Research
Properly understanding your target audience, who they are and what shapes their actions, is fundamental to successful behaviour change activities. The NSMC offers a range of research services from mining existing research databases to developing comprehensive primary research programmes.
Understanding what motivates and drives individuals, groups and organisations is what we do best. We use deep psychographic research techniques to help clients understand not just ‘what’ (a behaviour) but critically answer the question ‘why?’ (motivation).
The NSMC's research services can help you at every stage of planning, implementing and evaluating your social marketing programme.
Talk to us about how our research can help you:
- Evaluate policy and review evidence
- Segment your audience in the ways that will most help your intervention, whether by demographic variables, such as age or location, or psychographic variable like attitudes, values and beliefs
- Connect with stakeholders to capture their perspectives, and to ensure their buy-in
- Develop engagement strategies
- Generate actionable insights using a range of research methods, such as in-depth individual, paired and focus group interviews, face-to-face survey and online questionnaires
- Establish baselines and develop evaluation plans to capture learning and measure impact.
We also provide independent process, outcome, impact and value for money evaluations.
To find out more about how we can help boost the impact of your future behaviour change programmes, please contact us at info@thensmc.com
Theory to practice: developing the UK evidence base
The NSMC carried out a three-year research programme (2006-2009), funded by the Department of Health England, to establish an evidence base for social marketing. Find out more about the Learning demonstration sites.
Healthy foundations segmentation model
The NSMC worked in partnership with the Department of Health England to develop a national segmentation model: Healthy Foundations. The aim was to divide up the population of England into meaningful segments by looking at the drivers of behaviour across the six public health priority areas: smoking, obesity, mental health, alcohol, substance abuse and sexual health.
This model was piloted and is now being developed into a tool to help public health professionals understand their audience and develop appropriate interventions.