An Overview of Social Marketing

1. Social Products
Marketing
Lecture Module 1
An Overview of
Social Marketing
By
Chowdhury Golam Kibria
IBA-JU
2014

2. Evolution of Social Marketing
 According to Donovan and Henley (2010), Social marketing has its
roots in public education campaigns aimed at social change.
 Kotler and Roberto ( 1989 ) report campaigns in ancient Greece
and Rome to free the slaves, and history records many attempts by
governments in particular to mobilize public opinion or educate the
public with respect to health or edicts of the government of the
day.
 These efforts perhaps reached a peak of sinister sophistication with
the expertise of Goebbels in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and similar
attempts by the Allies to rally their own populations to the war
efforts in the 1940s.
 The propaganda expertise developed in the 1940s was then
applied, initially mainly in the United States, to a series of topic
areas such as forest fire safety, crime prevention, cardiovascular
disease, and so on; and is perhaps most evident in the anti-smoking
and HIV/AIDS campaigns of the 1990s that continue today.
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3. Evolution of Social Marketing
 Although some would argue that many of these
early public education campaigns were primarily
media campaigns rather than comprehensive
‘social marketing’ campaigns (Fox and Kotler 1980
), they appeared to promote socially desirable
products(e.g., war bonds) and attitudes (e.g.,
towards women working) in ways indistinguishable
from commercial marketing.
 In any case, social marketing was being applied
far more comprehensively in developing countries
than in developed countries in the 1970s (Manoff
1985 ), in areas such as family planning, rat control
and other hygiene/sanitation areas, agriculture
and attitudes towards women (Rice and Atkin
1989 ).
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4. Evolution of Social Marketing
 The 1980s saw rapid growth, especially in Canada
and Australia, in the application of marketing
concepts to public education campaigns across
a broad range of activities, including
 injury prevention,
 drink-driving,
 seat belt usage,
 illicit drugs,
 smoking,
 exercise, immunization,
 nutrition and heart disease prevention (Egger,
Donovan and Spark1993 ; Fine 1990 ; Kotler and
Roberto 1989 ; Manoff 1985 ; Walsh et al . 1993 ).
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5. Evolution of Social Marketing
 Egger and colleagues ( 1993 ) point to a number of factors influencing this:
 the realisation by behavioural scientists and health professionals that, while
they were expert in assessing what people should do, they were not
necessarily expert in communicating these messages, nor in motivating or
facilitating behavioural change;
 the observed apparent success of marketing techniques in the commercial
area, andthe observation that the discipline of marketing provided a
systematic, research-based approach for the planning and implementation
of mass intervention programmes;
 epidemiological research fi ndings about the relationships between habitual
behaviours and long-term health outcomes led public health experts to
implement campaigns aimed at preventing behaviours that resulted in the so-
called ‘lifestyle’ diseases such as heart disease and cancer; and
 a focus on lifestyle diseases initially led to an emphasis on individual
responsibility and individual behaviour change (Egger and colleagues imply
that this was an undue emphasis), a view consistent with the capitalist
philosophy of individualism and rational free choice, which many saw as
synonymous with commercial marketing.
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6. Evolution of Social Marketing
 Some critics of social marketing (and health promotion)
campaigns have claimed that this individual focus
philosophy largely ignores the social, economic and
environmental factors that infl uence individual health
behaviours.
 While some social marketing campaigns deserve this
criticism, this is not an inherent characteristic of marketing.
 One of the fundamental aspects of marketing – and,
hence, social marketing – is an awareness of the total
environment in which the organisation operates, andhow
this environment influences, or can itself be influenced, to
enhance the marketing activities of the company or health
agency (see Andreasen 2006 ; Buchanan, Reddy and
Hossain 1994 ; Hastings and Haywood 1994 ).
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7. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 The term social marketing was formally
introduced in 1971 (e.g., Basil, 2007; Kotler
& Lee, 2008), when Kotler and Zaltman
(1971) coined the term.
 Kotler and Zaltman (1971) defined social
marketing as: the design, implementation,
and control of programs calculated to
influence the acceptability of social ideas
and involving considerations of product
planning, pricing, communication,
distribution, and marketing research. (p. 5)
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8. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 Over the years, modifications have been made to the
definition of social marketing (e.g., Andreasen, 1995;
French & Blair-Stevens, 2005; Kotler & Roberto,1989).
