I'm looking for research or information on improving voluntary adoption of a behavior among late-adopters. The project I'm working on is focused on encouraging people to pick up their dog's waste in public areas. The program seems to have been successful in encouraging most people to pick up, but there are still some who have not adopted the behavior.
I know that enforcement is often the best way to encourage compliance among this audience segment, but enforcement is not an option in this scenario. If you know of research in improving behavior adoption among late adopters, or have experience with this, I would appreciate your input.
Because I recognize that 100% compliance is generally not feasible, I'm also interested in research that discusses what percent of the population can generally be reached effectively through social marketing.
Please let me know if more details on the project would be helpful, or if you have any other questions for me. While my project is focused on pet waste, I welcome feedback from any type of social marketing program.
Cammy Mills
Outreach and Education Coordinator
Kitsap Public Works, Stormwater Division
United States
ISO: Improving Voluntary Compliance among Late Adopters
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Cammy:
I am interested in what you find out and how your project works. In answer to your question, "what percent of the population can generally be reached effectively through social marketing?" I think, you'll find that the dividing line between the "help me" (social marketing) and "make me" (law) audience segments really depends on your behavior and your audience and also changes over time. In other words, you have to research your own audience to find out.
Rogers' Theory of Diffusion identifies two groups of "late adopters" - 1) the late majority and 2) the laggards. With these groups, inter-personal communication is more important than mass communication. For a discussion of how to reach these groups, see
for example http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf
Cheers, Jay
Jay Kassirer
Cullbridge Marketing, and Tools of Change
Canada
www.cullbridge.com