Strategizing for social change in nonprofit contexts: A typology of communication approaches in public communication campaigns

• Date: 01 June 2019
• Published date: 01 June 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21346
• Author: Fabienne Bünzli,Martin J. Eppler

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Strategizing for social change in nonprofit contexts:

A typology of communication approaches in public

communication campaigns

Fabienne Bünzli | Martin J. Eppler

Institute for Media and Communications

Management, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen,

Switzerland

Correspondence

Fabienne Bunzli, MCM-HSG Institute for Media

and Communications Management, University of

St. Gallen, Blumenbergplatz 9, St. Gallen 9000,

Switzerland.

Email: fabienne.buenzli@unisg.ch

Public communication campaigns aim to create social

change by influencing audiences’behaviors and thus help

nonprofit organizations fulfill their mission. These cam-

paigns, however, often fail to deliver their anticipated

impact. Using public relations research as a theoretical

lens, this paper’s contribution is twofold: first, we develop

a typology that classifies the different communication

approaches used in public communication campaigns.

Based on one of the most prominent public relations theo-

ries, the Four Models of Public Relations, we differentiate

communication approaches along the dimensions of com-

munication purpose and communication style. Combining

these two dimensions in a typology, we identify the fol-

lowing communication approaches: directing, platform-

ing, mobilizing, and involving. We provide numerous

real-life examples of public campaigns for each one. Sec-

ond, we formulate propositions about these communica-

tion approaches’effectiveness relying on a key concept of

public relations research: namely, audience segmentation.

Using the transtheoretical model, we show that audiences

can be segmented along five “stages of readiness to adopt

a promoted behavior.”Conceptualizing behavior change

as an iterative, dynamic process that entails stage pro-

gresses as well as backdrops, we derive how audiences’

“stage of readiness”relates to the effectiveness of the

identified communication approaches.

KEYWORDS

analysis, nonprofit management, public communication

campaigns, public relations, strategic, strategic

communication

Received: 15 January 2018 Revised: 5 November 2018 Accepted: 9 November 2018

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21346

Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2019;29:491–508. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nml © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 491

1|INTRODUCTION

Resolving social problems lies at the very heart of nonprofit organizations’(NPOs’) mission. There-

fore, NPOs are a “first line of defense”where social issues can be addressed (Eikenberry & Kluver,

2004, p. 136; Jones, 2018, p. 492; Salamon, 1997, pp. 10–11).

Nonprofit organizations also play an important role in mobilizing public attention to

social problems and needs, serving as conduits for free expression and social change

(Eikenberry & Kluver, 2004, p. 136).

However, to ultimately fulfill their mission, NPOs need to use strategic communication (Kelly, 2000,

p. 91; Shumate, Cooper, Pilny, & Pena-y-lillo, 2017, pp. 160–167). That means, deliberate communi-

cation to reach predefined, mission-related goals (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, van Ruler, Vercic, & Srira-

mesh, 2007, p. 4).

Public communication campaigns designate a particular type of strategic communication and are

referred to as “instances of the broad category of strategic communication, although by no means the

only instances”(Botan, 1997, p. 188). Yet, due to their potential to contribute to achieving

mission-related goals, public communication campaigns have gained increasing relevance in non-

profit contexts. Through shaping people’s behaviors, these campaigns aim to resolve social problems

and create social changes (Coffman, 2002, p. 5):

Public communication campaigns can be defined as purposive attempts to inform or

influence behaviors in large audiences within a specified time period using an organized

set of communication activities and featuring an array of mediated messages in multiple

channels generally to produce noncommercial benefits to individuals and society.

(Atkin & Rice, 2013, p. 3)

Objectives of such campaigns may include eating healthier, drinking less, recycling more, signing

a petition for more strict environmental laws, or participating in demonstrations against human rights

violations. Shaping behaviors, however, often requires the achievement of further (precedent) out-

comes such as changes in target audiences’knowledge, attitudes, norms and skills (Coffman, 2002,

pp. 3–5; Lundgren & McMakin, 2013, p. 359).

Yet, there is only little evidence of the effectiveness of public communication campaigns (Logan

et al., 2015, p. 1424). Across hundreds of studies, the verdict is that the record of success is rather

meager. While public communication campaigns have proved their utility to raise awareness, they

have often failed to achieve the intended behavioral outcomes (Dervin & Foreman-Wernet, 2013,

p. 149). According to Atkin and Rice (2013), this modest impact is also due to poorly conceived,

inappropriate communication approaches (p. 15). The current state of research on public communica-

tion campaigns gives a strong hint why this might be the case. First, there is a lack of theoretical con-

cepts that identify and systematize the different communication approaches used in public

communication campaigns (Oku et al., 2016, p. 4). “To our knowledge, there have been no attempts

to develop a framework for organising the range of communication interventions in campaign activi-

ties”(Kaufman et al., 2017, p. 3). This, in turn, creates the situation that NPOs may not be aware of

the various communication approaches available to them (Kaufman et al., 2017, p. 2). Second, and

closely related to the first aspect, research provides only little insights about the effectiveness of the

different communication approaches. NPOs are left on their own when it comes to deciding which

communication approach to use to guide their audiences towards adopting a particular behavior (Oku

et al., 2016, p. 2; Sharkey, Martin, Cerveau, Wetzler, & Berzal, 2014, p. 11).

492 BÜNZLI AND EPPLER