 Although wording in the definitions of social marketing
varies, the essence of social marketing remains
unchanged.
 Chen, Kotler and Lee (2011) adopt the following definition:
 Social marketing is a process that applies marketing
principles and techniques to create, communicate, and
deliver value in order to influence target audience
behaviors that benefit society as well as the target
audience. (P. Kotler, N. R. Lee, & M. Rothschild, personal
communication, September 19, 2006)
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9. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 As indicated in this definition, several features
are essential to social marketing:
 It is a distinct discipline within the field of
marketing.
 It is for the good of society as well as the
target audience.
 It relies on the principles and techniques
developed by commercial marketing,
especially the marketing mix strategies,
conventionally called the4Ps—product, price,
place, and promotion.
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10. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 Here, two points deserve more of our attention—one is the
integration of the 4Ps; the other is the focus on behavior
change in any social marketing campaign.
 As Bill Smith of the Academy for Educational Development
(AED, 2009), aptly observed:
 the genius of modern marketing is not the 4Ps, or audience
research, or even exchange, but rather the management
paradigm that studies, selects, balances, and manipulates
the 4Ps to achieve behavior change.
 We keep shortening “The Marketing Mix” to the 4Ps. . . . [I]t
is the “mix” that matters most. This is exactly what all the
message campaigns miss—they never ask about the other
3Ps and that is why so many of them fail. (Kotler & Lee,
2008, p. 3)
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11. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 As Kotler and Lee (2008) emphasized, “social marketing
is about influencing behaviors”; “[s]imilar to commercial
sector marketers who sell goods and services, social
marketers are selling behaviors” (p. 8).
 As they elaborated, social marketers typicallytry to
influence their target audience toward four behavioral
changes:
 (1) accept a new behavior (e.g., composting food
waste),
 (2) reject a potential undesirable behavior (e.g.,
starting smoking),
 (3) modify a current behavior (e.g., increasing physical
activity from 3 to 5 days of the week), or
 (4) abandon an old undesirable one (e.g., talking on a
cell phone while driving). (p. 8)
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12. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 As Kotler and Lee (2009) observes, Social marketing as a
term, however, is misunderstood or misused by many.
There are several common misunderstandings to clear
up:
 Don’t confuse social marketing with social advertising.
We have all seen well-meaning public campaigns for
putting out campfires (“Smokey Bear”), getting a good
education (“Go to college”), and not using drugs (“Just
say no to drugs”). Social advertising is an important tool
of social marketing. But social marketing goes well
beyond simply promoting a cause. In fact, promoting
the cause is the last step in developing a full social
marketing campaign.
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13. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 Assure your colleagues, elected officials, and funders
that social marketing is not another term for
manipulation and hard selling. In fact, it is just the
opposite, as it is rarely successful without a customer-
driven, customer-sensitive approach.
 Understand that the term “social marketing” is not the
same as “social networking” or “social media,” although
these are promotional tactics that social marketers may
use.
 • Know that a social marketing strategy may include
providing subsidies for products such as mosquito nets
and HIV drugs. But providing subsidies for products is not
social marketing
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14. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 Donovan and Henley (2010) explain Social Marketing as:
 Social marketing is just one ‘branch’ of marketing,
where the branches reflect the area of application: for
example, sports marketing; business to business or
industrial marketing; not-for-profit marketing; religious
marketing; political marketing and so on.
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15. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 While “social marketing is one of the fastest-growing
areas of marketing and communications, it is also
frequently one of the most misunderstood” (Houghton,
2008, p. 1).
 The most severe and widely spread misunderstanding
about social marketing is that many people seem to
have confused it with social media nowadays.
 In a brief Google search, Cheng, Kotler and Lee (2011)
claim to have found several misuses of social marketing
as social media or social networking which are
discussed in the next slides.
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16. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 Misuse 1: What people are saying about a product in
chat rooms, on blogs, on review sites, and in social
networks is mistakenly regarded as “social marketing.”
