Understanding stakeholder motivation to better influence their behaviour

Abstract

Behaviour change is a complex notion, with many underlying challenges. However, to endeavour change among stakeholders or a sector of the community it is imperative to firstly understand the motivating factors behind their behaviour.
When white spot disease (WSD) hit South East Queensland it was critical to determine who the stakeholders were quickly and how they were affected by the outbreak. Although disease control activities are designed to minimise long-term impacts they can be perceived as having negative social, economic and environmental impacts. By understanding stakeholder attitudes, beliefs and motivations in relation to these impacts we were better able to manage expectations and outcomes.
Throughout the white spot disease response a cross section of the community were affected by the movement restrictions that had been enforced (mainly commercial and recreational fishers). Their cooperation in disease containment, spread and introduction was crucial. Therefore, to effectively communicate important information and messaging to them social marketing techniques such as psychographic segmentation and concept testing were employed, allowing us to ascertain the motivating factors behind their actions. By doing this we were able to deliver more effective education and engagement campaigns directly to them.
For example, through concept testing in focus groups with recreational fishers it became clear that a single, logical approach to messaging would not be successful. Therefore, a dual approach was needed that delivered both rational and emotional messaging. The dual messaging could connect with people motivated to action in different ways, enabling our messages to reach the target audience more effectively.
In the presentation I will take you through the processes we undertook to understand our audience. We’ll look at the how decisions and habits are formed by subconscious and conscious behaviour, and how this causes us to respond differently to certain information. I will then show you how we applied this to our dual messaging approach and look at the results.