Entry Category
Social Marketing Resources
Name of Intervention/ Program
Social Marketing Behaviour Change Planning Canvas
Background and Situation Analysis
Social marketing practitioners are often expected to integrate audience insights, behavioural science, public health principles, communication strategy, implementation planning, and evaluation into a single intervention design process. While numerous theories, frameworks, and planning models exist, many practitioners struggle to connect these components into a practical workflow that supports decision-making. Through nearly a decade of teaching graduate-level social marketing and health communication, combined with consulting experience supporting public health organizations, governments, nonprofits, and community collaboratives, a recurring challenge emerged. Practitioners and students frequently understood individual concepts such as audience segmentation, barriers and benefits, the 4 Ps, behaviour change theory, and evaluation. However, many struggled to understand how these elements fit together when designing real-world interventions. As a result, intervention development often became tactic-driven rather than behaviour-driven. Teams frequently moved directly to communications activities without first defining behavioural objectives, understanding audience needs, identifying barriers, considering exchange, or identifying the conditions necessary for behaviour change. The Social Marketing Behaviour Change Planning Canvas was developed to address this gap. Inspired by the accessibility of the Lean Canvas and Business Model Canvas, the resource translates complex social marketing theory into a visual planning system that guides users through the process of designing behaviour change interventions. The Canvas integrates audience analysis, behavioural objectives, stages of change, barriers and benefits, human insights, social marketing strategy, intervention design, implementation planning, and evaluation within a single framework. The goal is to increase the ability and confidence of practitioners to apply social marketing principles consistently and effectively. The resource was developed through an iterative design process informed by professional practice, classroom application, and continuous feedback. Since its development, the Canvas has been integrated into a graduate-level Health Communication and Social Marketing course and used across four academic semesters. Graduate students have applied the framework to design interventions addressing driving cessation among older adults, HPV vaccination uptake, food waste reduction, and reducing single-occupancy vehicle use. These applications have provided ongoing opportunities to test, refine, and strengthen the resource while demonstrating its adaptability across diverse behaviour change challenges.
Priority Audiences(s)
Primary audiences include social marketing practitioners, public health professionals, nonprofit leaders, government staff, consultants, researchers, and graduate students responsible for designing behaviour change interventions. Secondary audiences include educators, evaluators, community organizations, and interdisciplinary teams seeking a practical and accessible approach to applying social marketing principles. The resource was specifically designed for users who understand individual social marketing concepts but require additional support connecting those concepts into a coherent intervention design process.
Behavioral Objectives
The Social Marketing Behaviour Change Planning Canvas was developed to influence how practitioners and students approach intervention planning and behaviour change design. The resource encourages users to: • Begin planning with audience understanding rather than communications tactics. • Define clear behavioural objectives before selecting strategies or channels. • Identify audience barriers, benefits, motivations, competing behaviours, and external influences. • Apply core social marketing principles including segmentation, exchange, and the 4 Ps. • Integrate behavioural science, implementation planning, and evaluation into intervention design. • Develop interventions that are audience-centred, evidence-informed, and behaviour-focused. The desired behavioural outcome is increased adoption of social marketing planning practices across public health, nonprofit, government, education, and community settings. By reducing planning complexity and providing a structured visual framework, the Canvas increases user confidence and ability to apply social marketing concepts in practice. Ultimately, the resource seeks to improve the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of behaviour change interventions while building practitioner capacity and strengthening the application of social marketing principles across sectors.
