By Aggrey Muganga, Social and Behavior Change Communication Specialist, MAAD McCANN
In marketing, communication and advertising, we are in the business of influencing behavior. We want people to try a product, switch from one brand to another, use a service more often, recommend it to others or remain loyal to it. We invest heavily in understanding audiences and crafting the right messages to influence those decisions.
Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) takes a slightly different approach. Instead of starting with what we should tell people, it first asks what is preventing them from taking action.
SBCC is most commonly associated with public health and development programmes, such as encouraging families to sleep under mosquito nets, motivating expectant mothers to attend antenatal care, or promoting better nutrition practices. While these may seem far removed from selling products or services, they share a common challenge: providing people with information does not always change their behavior. People do not make decisions simply because they have received good information.
For example, someone may know that sleeping under a mosquito net reduces the risk of malaria and still choose not to use one every night—for valid reasons. The room may be too hot, the net may be uncomfortable, or there may be nowhere convenient to hang it. In such cases, more information about the dangers of malaria is unlikely to solve the problem.
The issue, therefore, is not always the message. It could be price, access, convenience, habit or trust. SBCC helps identify the real barriers before deciding how communication can contribute to changing behavior.
MAAD McCANN’s experience with SBCC dates back to malaria prevention initiatives in 2013 and later the Obulamu campaign in 2014. One of the most valuable lessons from this work was that truly understanding an audience requires going beyond demographic descriptions. Age, income, location, occupation and media consumption habits are useful, but they do not fully explain why people behave the way they do.
SBCC digs deeper. What does this person currently do, and why? What makes the current behavior easier or more rewarding? What makes the desired behavior difficult? Whose opinion influences their decisions? What do the people around them consider normal? What would need to change for the desired behavior to become realistic? These are the questions that generate meaningful consumer insights.
Consider a common commercial question: Why aren’t people buying our product? The easiest assumption is a lack of awareness, leading to more advertising. But what if consumers already know the product exists? Perhaps they do not trust it. Maybe the pack size does not match their daily spending habits. Retailers may not recommend it, or a competing brand may have become the accepted choice within their social circles. Suddenly, the solution is no longer simply creating a better advertisement.
Another important lesson from SBCC is that behavior rarely occurs in isolation. A maternal health programme, for example, may find that communicating only with pregnant women is insufficient. Partners may control household finances, mothers-in-law may influence decisions about pregnancy and childcare, health workers may shape levels of trust, while religious and community leaders reinforce social norms. Changing an individual’s behavior often requires engaging the wider network of people who influence their decisions.
Brands can learn from this as well.
SBCC also challenges the familiar practice of developing solutions in the boardroom and presenting them to audiences only when they are nearly complete. Our experience has demonstrated the value of co-creating and testing communication with the very people it is intended to influence. The most effective campaigns are those designed with audiences, not simply for them, and those that genuinely help move people toward the desired action.
The same thinking should guide how success is measured. Reach, impressions, views and engagement are important, but they are only indicators. The more important question is: What did people actually do? If the objective is product trial, purchase, service uptake or adoption, then those behavioral outcomes should ultimately define success.
Ultimately, SBCC offers marketers a deeper understanding of how and why people make choices. Effective communication is not just about delivering the right message—it is about identifying the influences and barriers that shape behavior and using those insights to inspire meaningful action.
