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which the audience members can improve their own lives and the state of the world as a whole.
Through the years, different campaigns have encouraged people to quit smoking, take better care
of the environment, avoid drugs, treat animals with respect, and have delivered many other
important messages about a plethora of other noble causes. It is important that social marketers
utilize marketing strategies that will be most impactful for the specific audience they are
attempting to target so that their campaigns are as effective as possible, and they make the most
positive impact on the world that they can. This research explores the effectiveness of
when targeting a teenage audience with a social marketing campaign. The researcher embarked
upon this research with the hope of utilizing her findings in order to design and implement a
small scale social marketing campaign about mental health awareness and mental illness stigma
Introduction
In todays world, some people possess regressive attitudes and engage in many negative
behaviors that have extremely adverse effects on both their own well-beings and society as a
whole. In order to bring about positive social change and alter peoples behaviors and attitudes
for the better, social marketers design social marketing campaigns in which they attempt to
persuade people to improve their lives and the state of the world by altering their opinions and/or
the way in which they act. Past campaigns have implored audiences to quit smoking, avoid
driving drunk, take better care of the environment, and have addressed a myriad of other worthy
causes. It is essential that social marketers utilize social marketing strategies that will most
effectively make a profound impact on their audiences, and one of the most difficult
demographics to leave with a lasting impression is that of teenagers and adolescents. Young
people happen to be one of the most important audiences to persuade to improve their lives and
the state of the community not only because their young brains are extremely malleable and they
will most likely carry what they learn in their teenage years with them through the rest of their
lives, but they will also one day be chiefly responsible for the state of society. While a
when targeting a teenage audience, social marketing campaigns are most effective when the
Literature Review
Social marketing is defined by Nedra Klein Weinreich, the founder and president of the
marketers utilize advertising strategies in order to facilitate social change within their targeted
audience. While many social marketing practices are rooted in ideas and principles that are
associated with general, traditional marketing, social marketing is unique and does differ from
traditional advertising in several ways. According to the 2011 article, Social Marketing's
Unique Contribution to Mental Health Stigma Reduction and HIV Testing: Two Case Studies,
there are six distinct components to social marketing, which include: the "marketing mix"
(combining the factors of the price of the product for the consumer, the place the product is
offered, and the promotion of the product), consumer orientation (knowing and understanding
the audience), segmentation (targeting specific groups within the audience in specific ways),
exchange (the idea that people exchange some sort of cost for changing their behavior),
competition, and continuous monitoring (constantly keeping track of how the audience is
Based on these six components, it is quite apparent that tailoring a social marketing
campaign to fit the characteristics of ones audience is an essential step in creating a successful
campaign. This is an example of a social marketing principle that stems from traditional
effectively reach out to ones audience. Therefore, it is important that marketers assess the
characteristics of their audience so that they may decide on which types of marketing strategies
will make the most of an impact on their audience. Marketers primarily rely on marketing
strategies that can be divided into two main categories: logic-based marketing strategies and
Marketers utilize emotion-based marketing strategies so that they may tap into the
feelings of their audience members. Emotions are a key driving force behind any persons
decisions, including the decisions a person makes about the products, services, or messages in
which they are thinking about investing. In an article for Psychology Today, clinical psychologist
Dr. Mary C. Lamia discusses the role of emotions in an individuals decision-making process,
writing that Emotions, when they are not disordered, provide information about your
circumstances in a simple, quick way that does not involve a lot of cognition they attempt [to
assess if ones] situation is optimal or not aligned with [ones] goal, and how [one] might
approach [the situation]. Though emotions are an integral and often helpful component of the
decision-making process, Lamia does point out that they are sometimes unreliable because they
are disorderly. Those who are aware that emotions are sometimes unreliable during the
Despite the occasional unreliability of emotions, some marketers have expressed that they
find emotion-based strategies to be more influential than logic-based strategies, as consumers are
often first driven to make decisions based on how they feel rather than based on logical
considerations. Jeremy Ellens, for example, the co-founder of a digital marketing firm that
specializes in the health and wellness field, claims that peoples first instinct when making
decisions as consumers is to seek to avoid anything that will make them unhappy. He writes:
People avoid what makes them unhappy. This desire to avoid pain, also referred to as the
psychology of pain, can be implemented into your marketing strategy and used to
leverage your relationship with your audience. What do your prospects want to avoid
most? Whether it be embarrassment, anxiety, fear or any other negative emotion, you can
use the psychology of pain to your advantage. Industries like health and wellness or
financial services typically use the psychology of pain to demonstrate their value to
People are also motivated by a myriad of other emotions other than happiness and pain.
