Broadly defined, social marketing is the practice of applying traditional, commercial marketing techniques with the goal of influencing the behavior of the target audience. Most commonly, the intent is to achieve a positive social impact. To date, there has been scant use of social marketing for the purpose of influencing forestry-related behaviors, although potential benefits from broader use of this approach are now recognized. Perhaps the greatest opportunity for successfully applying social marketing techniques to forestry may be related to engaging family forest owners in behaviors that support improved forest management. Given that there are a variety of human behaviors impacting the success of sustainable forestry initiatives, social marketing may be an important tool for influencing these behaviors to achieve positive change. Dovetail Partners, September, 2006.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org