Description of Strategy/Intervention
The Social Marketing Behaviour Change Planning Canvas was developed as a capacity-building resource designed to make social marketing more accessible, practical, and actionable for practitioners and students. The development process was informed by design thinking principles and years of observation across both professional consulting projects and graduate education. A recurring insight emerged: while many individuals understood specific social marketing concepts, they struggled to connect them into a coherent intervention planning process. Audience research, segmentation, behaviour change pathways, the 4 Ps, implementation planning, and evaluation were often treated as separate activities rather than interconnected components of a single strategy. To address this challenge, the Canvas was designed as a visual planning system that guides users through the entire intervention design process. Inspired by the Lean Canvas and Business Model Canvas, it combines social marketing, behavioural science, health communication, systems thinking, and implementation planning into a single framework. The Canvas is organized into two primary phases. SCOPING: The first phase focuses on understanding the problem and audience. Users identify the social issue, define the behavioural objective, explore audience characteristics, identify barriers and benefits, understand external influences, and uncover key audience insights or human truths. DEVELOPMENT: The second phase focuses on intervention development. Users apply the 4 Ps of social marketing, identify pathways of behaviour change, develop messaging strategies, determine intervention approaches, select tactics, establish implementation plans, and define evaluation measures. Several social marketing principles were intentionally embedded throughout the design. Audience orientation is reflected through the emphasis on audience understanding before solution development. Exchange is explored through identifying perceived benefits and costs associated with behaviour change. Competition is considered through examination of current behaviours and competing alternatives. Ability building is supported through structured prompts, simple language, visual organization, and clear progression between planning stages. The resource also promotes systems thinking by encouraging users to consider partners, environmental influences, and broader contextual factors that affect behaviour. The Canvas is designed to function as both a planning tool and a learning tool. Rather than providing answers, it guides users through the critical questions required to develop effective behaviour change interventions.
Implementation
The Social Marketing Behaviour Change Planning Canvas has been implemented through graduate education, professional consulting projects, and applied intervention design. The resource was first developed as a practical response to challenges observed among students and practitioners attempting to apply social marketing concepts to real-world problems. Early versions were tested and refined through classroom instruction and intervention planning exercises. The Canvas was subsequently integrated into a graduate-level Health Communication and Social Marketing course where it became the primary framework used to guide the development of comprehensive intervention strategies. Students are introduced to the Canvas early in the course and use it to organize audience research, behaviour change analysis, intervention planning, and evaluation activities. To support implementation, the Canvas is accompanied by lectures, examples, facilitated discussions, structured assignments, coaching, and feedback. These supports increase users’ confidence and ability to apply social marketing concepts while reducing the complexity often associated with intervention planning. The resource has now been used across four academic semesters. Student teams have applied the Canvas to develop interventions addressing healthy aging, immunization uptake, food waste reduction, and sustainable transportation. The diversity of topics has allowed the framework to be tested across multiple behaviour change contexts. An iterative improvement process has been used throughout implementation. Student feedback, classroom observations, project outcomes, and practitioner experiences have informed ongoing refinements to language, structure, visual design, and usability. The Canvas has also been applied in professional consulting projects involving public health, community well-being, social services, and systems change initiatives. These applications have provided additional opportunities to test the framework with diverse audiences and planning environments. Throughout implementation, a key objective has been reducing barriers to adoption. The visual design simplifies complex concepts, the structure provides a clear planning sequence, and the format encourages collaboration among multidisciplinary teams. By increasing accessibility, usability, and confidence, the resource helps practitioners move from understanding social marketing concepts to applying them effectively in practice.
Evaluation Methods and Results
Evaluation has focused on assessing usability, applicability, adoption, and the resource’s ability to support social marketing planning and intervention design. Methods have included classroom observation, student feedback, assignment reviews, project outcomes, facilitated discussions, and practitioner application across consulting projects. Feedback has been collected throughout implementation and used to support continuous refinement. Results indicate that the Canvas improves users’ ability to organize and apply social marketing concepts in a structured and integrated manner. Students consistently report that the framework helps them understand how audience insights, behavioural objectives, social marketing strategy, implementation planning, and evaluation fit together within a single intervention design process. The resource has successfully supported intervention planning across multiple public health and social issues, including driving cessation among older adults, HPV vaccination uptake, food waste reduction, and reducing single-occupancy vehicle use. This demonstrates its adaptability across diverse behaviour change contexts. Users report increased confidence in applying social marketing principles and greater clarity regarding the relationship between audience understanding, strategy development, and intervention design. The structured format also promotes collaboration and discussion among interdisciplinary teams. The Canvas has now been applied across four academic semesters and continues to evolve through ongoing testing and feedback. Its repeated use demonstrates both practicality and sustainability as a professional resource. The most significant outcome has been increased practitioner and student capacity to apply social marketing principles effectively. By translating complex theory into a practical visual planning framework, the Social Marketing Behaviour Change Planning Canvas helps bridge the gap between knowledge and practice while supporting the development of more strategic, audience-centred, and behaviour-focused interventions.
Entry Number: 02