Social Norms Marketing

Social norms marketing typically involves reducing the disparity between student perceptions and the actual  extent of alcohol consumption by their peers.

Research has demonstrated that most college and other students hold greatly exaggerated beliefs about the proportion of their peers who drink alcoholic beverages, how much they consume, and how frequently they consume. The social norms approach involves conducting credible surveys of a population, typically those on the campus of an educational institution, and reporting or marketing the findings to that population. When students discover that many fewer peers drink, drink heavily, or drink as frequently as they thought, they don’t feel such high pressure to consume or to consume as much as they did earlier. Consequently, alcohol consumption tends to drop significantly.

Increasingly, the approach is being applied to larger populations and to other behaviors such as driving while impaired or intoxicated, using tobacco, engaging in sexual intercourse, and other behaviors.

Source
Adapted from materials in Social Norms Marketing Facts & Information, which contains additional information, complete references and bibliographies.