BOOK REVIEW
Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide
Author: Nedra Kline Weinreich
Reviewed by: Steve Menzies
Brief overview of book:
OK – I’d better fess up at the start…. I am a low down and dirty social marketing plagiarist.
Back at the beginning of 2004 I was twiddling my thumbs in Wellington when some husky voiced Samoan man rang up and asked if I could run a 2-week workshop on social marketing for about 10 people working on environmental education in the Pacific Islands.
“And can you be in Fiji on Friday?”
“Ahh….yes …Friday??...Fiji you say???…. Hmm…well of course I’m sure something could be arranged!!”
I had some experience managing national campaigns in New Zealand. But what I suddenly needed was a simple, straightforward, resource that could help people get a handle on the basic concepts of how to plan their own social marketing campaign on a shoe string.
Enter stage left Nedra Kline Weinreich’s “Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide”.
Now I’d read a bunch of social marketing books and they were all very interesting but none of them seemed to be written by anyone who’d actually had to manage their own campaign from start to finish. The best thing about the book is that it was written by a practitioner, and someone who was happy to share the simple and empowering, message that “yes, you can do social marketing yourself.”
If you go on Amazon you’ll get the general run down on the book…..“translates the concepts of social marketing into a clear, step-by-step process…..“written in a friendly, engaging style”……blah, blah, blah.
Throughout the Guide Nedra emphasises low-cost methods and she includes some really useful do-it-yourself worksheets at the end of each of the 5 stages: Planning, Message and Materials Development, Pre-testing, Implementation, Evaluation and Feedback.
I actually emailed Nedra and asked if I could adapt these worksheets and use them at this workshop as the starting point for developing a resource that would be helpful for people trying to run environment related campaigns in the Pacific.
She emailed back the next day……“Sure, no problem… I’d love to hear how you get on.”
What a smashing woman! And she’s American!!
More than a year later I now work full time helping communities in 14 Pacific Island countries to design and implement social marketing campaigns to reduce waste, protect freshwater, manage coastal fisheries. And I still use elements of Nedra’s book today.
As a final note I have to add that it’s not all plain sailing. Some readers will feel that there are some significant gaps between some of the stages and that it’s a bit light on things like research and evaluation.
I think the best approach may be to combine the “Hands-On Guide” with a more academic book such as Kotler’s “Social Marketing: Improving the Quality of Life”. By the way, the worksheets at the back of Kotler’s book are excellent as well.
But for anyone who’s new to the field, or anyone who’s seeking a bit of confidence and strategic direction for their communications work, I’d highly recommend this book as a very easy-to-read and informative guide.
Features of the book that I really enjoyed:
• Positive “can do” approach
• Readable style
• User-friendly worksheets
Who would I recommend this book to?
• Anyone new to social marketing
• Non-profits
• Anyone too poor or cheap to afford consultants.
From where can this book be purchased?
If you’re cheap like me you’ll borrow someone else’s copy and only return it weeks later dog eared and bedraggled. If you’ve got the money you can get a new copy through Amazon or from Sage Publications. Here’s a link http://www.social-marketing.com/book.html#anchor925513
How much does it cost?
Amazon sells it for US$42.26
Publisher:
Sage Publications, California
Date of publication:
1999
ISBN number:
0761908676
This book was reviewed by:
Steve Menzies
Community Communications Specialist for the International Waters Project
Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Apia, Samoa
www.sprep.org/iwp
Email: SteveM@sprep.org