Social Marketing was born as a discipline in late 19th century. Professor Philip Kotler is credited as the founder of Social Marketing as he first coined this term in 1972. Philip Kotler defined Social Marketing as all of the marketing activities that seek to influence social behavior of people to benefit the society as a whole.
The Social Marketing Institute gives the definition of Social Marketing as ‘the planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change using concepts from commercial marketing’.
According to this definition, Social Marketing is using commercial marketing methods to achieve the benefits of social change. This may include informing the target audience (a certain group of the public) about dangerous or unhealthy behaviors, and persuade those people to act in a certain way, the better way.
Implications of Social Marketing
Social Marketing tries to balance the interests of three parties instead of just maximizing earnings for business owners – the customers, the company and the society.
That is why the primary focus of Social Marketing is not only on the final customer who buys goods and services from the business so the firm can earn money, but both on what customers need and want as well as the whole society’s interest.
Of course, the business managers still need to identify what customers need and want to fulfill the demand in the most profitable way. In addition to that, the business should create long-term welfare for the society. This can be done through paying workers decent wages, preventing exploitation of natural resources, promotion of recycling, appropriate waste management, etc.
Good societal-marketing practices can create a very important competitive advantage for the firm. Customers love buying products from businesses that are seen as socially responsible. It is because it makes them feel good about themselves as being ‘good’ people and makes them believe that they are doing something good for others.
If successful, the firm will be able to turn its socially responsible practices into a Unique Selling Point (USP) which will become a strong asset that can be further used especially for businesses using Asset-Led Marketing.
Who uses Social Marketing?
Social Marketing is mainly used by non-profit social organizations such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Charities, as well as public corporations owned and controlled by the government.
These business organizations will try to use marketing practices to promote their social causes.
In addition, Social Marketing is also used by for-profit commercial organizations and for-profit social organizations in the private sector.
The reason for profit-oriented businesses is to use Social Marketing to enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts. By contributing to the society through ethical actions and supporting the local communities, this will help with improving corporate image.
Examples of companies using Social Marketing approach
Example 1: Health promotion campaigns such as AIDS awareness, anti-smoking, skin cancer, breast cancer, etc. have started using and applying Social Marketing in the late 1980s
Example 2: Anti-drunk-driving promotions by producers of alcoholic beverages such as Pernod Ricard, the owner of famous brands including Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal and Ballantine’s.
Example 3: Condoms manufacturers such as Durex promoting the use of contraceptives to reduce the number of unwanted teenage pregnancies.
Example 4: Campaigns against animal cruelty. Some ethical companies such as The Body Shop gets its raw materials from sustainable sources produced in non-environmentally damaging ways. The company does not support testing its products using animals. Other examples include banning sales of shark fins or the sale of dolphin meat.
Example 5: Supporting casualties of natural disasters through collecting donations by charitable organizations such as The Red Cross or The Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) in the UK.
Is Market Research required for Social Marketing?
Market Research is not only important for Commercial Marketing, but has a crucial role in Social Marketing as well.
Firstly, through Market Research, the social problem(s) can be discovered. Then, the marketers can find out the people’s perceptions of the issue in question. For example, the society may not be in favor of recycling rubbish or street littering is still a common spread.
Secondly, Market Research can help to determine what actions should be taken to deal with to solve that social problem.
And thirdly, in order to change the behavior of the general society to correct the issue, Market Research can help to find the ways of educating people about the benefits of changing their behaviors.
Advantages of Social Marketing
The benefits of Social Marketing include:
- Puts all stakeholders as the priority. As Social Marketing is addressed to the whole society, it considers not only the demands and benefits for a single customer or the target customer group, but also the effects on other business stakeholders who are involved in some way in the firm’s activities. The society includes other members of the public such as suppliers, workers and managers, the local communities, the government, competitors, lenders, etc.
- Helps to change human behavior for better. Social Marketing is all about influencing social behavior of the general public to benefit the whole society. Instead of selling products to customers as commercial marketers do, societal marketing sells great ideas, positive attitudes and correct behaviors to promote the positive change.
Disadvantages of Social Marketing
The drawbacks of Social Marketing include:
- Risk of poor results. Social Marketing is not effective in the short-term because of a simple reason. It takes a very long time to change human behaviors. For changing one single habit, it may take as long as one month of diligent daily practice. Sometimes, it may not even be possible to make people completely stop doing something, e.g. give up highly addictive smoking or walk to work instead of driving a car.
- Can be misleadingly used to boost profits. When Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is used only to maximize profits for the firm, it is highly unethical. It raises questions what the central point of Marketing is leaving the customers confused. Is the company just acting as a good guy because it helps the firm to earn more money? Or, is the company really a good guy because it wants to minimize the damage of the natural environment and lower costs to the society?
To summarize, remember that in addition to using three popular commercial approaches to doing Marketing, the business can also use Social Marketing. It can be equally effective especially when the business is doing something really valuable for the society.