There are many emotional motivators that drive consumers decision-making process, and a
great number of these motivators could be deciding factors when an audience member is
deciding whether or not to take heed of the message of a social marketing campaign, specifically.
Some of these emotional motivators include peoples desires to have confidence in the future,
enjoy a sense of well-being, feel a sense of freedom, feel a sense of belonging, be the person
[they] want to be, feel secure, succeed in life (Magids, Zorfas, & Leemon, 2015). Marketers
the audience that they can achieve one of these emotional goals by investing in the product,
service, or message being offered. A 2015 article in the Harvard Business Review cited an
example of one such marketing campaign that very effectively targeted several of these
emotional motivators, writing that after a major bank introduced a credit card for Millennials
that was designed to inspire emotional connection, use among the segment increased by 70% and
new account growth rose by 40% (Magids, Zorfas, & Leemon, 2015).
employ logic-based strategies in order to tap into the consumers senses of reason. These
logic-based strategies often include mentioning interesting statistics, citing the opinion of an
expert on the topic at hand, or simply explaining to the audience why investing in the message,
product, or service being advertised is the logical thing to do. Logic plays an important role in
the human decision-making process is that it not only allows people to assess the background
information behind the decision at hand, but it also allows individuals to evaluate and
comprehend their emotions from a logical standpoint so that they may utilize their emotions to
inform their decisions in a reasonable manner (Williams, 2011). Because logic plays such a key
role in how people make their choices, it is important that marketers effectively appeal to their
It is also essential that marketers anticipate the steps of the logical thought process that
consumers undergo when making decisions so that the marketer can design the most impactful
logical appeals. Wim De Neys, a psychological scientist at the University of Toulouse in France,
implies that it is important for marketers to identify and understand the component of the
consumers thought process that could be responsible for leading the consumers to making the
wrong decision (People Dont, 2008). Understanding the incorrect aspect of the consumers
thought process could allow marketers to develop more effective logical appeals that would
marketing strategies are more impactful to audiences, and it is unclear which of the two types of
strategies is truly most effective in all cases. Many experts have stated, however, that the use of
both types of strategies tends to be most effective. Chelsea Soobitsky, a former outreach and
project manager at Sheppard Pratt Health System, for example, stated that she feels that it is most
effective to utilize a combination of logic-based and emotion-based strategies when targeting any
audience with a social marketing campaign. Clay Warren, the director of the communications
program at George Washington University, agrees with Soobitsky, stating that effective
advertisements for any type of marketing campaign utilize aspiration, persuasion, and emotion,
which Warren refers to as ethos, logos, and pathos, respectively (Thompson, 2011).
emotional and logical appeals. An example of one such campaign is that of the 4 Day Throw
Away project, a social marketing campaign that was developed to increase the awareness of
food safety of leftovers, targeting an audience of the primary food preparers of families with
children under age ten (James et. al, 2013). The marketers utilized both traditional marketing
mediums as well as social media in order to communicate their message, and these different
mediums employed varying levels of emotional and logical appeals (James et. al, 2013). For
example, the posters that the marketers placed in grocery stores employed logic in that they
informed the audience that disposing of leftovers after four days is simply the correct thing to do
(James et. al, 2013). The posters demonstrated an emotional appeal in that they encouraged
audience members to dispose of leftovers properly for the sake of the safety of their children
(James et. al, 2013). This campaign proved to be effective, as it resulted in a greater percentage
of individuals (50%, P = 0.0093) [in the targeted communities] throwing leftovers away after 4
Another example of an effective social marketing campaign that utilized both logic-based
and emotion-based strategies is that of a campaign that was developed to encourage HIV patients
to adhere properly to their antiretroviral therapy (ART) by taking their pills regularly. The
marketers utilized both logical and emotional appeals because one reason for the limited
success of many programs is that a programs message, while factually correct, rational, and
based on sound theory, is not sufficiently appealing or convincing enough to change behavior
(Giordano, et. al, 2013). To incorporate an emotional component into the campaign to make it
more persuasive, the marketers selected a slogan (Live the Solution: Take Your Pills Every
Day) that would target the self-efficacy of the audience, and they also created a ten-minute
video that shared the personal, emotional stories of eight people who overcame struggles with
adherence to ART (Giordano, et. al, 2013). A post-campaign survey of the audience members
proved the campaign to be effective, as eighty-six percent of respondents agreed that the
campaign made it easy to take pills every day and on time and the same proportion agreed that
the campaign made them more likely to take their pills every day and on time (Giordano, et.
