Utilizing Community-Based Social Marketing in a Recycling Intervention With Tailgaters

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to design and implement a pilot intervention following the community-based social marketing (CBSM) process (McKenzie-Mohr & Smith, 1999) and Darnton’s (2008) social marketing framework to change the recycling knowledge and behaviors of tailgaters during home football events for a particular institution of higher education. Researchers asked what effect does a CBSM intervention have on the recycling behavior (via self-reported opinion and actual materials recycled) as well as self-reported knowledge among tailgaters during home football events for a particular IHE. In addition, researchers asked whether the use of students and student-athletes, from the respective IHE, as recycling educators would be better received by tailgaters than some other set of individuals. Both objective and subjective evidence support a conclusion that the pilot intervention enhanced the recycling behavior and recycling knowledge of tailgaters. Subjective evidence supports a conclusion that the tailgaters were more receptive to students and student-athletes than they would have been had some other set of individuals been the recycling educators. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating that community-based social marketing approaches to behavior change, particularly multifaceted approaches incorporating a variety of techniques, are effective in positively changing behavior in a sport tailgating setting. Furthermore, this study provides insights for managers that tailgaters, in a context rife with identifiable constraints, are receptive to educational and behavior change-based interventions and participating in a research study utilizing the methodologies outlined in the current study. The CBSM approach described herein may serve as an effective manner in which to approach these behavior-change initiatives, green or otherwise. The present study provides an example of how sport organizations, and college athletics in particular, can operate to address proenvironmental efforts specific to mitigating the burden that sport places on the physical environment.