Author Description

This project was undertaken to help meet the Department of Conservation's (DOC's) goal of increasing the value of historic heritage among the New Zealand public. It includes the development of goals, objectives, and advice for designing and implementing a social marketing intervention (the application of commercial marketing techniques to a social issue). Social marketing is used to influence behavioural change through interventions such as media campaigns and/or provision of information or services. To develop the advice, a literature review was undertaken, programme planning processes were applied, and key DOC staff were consulted through workshops. The literature review showed that limited research of relevance to New Zealand has been undertaken to date. However, there are indications that New Zealanders tend to lack engagement with historic heritage, despite viewing it as important. Therefore, a two-tiered approach for delivering the social marketing intervention is recommended. First, community planning approaches would be used to engage communities. Individuals in those communities would then be supported to become better engaged with their historic heritage. Achievement of the recommended goal of "increasing engagement with historic heritage" can be measured through changes in specific behaviours that reflect five key elements of heritage value: historic, cultural, physical, aesthetic, and social. It is suggested that a social marketing intervention is piloted in a specific geographic community to assess its usefulness using a community-based approach in a particular context.