Social marketing activities and customer behavior change in Rwanda: The Case of Bible Society of Rwanda

Abstract

Abstract Rwanda has various Non-Government Organizations whose objective is to help people in their development but various problems occur in the implementation of their target. The general purpose of this research project was to identify the Social marketing activities and customer behavior change in Rwanda: The Case of Bible Society of Rwanda. This research concentrated on exposure to the messages and principles related to social marketing and customer behavior change. Both dependent and independent variables were identified and social marketing tools were used as intervention variables. This study targeted 200,000 customers of the Bible Society of Rwanda (BSR) and the minimum sample size of 99 customers was calculated using Morgan’s formula to represent all total customers of BSR and they were from 11 group members of BSR, thus 99 customers were used as sample and in each sample, random sampling was used to give an equal chance to all respondents. The questionnaires were used as data collection instruments. The findings indicated that social marketing had a positive impact on customer behavior change is supposed to apply social marketing strategies and set new distribution channels in attracting new customers that may lead to BSR maximizing their sales and leading to acquiring customers. Development of new channel distribution strategies, Social marketing strategies can boost BSR to attract new customers, build strong relationships with their customers, foster the acceptability of BSR products, and thus maximize their sales. BSR had to apply social marketing principles and strategies to provide discounts to customers, advertise their product through media, increase the patronage among their members, implement sensitization meeting forums every time, increase distribution channels and implement the sales local agencies, and target group of individuals or consumers urging them to: accept a new behavior, reject a potential behavior, modify a current behavior, abandon an old behavior, social marketing is trying to influence behavior change in a direction beneficial for the consumer (Nigel, 2010).

The use of social marketing techniques to promote the adoption of behavior that will improve the health or well-being of the target audience or society as a whole Social marketing can be best described as the systematic application of marketing to obtain specific behavioral objectives for social goods. Social marketing is so essential in such a way that it can be applied for promoting merit goods, or for making a society evade demerit goods and therefore advancing the well-being of society as a whole. Some good examples of social marketing scenarios include people being advised to follow speed limits when driving, to smoke in areas where smoking is allowed instead of public places where people could be harmed, and to utilize seat belts when riding vehicles for safety. Also, social marketing can be present in health promotion campaigns. As a result, positive messages in social marketing will become instrumental in forming a better and safer community for everybody through the spread of a huge number of positive messages (Neestle, 2010).

Changing the behavior of customers is very vital and it is a strategic factor for the long-term survival of any business organization. So in today’s competitive business world, it has come out as a decisive factor for the success or failure of business objectives. For this reason, companies meeting their customers’ needs and wants are enjoying the market with customer loyalty and getting positive responses for their product (Bloom, 1981). The Bible Society traces its origin in the United Kingdom back in 1804. The story of Mary Jones (Wales) illustrates how the Bible spread up even to Rwanda. In Rwanda, the Bible Society started in 1977 as an Office, under the management of the world fellowship of Bible Societies known as the United Bible Society (UBS). By 1988, the Bible Society of Rwanda was an Associated Member of UBS. In 2000, the BSR became a Full member of UBS. Bible Society is working to respond to the Scriptures (Bible) and other social community needs across the world, in the churches, through the culture and different communities. The strategy of Bible Society centers on the Scripture translation, production, social marketing, fundraising, and advocacy, and thus the availability, accessibility, and credibility, are assured, this is what it calls the ‘lifecycle’ of the Bible, not only that, but, BSR identifies itself with vulnerable people in many communities, and provides necessary relief and create lasting change holistic life through various approaches(BSR, 2000). relies heavily on designing the organizational offerings in terms of the target market's needs and desires and on using effective pricing, communication, and distribution to inform, motivate and service the markets. It is clear that marketing is primarily concerned with identifying and satisfying the needs of an organization’s customers and it is equally clear that the actual personnel responsible for fulfilling this role will not be exclusively those located in the marketing department