Research

The Research team at The NSMC helps organisations use research and insight to design effective, customer-centred, behaviour change programmes and strategies.

With our expertise in practical social marketing and behaviour change, we work with in-house teams to help them manage live projects whilst developing and fine tuning their skills and confidence to:

Clarify objectives and articulate behavioural goals
Design research specifications to understand the motivators, barriers and needs of the target audience
Use existing data and tools more effectively
Segment audiences by behavioural and psychographic variables
Commission and manage the right research agencies
Analyse quantitative and qualitative data to generate insights
Use insights to improve services and programmes and achieve behavioural outcomes
Establish baselines and develop evaluation plans to capture learning and measure impact

Increasingly we are being asked to provide an independent evaluation of client's behaviour change programmes along with a process review of how they can improve their organisation's capacity and impact of future programmes. This is a core business area and our mission to improve the effectiveness of behaviour change programmes.

We also work on research projects that develop and promote the practice of social marketing, enhance the effectiveness of behaviour change initiatives and share practical experiences. Current projects include:

Creation of an online value for money tool to calculate cost-benefit for multifaceted behaviour change programmes
Running ShowCase, the online case study database
An organisational design study to stimulate new thinking around how best to organise, deploy and manage staff and resources, so that customer orientation and marketing principles become embedded across public and third sector organisations
Development of a quality improvement framework to investigate the efficiency of the management processes associated with a behaviour change programme or project

To find out more about how we can help you evaluate your programes and improve the impact of your future behaviour change programmes, please contact us at info@thensmc.com.

Social Marketing Academy

The NSMC is running its next Social Marketing Award Course on 5th and 6th June at the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Headquarters in Cookham. For further details contact Patrick on 0207 799 1920.
NSMC membership
If you're working to achieve positive behaviour change, or have an interest in social marketing, then NSMC membership could be for you.
Benefits include:
- Free electronic subscription to Social Marketing Quarterly
- 20% discounts on all NSMC training
- 50% off all e-learning modules
- Discounts on Chartered Institute of Marketing events
Find out more about membership benefits.
Research tools

We help organisations to use research tools to understand their customers and develop more effective behaviour change programmes.

Latest News & Events

28 April 2013

'Sing them something they bloody well know’ - quote from the film Zulu

I went to a fascinating presentation at a recent Chartered Institute of Marketing event ‘ How social marketing changed attitudes and behaviour towards the army in Afghanistan and the Church in Wales. The event was part of the CIM’s social marketing interest group’s event’s calendar and focussed on marketing in war and religion.

6 March 2013

End of the internship

Three and a half months flew by incredibly quickly and my time as an intern with The National Social Marketing Centre is finished. It’s been a great experience and there are many things I’ve worked on, and learnt, during that time:

6 March 2013

Same behavioural problems – different solutions

I am just back from a really interesting, busy, (but occasionally relaxing!) trip to the British Virgin Islands.

13 February 2013

The first cohort of students in our Social Marketing training programme in Jordan graduate

Following six months hard work, the participants on our first Intensive Social Marketing Training Programme graduated in front of the Head of USAID Mission in Amman, Beth Paige. The students on the course who have all developed plans on their own social marketing projects will now apply to USAID for funds to implement these projects over the next 12 months. The projects vary from a student led anti-litter campaign to a programme that will persuade investors to fit water saving devices in all of their new residential developments. The next cohort will be

11 February 2013

How 'Great Customer Experiences' can influence behaviours

Ogilvy Change hosted a fascinating talk last week Wednesday from Matt Watkinson on his book ‘The Ten Principles behind Great Customer Experiences’

National Social Marketing Centre