 Misuse 2: Web 2.0 technology, “a phase in Web
development where users, and not just professional
content creators, write Web-based, Google-searched
content,” is regarded as a practice of “social
marketing.”
 Misuse 3: Two European countries held the “first
international social advertising and marketing
competition . . . to recognize online marketing and
advertising ideas that incorporate the importance of
social networks.”
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17. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 Misuse 4: A Fortune 500 company, which wants to sell
more pads and tampons to young girls, has found
“social marketing” more effective than traditional
advertising—not because of its initiative for any social
good, but “as a result of the company’s proven ability
to listen to customers and respond effectively” through
social networking.
 Misuse 5: A new university course in the United States on
“the benefits of social networking” and the techniques
on how to use “online networking sites such as
Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn” to increase
“membership or patronage, and potential improvement
of revenues” for companies is called “Social Marketing
in the 21st Century.”
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18. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 According to Cheng, Kotler and Lee (2011), definitions
of social media vary in focus and format (Definitions,
2009) but social media are not social marketing.
 Social media can be communication tools and
channels for social marketing, but merely social
networking—typical of social media—is not the social
marketing that has been defined and practiced since
this term was born in 1971 (Kotler & Zaltman, 1971).
 The confusion between social marketing and social
media has given rise to a serious challenge to the
identity of social marketing as a field of practice,
research, and education.
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19. Evolution and Definition of Terminology
 With regard to defining what can be termed as Social
Marketing and what can not be, the following matrix
can be used as a benchmark.
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20. Distinguishing features of Social Marketing
 There are several important differences between social
and commercial marketing:
 In the case of commercial marketing, the marketing
process aims to sell a tangible product or service.
 In the case of social marketing, the marketing process is
used to sell a desired behavior.
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21. Distinguishing features of Social Marketing
 Not surprisingly, in the commercial sector, the primary
aim is financial gain. In social marketing, the primary aim
is individual or societal gain.
 Commercial marketers choose target audiences that
will provide the greatest volume of profitable sales. In
social marketing, segments are selected based on a
different set of criteria, such as what will produce the
greatest amount of behavior change.
 In both cases, however, marketers seek to gain the
greatest returns for their investment of resources.
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22. Distinguishing features of Social Marketing
 Competitors are very different.
 The commercial marketer sees competitors as other
organizations offering similar goods and services, or ones
that satisfy similar needs.
 Social marketers see the competition as the current or
preferred behavior of the target audience and the
perceived benefits and costs of that behavior.
 This includes any organizations that sell or promote
competing behaviors (such as the tobacco industry).
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23. Distinguishing features of Social Marketing
 Social marketing is more difficult than commercial
marketing.
 Consider the financial resources that the competition has
available to make smoking look cool, to promote alcoholic
beverages, etc.
 And consider the challenges faced when trying to
influence people to give up an addictive behavior (stop
smoking), resist peer pressure (stopping child marriage), go
out of their way (avoid drinking contaminated water), hear
bad news (get an HIV test), risk relationships (avoid taking
hard drugs), or remember something (take pills three times
a day).
 On the other hand, commercial marketing aims at buying
behavior mainly.
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24. Distinguishing features of Social Marketing
 According to Donovan and Henley (2010) the key point
of difference to all other branches of marketing, is that
the social marketer’s goals relate to the wellbeing of the
community , whereas for all others, the marketer’s goals
relate to the wellbeing of the marketer (sales and profits,
members and donations, political representation, etc.).
 If the wellbeing of the community is not the goal, then it
isn’t social marketing .
 Some critics also claim that even if there is wellbeing of
community but wellbeing of marketer is also there, then
it isn’t social marketing.
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25. Distinguishing features of Social Marketing
 According to Donovan and Henley (2010) the key point
of difference to all other branches of marketing, is that
the social marketer’s goals relate to the wellbeing of the
community , whereas for all others, the marketer’s goals
relate to the wellbeing of the marketer (sales and profits,
members and donations, political representation, etc.).
 If the wellbeing of the community is not the goal, then it
isn’t social marketing .
 Some critics also claim that even if there is wellbeing of
community but wellbeing of marketer is also there, then
it isn’t social marketing.
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26. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Donovan and Henley (2010) view that what distinguishes
social marketing from other areas of marketing is the
primary end goal of the campaigners.