al, 2013).
A final example of a social marketing campaign that utilized both emotional and logical
appeals is that of the Time to Change mental health stigma campaign in England. This
campaign, which began in 2003, is the largest anti-stigma program in England, and it was created
in order to reduce public stigma and discrimination in relation to mental illness (Evans-Lacko,
Corker, Williams, Henderson, & Thornicroft, 2014). The campaign was considered to be
effective, as researchers found that intended behaviour among the general public improved (i.e.,
there was an increased willingness to live with, work with, live nearby, or continue a relationship
with someone with a mental health problem) and experiences of discrimination among service
users were reduced as a result of the campaign. (Evans-Lacko, Corker, Williams, Henderson, &
Thornicroft, 2014). This campaign included a logical component in that it shared background
facts with the audience about mental illness ("Learn More," 2017). Having gained more
knowledge about mental illnesses and what they entail, audience members were probably less
likely to stigmatize or discriminate against those with mental illness after being exposed to the
campaign. The creators of the campaign appealed to their audiences emotions in the form of real
personal stories shared by English people about their experiences with mental illness (Personal
Stories, 2017). These stories about peoples personal struggles most likely inclined audience
members to sympathize with these people and treat those with mental illness with more respect
While some marketing experts have indicated that a combination of logic-based and
emotion-based marketing strategies is most effective for any marketing campaign, whether it be
a social marketing campaign or a general marketing campaign, and this approach has proved
effective in several cases, the marketing community as a whole has yet to come to a concrete
conclusion about whether emotional or logical appeals are more impactful, or if an equal
combination is what is best. The inconclusive nature of the research on this topic is described in
The literature on rational versus affective advertising is very long and mostly
inconclusive. Some studies suggest we care more about rational ads for things we need,
like medicine, and are more receptive to emotional ads for things we simply want, like
clothes. But another study by Aimee Drolet & Patti Williams & Loraine Lau-Gesk
showed that, whereas younger consumers prefer emotional ads for "hedonic" products
(beer and cologne) and fact-based ads for "utilitarian" products (pain relievers and
investment plans), older consumers prefer affective ads for just about everything
(Thompson, 2011).
This is a subject in which there are many gaps in the current knowledge and research. In
addition to it being unclear about which type of strategy is truly more effective, it is also
unknown whether the impactfulness of the two different types of strategies changes as a result of
the age of the audience, the gender of the audience, the nature of the product, service, or message
being advertised, and the marketing medium being used (i.e. print advertisements or video
advertisements). Experts have also not determined the ratio of emotional strategies to logical
strategies that should be used in a campaign if employing a combination of the two strategies is
truly the most effective approach. This research paper serves to explore some of these gaps in
knowledge as the researcher attempts to determine which type of strategy is truly most effective
when appealing to a teenage audience with a social marketing campaign about mental health
The researcher chose to collect the data for this particular topic using a survey in order to
gain simple, straightforward input from a large number of teenage respondents (~50). The
researchers ultimate goal for this research was to utilize her findings to design a small scale
social marketing campaign pertaining to mental health awareness for the Glenelg High School
student body, so it was important that the input received via the survey came from the Glenelg
High School student community. The fact that the data came from this particular teenage
audience allowed the researcher to base her designs for the campaign on Glenelg students
opinions regarding the strength of logic-based vs. emotion-based advertisements. Because of the
gender and age diversity of the group that participated in the survey, the results can be
The eight question survey was distributed in March of 2017 via Survey Monkey. Glenelg
High School students from all grade levels were given the opportunity to participate in the
survey, and responses were capped at fifty so that the researcher could easily identify the data in
percentages. 35 females and 15 were males responded to the survey, and of this group, 1 is a
14-year-old, 26 are 15-year-olds, 17 are 16-year-olds, 4 are 17-year-olds, and 2 are 18-year-olds
(LeTellier, 2017).
