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Water Lecture Series 2004: Social Marketing for Social Change Watch Video Connection Speed: High Speed Low Speed Audio    Event Title : Water Lecture Series 2004: Social Marketing for Social Change Date : 3/24/2004 Duration : 93 minutes Language  : English Country/Region : World Keyword :  Knowledge Sharing  Water Supply and Sanitation   Presenter : Alan  Andreasen Paul Mitchell Jamal Saghir | Related Material | Recommendations |Related B-SPAN Videos |  DESCRIPTION  This year’s Water and Sanitation Lecture Series has focused on reaching out to water customers and representing them in a world where there are many issues competing for the attention of policymakers. During this event, Jamal Saghir, Director, Energy and Water Department, World Bank, noted the importance of feedback from end-consumers as the World Bank expands its water and sanitation initiatives. He noted the need to understand consumer perceptions and expectations and said that many customers are willing to pay for beverages such as beer or cola at full cost recovery, but are unwilling to pay for partial cost recovery of water resources. Throughout the event, the focus was on improving the social components of communications with World Bank clients to understand their resistance to change. After Saghir’s opening remarks, Alan Andreasen, Professor, Georgetown University, presented an overview of social marketing and how understanding this approach can improve the health of the water sector. He began by noting that marketing is the development of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of a target audience. He then defined social marketing as the design of programs (using commercial marketing concepts and tools) to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences to achieve social objectives. Andreasen suggested that there are three key requirements for social marketing: the proper mindset, an effective process, and useful concepts and tools. In regards to the proper mindset, he said that it is essential to understand your customers orientation as they will determine your success. You must let them know what is in it for them. Therefore, it is of major importance to remain focused on the audience rather than on organization-centered communications which often explain the wrong benefits to the wrong people. To do so requires an in-depth understanding of audience behavior as well as the stages and drivers of behavior. He stated that social marketing is not just about selling or education, rather it is a two-way tool to find out the issues, what people think, mitigate risks, and manage expectations. Afterward, Paul Mitchell, Manager, Communications Development, World Bank, commented on the application of social marketing to the water and sanitation sector and described how his department as applied social marketing principles in developing countries. He noted that water and sanitation programs are no longer viewed as simply infrastructure investment programs. He said that the World Bank does not invest in projects if it is not expecting something to happen in return. This has led to involvement in political processes of working with governments and the private sector. He noted that almost all activity in the water and sanitation sector is about change at the political level to get policies approved and at the individual level to get people to pay for rate increases. Therefore, social marketing is an important part of the entire process of implementing water and sanitation programs. He then commented on the importance of bringing this expertise into World Bank teams. He said that in order to provide good service, you must build the base of support for future reforms and you must address the political aspects. None of these processes can be successful without the inclusion of the others.  RELATED MATERIALS   Andreasen’s PowerPoint presentation 2004 Water Supply and Sanitation Lecture Series Water Supply and Sanitation at the World Bank RELATED B-SPAN EVENTS Knowledge Sharing (82) Water Supply and Sanitation (31) RELATED WORLD BANK LINKS Urban Water Supply in Emerging Economies: Lessons from Our Practical Experience B-SPAN coverage of Water Week 2004