 If the Hungarian National Heart Foundation (HNHF), as part
of the European Heart Health Charter were to undertake a
campaign to reduce cardiovascular disease in the
population by reducing the amount of trans-fats in
people’s diets, using advertising and promotions aimed at
increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and via
lobbying manufacturers and fast-food outlets to reduce
their use of saturated fats, this would be social marketing.
 The intended goal is increased health and wellbeing in the
population at large.
 If the HNHF formed a partnership with various fruit and
vegetable marketers in the above campaign, these
commercial partners would not be engaging in social
marketing.
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27. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Not-for-profi t marketing: This refers to not-for-profit
organizations using marketing to achieve organizational goals.
If Cancer UK were to undertake a fundraising and volunteer
recruiting drive using direct mail and mass media advertising,
this is not for-profit marketing. While Cancer UK’s overall aims
are for the common good, raising funds in competition with
other charitable organizations is an organizational goal rather
than a ‘common good’ aim.
 Similarly, if a library used marketing techniques to build its
customer base and attract funds to achieve its goals of growth
and its positioning of having an up-to-date library of music
videos and DVDs, this would be not-for profit marketing.
 However, if the library undertook to increase the literacy of
people in the community it served, and this was the primary
aim of the program, it would be engaging in social marketing.
Such a program might, of course, result in increased use of the
library, but this would be a means to the primary goal .
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28. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Cause-related marketing: This refers to a commercial entity forming
a partnership with a pro-social organization or cause, such that
sales of the commercial organization’s products benefit the pro-
social cause (Webb and Mohr 1998 ).
 In some ways this is similar to sponsorship (or pro-social marketing),
where the pro-social organization allows the commercial entity to
promote its association with the prosocial organization in order to
improve people’s attitudes towards the company and its products.
The difference is that in cause-related marketing, the return to the
pro-social organization is directly related to product sales.
 Again this is not social marketing as the commercial organization’s
main aim is to achieve increased sales or some other marketing
objective; it is simply using the social goal as a means to this end.
 Cause-related marketing has become relatively popular in the
United States ever since 1983 when American Express offered to
donate one US cent to the restoration of the Statue of Liberty for
every use of its card, and US$1 for every new card.
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29. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Pro-social marketing: This refers to a commercial organization
promoting a pro-social cause related in some way to its target
audience. For example, Kellogg in Australia featured messages on
its cereal products about bullying, targeting young children, and a
message about folate from the Northcott Society for Crippled
Children on its Guardian pack.
 Pro-social marketing is similar to sponsorship in that the commercial
organization hopes to achieve an increase in positive attitudes to
itself and its products through an association with the pro-social
organization or issue.
 In many cases, an apparent concern for a social issue is directly
related to the commercial organization’s interests: for example,
insurance companies promoting screening; and cereal
manufacturers providing information on fiber and colorectal
cancer. A variation on this is where the commercial organization
joins with its critics to minimize the harm done by its products: for
example, alcohol marketers mounting or supporting responsible
drinking campaigns; etc.
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30. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Societal marketing : This is sometimes confused with social
marketing. Kotler et al . ( 1998 ) use this term to refer to
companies that act in socially responsible ways in the
achievement of their profit goals (e.g., companies that
voluntarily use biodegradable products in production
processes, recyclable packaging, etc.).
 This was considered an extension of the original marketing
concept from profit through identification and satisfaction of
consumer needs, to profit through identification and
satisfaction of consumer needs ‘in a way that preserves or
improves the consumer’s and the society’s wellbeing’ (Kotler et
al . 1998 ).
 These are closely related to terms corporate social
responsibility, corporate philanthropy and corporate
volunteering but critics are highly skeptical of motives of these
programs.
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31. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Corporate philanthropy: Corporate philanthropy, such as Body
Shop’s secondment of staff to Romanian orphanages and
McDonald’s Ronald McDonald houses, is viewed as altruistic,
with no direct link to increased sales or other commercial goals.
 However, corporate philanthropy has direct and indirect
benefits to the company’s profitability via positive effects on
employees, external stakeholders and the community (Collins
 1993 ), and, along with social responsibility and an interest in
social causes, appears to be on the increase (Drumwright 1996
; Osterhus 1997 ).
