Social marketing is about an exchange of value. Through changing their behaviour people will usually be giving up one thing in order to gain something else. Consequently, we need to focus on emphasising the positive aspects of desirable behaviours and the negative aspects of problem behaviours.

This key task area involves assessing what your target audience perceive to be the rewards, benefits, costs and barriers (that is, your exchange analysis) associated with the desired and problem behaviours.

The task area also calls for you to identify those other behaviours that may be competing for the time and attention of the audience and to consider where this competition is coming from (competition analysis).

This task area links directly to two NSMC Benchmark Criteria: No. 5 Exchange which emphasises exchange analysis to understand what the person has to give up to get the benefits proposed, and No. 6 Competition, which emphasises competition analysis to understand what competes for the time and attention of the audience.