Social marketing is not about selling ideas; social marketing is about creating ideas that sell. This session is about using this methodology to reach your target audience. Building skills in using consumer research methods will assist programs to convincingly persuade target audiences about the effectiveness of their programs, policies, and practices to facilitate education reform and restructuring.

This session will provide participants with an overview of marketing, and social marketing in particular. What is it? How is it different from commercial marketing and advertising? What are some effective strategies that can be used to persuade populations to change behavior, adopt a practice, or accept a service? What are the types of consumer research methodologies used? This session will explore -- in an interactive, multi-media format -- specific examples and provide the participants with opportunities to apply the concepts and skills being explored. The session will provide written materials, in the form of a workbook, for further exploration of social marketing techniques.