Soi Dog Foundation’s social marketing- and communication strategies : Which social marketing strategies and multimodal tools SDF has used throughout the decade

Abstract: During the past decade, there has been a growing disgust in Thailand with opposition to eating dogs in Asia and activists have unitedly with organizations encouraged the Thai government to adopt stricter animal rights laws in order to prevent the illegal dog meat trade. One of these organizations is the Thai animal welfare organization Soi Dog Foundation (SDF), that has also contributed with a controlled dog population on the Thai island Phuket and officially made it the first rabies free province in Thailand. Since SDF is solely volunteer and donations based it becomes relevant to examine the reasons behind their success as a non-governmental and nonprofit organization in a third world country. The thesis’s speculations regarding SDF’s historical development aims to help SDF and other NGOs in Asia that share the same goals streamline their marketing. This paper is a bachelor’s thesis including a minor field study in Thailand. It is a qualitative study with empirical observation and participation that analyzes SDF’s social marketing strategies. The study also includes a multimodal analysis of the focus organization’s materials fighting the illegal dog-meat trade and smuggling. The chosen materials are published during the beginning and end of the recent decade and are examined in order to determine which semiotic and multimodal tools they have used throughout this time period to spread awareness of the phenomenon. It is also examined whether SDF composes their texts and structures their materials differently depending on the target group. The research questions are answered with the help of semiotics and analytical tools from the systematic-functional grammar method. It will be briefly analyzed whether SDF attempts to build emotional appeals into their materials with the help of a model called ‘emotional branding’. The thesis’s approach to the analysis of SDF’s communication planning is based on the contingency approach, which implies that it takes variating methods in order to achieve a goal. The Four C’s model will be used in this study when discussing strategies NGOs can use to cooperate or create the desired relationship with their nation’s government. The agenda setting theory is implemented in order to examine SDF’s social marketing strategies. The results of this thesis show that SDF has adapted their materials to the ideal layout structures in modern time throughout the decade and frequently adapts them to their culturally variating target groups. The analysis also displays that the organization uses multiple strategies consisting of multiple minor steps in order to reach a certain goal. Results imply that SDF and other NGOs should focus on social media and their relation to the public, in order to eventually affect the majority public opinion and influence the government laws regarding animal rights.