the power of social marketing

After reading the articles on social marketing and completing my critical thinking worksheet on the same subject, I think I have a much better handle on what factors groups need to consider when trying to alter a habit or behavior. Why is it so hard for people to change their behaviors? Because there are often tangible or intangible barriers to behavior change, and people need to feel like they are "getting something" in response to changing said behavior. And as we mentioned before in our personal behavior changes, behavior change is a process, and effective social marketing has to reflect that process.

On a related note, I'm almost done with the article connecting social marketing and environmental policy (or rather, why environmental policy in the US has failed due to its focus on the environment as an entity rather than its effect on everyday life) and I'm already generating a list of people in my head that I need to send the article to or that I want to discuss the ideas that the article brings up with. Now I'm overwhelmed with the feeling that I need to (as Dallase says) "seize control of my education"--this is the kind of thing I want to study as an Environmental Studies major, not Geology.

I was a little lost when it came to what I wanted my own social marketing campaign to be, as I haven't found that one thing that seems perfect in terms of something that is actually practical and could be done, and also needs to be done and that I would support. Here's what I have so far:

brainstorm list
frats, recycle red cups and beer cans
tufts alcohol policy
no more trays in the dining hall
composting on campus
plastic bags in hodgdon
reuseable mugs/cups-->rez could offer not-to-go cups (ceramic)
no more plastic water bottles at tufts events/in the campus center
get more people to go to oxfam cafe
get students to stop stealing food from the dining halls (this would result in a very hungry me!)
[to give credit where credit's due: Alex helped me with this brainstorm, while in the quiet section of the library too! What a feat.]

to expand on a few of these ideas that I feel strongly about:

tufts alcohol policy
after spring fling last year (which was declared a mass casualty incident due to the fact that over 30 ambulances were needed that day--mostly for alcohol related incidents) president bacow (rightfully so, in response to what happened) decided that we needed to do something to curb student drinking on campus. unfortunately, this decision has materialized into the new rule that there is no "warning" for an alcohol violation, and instead you are put on pro 1. also, there now could be consequences if you call TEMS (Tufts EMS) on a friend who is sick from alcohol. I think this doesn't get to the heart of the matter, that is, Tufts seems to breed a culture of work hard, play hard, and so when people do have the chance to get away from work for a bit, they do it in an extreme way. From personal experience, I'm training for the marathon this year, and we have runs early sunday morning, meaning I can't stay out very late and certainly can't drink. While there are alternatives on campus (last night I saw Coraline, courtesy of Tufts Film Series) they can be few and far between, and as a whole, it's not very "cool" to go to these alternatives. How could social marketing be used, I wonder, to shift social norms on campus instead of applying excessive punishments?

reuseable cups/mugs in the rez
I rarely get coffee or tea, because even the littlest bit of caffine will have me awake for HOURS. but I do need it occasionally, but because it is so infrequent I usually don't carry a mug with me, so I just use one of the paper ones at the rez, even though I don't need my coffee to go. So the rez could cut down on paper waste by having ceramic mugs (although this would increase water usage to wash them.) I think they already have the capacity to wash them as the commons is downstairs...and they do this at european (and some american?) starbucks where they ask you if you want a "for here" or "to go" cup. This could be paired with an effort to get frequent users to use their own mugs, maybe 10c off coffee or a punch card towards a free coffee could be an incentive. For the social marketing aspect, maybe there could be an education campaign (posters, etc) about how much paper you save by not using a disposeable cup.

I'm all idea'd out! Till next time...