour. For example, the ‘social proof’ principle suggests that behaviour is often adopted when we see others who we perceive as similar to us. Using this principle, communicators often present case studies to encourage others. However, our findings on this project suggest that whilst people are able to recognise the motivation shown by others within case studies, they don’t seem to use motivation as a dimension for judging similarity. This means that whereas people perhaps judge similarity according to gender, they don’t seem to recognise similarity to others according to motivation.
This is an interesting finding which is likely to prompt more research questions and perhaps further studies. In practical terms, it suggests that social marketers ought to focus on presenting case studies that are similar in more obvious ways to the intended audience (e.g. demographically similar). This is a small part of a longer-term challenge though, as researchers continue to search for techniques that encourage internally-driven behaviour to benefit wider society through social marketing.
Dr. Tom Bowden-Green is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and behavioural science researcher at Bristol Business School, UWE Bristol. With over a decade of experience in higher education he is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prior to academia, he spent 11 years in consultancy, ultimately as an Associate Director at Grayling in Bristol. Tom teaches digital marketing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and previously launched and led the MSc Digital Marketing program for five years until 2023. His research focuses on consumer behaviour in online environments, with a particular interest in the influence of personality on social media behaviour. His expertise lies in digital marketing, social media, psychology, and behavioural science.