SMOKE-FREE PLACESMOKE-FREE PLACE

An Environmental Marketing experience at the University of Barcelona

Montserrat Ecija, Marina Romeo & Enric Pol

Smoke-Free Place

To analyze the design and evaluation of the campaign of environmental marketing “Smoke-Free place”.

It arises from the breach of the current legal norm.

Traditional signalectic that forbids smoking does not imply the fulfilment of the norm, representing sometimes an instigator for the smokers to fail in its fulfilment if a strong social control does not exist

CONTEXTCONTEXT OF THE PROBLEMOF THE PROBLEM

The unconscious imitative conduct causes that the presence of a few that break the norm triggers its total breach as a cascade effect.

Ecija, Romeo & Pol

Smoke-Free Place

SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE CAMPAIGNSYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE CAMPAIGN

First phase: 

• Informative axis, posters with a fixed location, with the objective of informing users of the preestablished areas permitted for smoking (yellow points).

• Persuasive axis, posters and different banderols, motivating users to smoke in that space.

• Social influence axis, short musical and theatrical performances were played with the collaboration of the center students.

•  Informative flier.

Second phase:

• Persuasive axis, other posters and banderols were distributed.

Ecija, Romeo & Pol

Espai sense fum

Punt groc més properPunt groc més proper

JA HE TROBAT……

EL PUNT GROC

Espai sense fum

Ves a fumar al ...

Smoke-Free Place

THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDTHEORETICAL BACKGROUND Environmental marketing:

• Message: smoke-free place, smoke in the preestablished zones (yellow points).

• Target group: students (but also teaching and administrative staff when they are in the place).

• Habit that should be modified: smoking in the no-smoking areas.   

Distinguish this campaign from the environmental education.

  Environmental management assumes the theory of attitudes and

change of attitudes as a background (Heberlein, 1989).

• The information does not guarantee any change of attitude nor of behaviour.

• Actively participation facilitates a durable retention of the message.

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Smoke-Free Place

Rationality Emotionality

Functionality Social influence

Human behaviour has a rationality and internal coherence dimension, but behaviour is not always rational and coherent.

Information is necessary, but not sufficient

It remits to the feelings associated with:

Positives: camplaisants, desired

or daydreamt

Negatives: passed painful

experiences. Fear to the future/perceived

risk

Real or imaginary personal experiences, places and

situations

Required resources to facilitate the behaviour

To explain how to perform the desired behaviour

To minimize the additional effort related to actual behaviours

Do not confuse what concerns to a standard level and what concerns to the citizen’s responsibility level.

Basic Action: to reduce inhibitors and to facilitate the behaviour

Required actions: to detect the associative formal and informal structure; to know the Social Representations, implicit theories, shared values and opinions. To know and to act with and over the opinion leaders; Social Ecofeedback.

Need of belonging, affiliation, feeling a part.

The human being tends to favour the endogroup and

to follow its rule.

(in the presence of the group, but not necessarily

in its absence)

THE MODEL OF THE FOUR SPHERES (Pol, 2000)

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Smoke-Free Place

Rationality sphere, the “smoke-free places” and “smoking places” has been clearly signposted.

Emotionality sphere, respect attitudes and values have been emphasized among the faculty users, as well as the participation of the all members in the campaign.

Functionality sphere, the yellow points have been distributed in each one of the corridors with a relatively short distance from the classrooms. Posters specifying the location of the nearest yellow point, and a fliers with a map of each set of classrooms also have been distributed.

Social influence sphere, accomplishment of performances (collaboration of students). Faculty’s directors request the participation of the faculty’s council members to act as control agents. This was a proposal action but was not performed

DEVELOPED ACTIONS LINKED EACH SPHEREDEVELOPED ACTIONS LINKED EACH SPHERE

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Smoke-Free Place

Without a long term monitoring and maintaining system, the results of environmental programs would be poor, and of short term duration.

Even though many environmental theories have emphasized the paper of the surroundings as a determinant or a facilitator of the behaviour (for instance, the Ecological Theory of Baker), there are little proposals related to the change of behaviour based on the change of the scenario (Gump, 1977; Finnie, 1973).

Ecija, Romeo & Pol

Smoke-Free Place

OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGYOBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY

To know in which level the campaign success has been obtained and maintained.

• 1st stage: it includes the period of one week before the beginning of the campaign until the first actions. Daily observational registry.

• 2nd stage: it includes the period of one week, being developed the actions of the first phase: distribution of posters, banderols, fliers and accomplishment of performances.

• 3rd stage: it consisted of maintaining the information level of the campaign.

• 4th stage: older posters and banderols were substituted by new ones for the second study term.

Daily observational registry:   - Observation hours: morning or afternoon

- Specific Scenarios

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Smoke-Free Place

RESULTSRESULTS

Percentage of smokers and nonsmokers

86%

14%

Don't smokeSmoke

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Smoke-Free Place

Evolution of the location of the people who smoke

0102030405060708090

100

First stage Second stage Third stage Fourth stage

Stages

% o

f p

eo

ple

sm

ok

ing

Smoking in the no-smokingareas

Smoking in the yellow points

Ecija, Romeo & Pol

Smoke-Free Place

Relating to the smoking behaviour, a habit change has not been achieved.

Faculty members have not assumed a norm related to this behaviour.

Even though the smoking decrease in the smoke free-places, this conduct still exists.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF THE CAMPAIGNSUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF THE CAMPAIGN

Relative success of the campaign:

According to the results, light differences between schedules and scenarios (but not sufficiently significant) are shown.

Ecija, Romeo & Pol

Smoke-Free PlaceEcija, Romeo &

Pol

Inadequate communicative strategy ?

From 4 spheres as theoretical reference:

Rational information: OK

Emotional dimension: OK

Functional dimension: OK, but

We provide the place to smoke very near of free smoke places, but…

Institution does not provide resources enough to help to transform smoking point from sociofugal into a sociopetal place.

GENERAL CONCLUSION:

A marketing environmental campaign related with the scenario and the information like a form to reinforce the change of behaviour or habit, can not forget the social influence sphere. In our case, the results show that this is the most relevant aspect for the objective successes.

Social influence sphere:

Does not work Why?

• Nobody make pressure over smokers in illegal place.

• Professors has to had important role that does not assume. Institution does not not ask them to assume the role formally.

• Cascade effect: if one of the users smokes outside the preestablished space and it is not recriminated or sanctioned for that reason, the other people, conscious or unconsciously, can imitate this conduct, being possible to get to generalize the fact of smoking in the spaces without smoke.

Smoke-Free Place

Ecija, Romeo & Pol