Behavioural economics and social marketing: long-time bedfellows?

If policymakers and service providers changed ourselves rather than the public, could we achieve lasting behaviour change?

According to Dr Bill Smith, the answer is emphatically yes. Posing the question at today's NSMC breakfast seminar, Behavioural economics and social marketing – lessons from the US, the American social marketing expert argued that the public services are too focused on trying to alter consumers.

By looking for ways in which the public can act differently, we miss opportunities to do things differently ourselves. Changing our services and looking at how they are provided can lead to refreshingly simple adjustments which have a dramatic impact.

Bill explained to the audience of strategists, commissioners and policy leads from across the public sector that social marketers and behavioural economists tend to make four mistakes. We think too much; overcomplicate things; know too little about the provision and delivery of our policies; and design programmes and services for ourselves, rather than for those we serve. And we are just as prone to irrational, idiosyncratic behaviour as everyone else.

This leads us to be surprised when our services and interventions fail to have an impact on people's behaviour. Our beautifully-designed literature, our sensible information and our clear signage – informed by the supportive quotes we hear in our focus groups – somehow miss the mark.

Luckily, there are three things we can do to change this. We should focus on observing people's actual behaviour wherever we can. This will teach us the behavioural 'cues' and rewards that we can employ to prompt the changes we want to see. It will also help us make the changes 'fun, easy and popular'. After all, as behavioural economists and social marketers know, people don't behave rationally. Our attention is short; we are attracted to clear rewards; we'll do things if they are easy; and we'll do what other people are doing.

So instead of putting up a sign to encourage people to recycle – which is universally ignored – we cue people to use the recycling bins by asking the catering staff at the snack bar to encourage customers to do so. We know this will work because the few people who did recycle their rubbish told us that they did so because their wives told them to.

Bill's message resonated with the seminar participants, many seeing relevance to the UK perspective. Progress in sustainable energy use, for example, could perhaps be made if policymakers focused on the electricians, builders and other tradespeople who fit appliances and provide efficiency measures, rather than on household behaviour. And maybe energy consumers could be encouraged to switch to better value contracts if we stopped trying to compete with their existing providers and offered them an attractive, simple alternative.

The participants left the seminar inspired to put Bill's lessons into practice. If you would like to find out more, download Bill's presentation here or get in touch.