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32. Social Marketing – What it is and what it is not
 Social marketing as proposed by many social marketers
(mainly by academics, less so by practitioners), has been
restricted to the classical marketing techniques and originally
excluded areas such as lobbying, legislative and policy action
and structural change.
 However, marketers use a number of tools to achieve sales and
profit goals. Business lobbies government for policies and
legislation that facilitate business operations, such as restricting
competition – especially from imports, tax breaks for research
and development of new products, plant and retail location
incentives, fuel subsidies and so on, all of which have a bearing
on the company’s marketing efforts.
 Is lobbying for the social good ‘social marketing’? From
Donovan and Henley (2010) point of view, if the lobbyist
considers the interaction an exchange and is concerned with
the needs of the lobbied (i.e., the politician or legislator), then it
is social marketing .
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33. Similarities with other branches of Marketing
 Despite these differences, Kotler and Lee see many similarities
between the social and commercial sector marketing
models—ones that are key to any marketer’s success:
 A customer orientation is critical. The marketer knows that the
offer (product, price, place) needs to appeal to the target
audience, solving a problem they have or satisfying a want or
need.
 Exchange theory is fundamental. The target audience must
perceive benefits that equal or exceed the perceived costs. As
Bill Smith at AED often exhorts, we should think of the social
marketing paradigm as “Let’s make a deal!”
 Marketing research is used throughout the process. Only by
researching and understanding the specific needs, desires,
beliefs, and attitudes of target adopters can the marketer build
effective strategies.
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34. Similarities with other branches of Marketing
 Audiences are segmented. Strategies must be tailored to the
unique wants, needs, resources, and current behavior of
differing market segments.
 All Four Ps are considered. A winning strategy requires an
integrated approach, one utilizing all the tools in the toolbox,
not just relying on advertising and other persuasive
communications.
 Results are measured and used for improvement. Feedback
isvalued and seen as “free advice” on how to do better next
time.
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35. Application of Social Marketing
 Social marketing efforts are most often initiated and sponsored
by those working in government agencies or nonprofit
organizations.
 However, in the nonprofit sector, marketing is more often used
to support utilization of the organization’s services (such as
tuberculosis testing), purchases of ancillary products and
services (such as at museum stores), volunteer recruitment,
advocacy efforts, and fundraising.
 In the government sector, marketing activities are also used to
support utilization of government agency products and
services (such as the post office and community clinics) and to
engender citizen support and compliance.
 Thus, social marketing efforts are only one of many marketing
activities conducted by those involved in nonprofit or public-
sector marketing.
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36. Application of Social Marketing
 Social marketing principles and techniques can be used to
benefit society in general and the target audience in particular
in several ways. There are four major arenas that social
marketing efforts have focused on over the years: health
promotion, injury prevention, environmental protection, and
community mobilization (Kotler & Lee, 2008).
 Health promotion–related behavioral issues that could benefit
from social marketing include tobacco use, heavy/binge
drinking, obesity, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, fruit and
vegetable intake, high cholesterol, breastfeeding, cancers,
birth defects, immunizations, oral health, diabetes, blood
pressure, and eating disorders.
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37. Application of Social Marketing
 Injury prevention–related behavioral issues that could benefit
from social marketing include drinking and driving, seatbelts,
head injuries, proper safety restraints for children in cars,
suicide, drowning, domestic violence, gun storage, school
violence, fires, injuries or deaths of senior citizens caused by
falls, and household poisons.
 Environmental protection–related behavioral issues that could
benefit from social marketing include waste reduction, wildlife
habitat protection, forest destruction, toxic fertilizers and
pesticides, water conservation, air pollution from automobiles
and other sources, composting garbage and yard waste,
unintentional fires, energy conservation, litter (such as cigarette
butts), and watershed protection.
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38. Application of Social Marketing
 Community mobilization–related behavioral issues that could
benefit from social marketing include organ donation, blood
donation, voting, literacy, identity theft, and animal adoption
(Kotler & Lee, 2008).
 For a more detailed review of these applications of social
marketing, please see Kotler and Lee’s 2008 text, Social
Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good, pages 18–21.
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