"Trouble. I'm going to cause lots of trouble!" "Hot damn! Can we help too?" "Absolutely. Now get close and listen carefully ...."
OH OH!
In the Puget Sound area are three pods (K, L, and J) of "Resident" Orcas, 88 in all, and they only eat salmon. Most Orcas eat all sorts of sea life. The residents are Endangered and studied and cared for like crazy. Here is a young calf from last year (There were three.) She survived the first year and so gets a name. Jade! (Her mother and grandmother are named after gems too!)
This is the book I used for the workshop. I (and several others) got three days of training from Nancy Lee to prepare us. Nancy is from Seattle and one of the major names in this field.
In "text book" Social Marketing you select a very specific behavior (that will provide a benefit to society) that you want a very targeted audience to take on/change. You then create a very focused campaign, using quite standard marketing concepts and tools, to overcome barriers and encourage the audience. Measuring the cost of the campaign and also the amount of behavior change that was achieved is key.
Most shelters and rescues do conduct marketing campaigns aimed at some particular audience. Specific desired behaviors often involve providing a home for a shelter bunny or not buying a pet rabbit without careful study. Either provides a benefit to society. So that fits good, although the audience-definition is often broad and vague.
One component that does not work so well is the measurement part - I don't think the campaigns usually set targets for how many will be forever homed or not bought in the first place. I suspect the cost to forever home a bunny is not known, for example. The details of the campaigns are also not usually very precise and razor sharp. Posters, websites, presentations, or event displays usually have a lot of information such that the specific behavior desired is not crystal clear. The campaigns use the words on the posters and websites to try to motivate the audience, but good social marketing uses a broad variety of incentives and motivators, besides words.
If you work with a rescue organization, you might look into the details - especially some of the examples in the book - and I bet you can create some very effective campaigns to get one those behaviors; and measure the results and have a lot of happy customers!
There. RG's One-Minute Prescription! Go ahead and use the Comments to tell about your experiences/plans/observations. Some bunn will love you for it!