The Survey
In response to the first comparison of two advertisements, the comparison of a
logic-based print ad versus an emotion-based print ad, most of the respondents stated that they
found the logic-based advertisement to be more persuasive to them, with 84% of the respondents
choosing the logic-based ad (LeTellier, 2017). Later on in the survey in Question #6, respondents
were again asked to state whether an emotion-based print ad or a logic-based print ad was more
persuasive to them (LeTellier, 2017). In this particular question, the advertisements pertained to
mental health awareness. Responses to this question were much more evenly split, with 52% of
respondents selecting the emotion-based ad and 48% of respondents selecting the logic-based
Respondents were also asked in two questions to state whether they thought an
emotion-based or logic-based video advertisement was more persuasive to them. In Question #4,
two video advertisements (the first emotion-based, the second logic-based) pertaining to mental
health stigma were presented. 84% of respondents found the emotion-based video advertisement
to be more persuasive to them (LeTellier, 2017). In Question #5, respondents were again asked
pertained to teenage texting and driving. Again, a larger percentage of respondents decided that
the emotion-based video advertisement was more persuasive to them, with 78% of respondents
choosing this advertisement over the other one presented (LeTellier, 2017).
The final two questions of the advertisements were more general, and they asked
advertisements to be more persuasive (Question #7) and then asked respondents if they found
stated that they typically find emotion-based advertisements to be more persuasive to them with
92% of respondents selecting this option (LeTellier, 2017) (See Figure 1). However, when the
advertisements were typically most persuasive to them, only 14% of respondents stated that
emotion-based ads were most persuasive to them (LeTellier, 2017). Most respondents (80%)
decided that advertisements employing both logical and emotional appeals are more persuasive
(LeTellier, 2017) (See Figure 2). These two questions allowed the researcher to conclude that
even if teenagers claim that they find a combination of emotion-based and logic-based strategies
to be most effective, they are generally more heavily impacted by the emotional component of
the combination.
The results, for the most part, lined up with what the researcher had predicted. One
surprise within the results, however, was the lack of a correlation between gender and type of
advertisement chosen. The researcher had predicted that males would be more likely to
advertisements. While this was the case with a few respondents, it was not a widespread trend
These survey results ascertain the researchers hypothesis that while most teenagers
would state that advertisements that use a combination of logical and emotional appeals are most
effective to them, teenagers would state that emotion-based advertisements tend to be more
persuasive than logic-based advertisements. The researcher can also conclude, based on the
results, that it might be more effective to utilize primarily logic-based print advertisements and
primarily emotion-based video advertisements when targeting a teenage audience. These results
could not only help the researcher to create an effective mental health awareness social
marketing campaign at Glenelg High School, but they could also be of help to professional social
For future research on this topic, the researcher could take several measures in order to
gain more specific information as to what types of social marketing strategies teenagers are most
responsive and to ensure that the data that is collected is as accurate as possible. For example, the
survey distributed in this study included social marketing advertisements that pertained to several
different causes, including texting and driving, smoking, and mental health. In a future study, the
researcher could explore further whether the topic the advertisements pertain to also plays a role
in whether logic-based or emotion-based strategies are more effective for a teenage audience.
Additionally, if the researcher wanted her future research to focus more specifically on the best
way to advertise mental health awareness and mental health stigma reduction, she could
distribute a new survey including only advertisements that pertain to these topics. Finally, the
researcher could gain more detailed information about this topic in general in future research by
adding an interview component to the data collection. Audience members could be interviewed
so that the researcher could gain more qualitative results pertaining to whether the audience is
quantitative results.
Figures 1 and 2
Figure 1
Figure 2
Ellens, J. (2015, August 7). Effective marketing appeals to emotions instead of reason.
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Evans-Lacko, S., Corker, E., Williams, P., Henderson, C., & Thornicroft, G. (2014). Effect of the
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