The Theoretical Framework of Social Marketing - Essay Example

Social Marketing Social marketing is a calculated process aimed towards bringing about a behavioral change for a social good. It is a modification of the traditional product and service marketing. In other words it's the planning and implementation of programs intended to bring about social change using concepts from commercial marketing. Social marketing applies marketing as well as other concepts and techniques such as advertising, consumer research and promotions etc. In fact research is vital as social marketing has a bottom up approach where it listens to the needs of the target audience and builds around those needs which emphasizes the fact that social marketing revolves around and focuses on consumers. (Canada Health, 2005) Social marketing is not a new concept it has been around for a long time in one form or the other. Ever since there have been societies people have tried to persuade, inform, motivate and some how gain acceptance for their ideas and hence bring about a change. But social marketing was first introduced as a discipline in 1970 by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman when they realized that the same marketing principles and strategies used to sell products can be used to sell and promote ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler emphasized that the only difference between marketing and social marketing was that in social marketing the aim is not to maximize the benefit for the seller but to bring about a social change. (Weinreich, 2006) Six basic principles of social management set it apart it from other marketing approaches. Firstly the marketing conceptual frame work is intended to bring about a change that is the ultimate goal of marketing is to influence an action. Secondly there should be recognition of competition as recommended behaviors almost always have competition that should be understood and addressed. Thirdly there is a consumer orientation which is the focus on meeting the needs of one's consumers. Fourthly seminal research is to be used to identify with consumer's desires and needs that is programs will be more successful if they are based on the target audience's own perceptions and views. Fifthly there is to be a segmentation and careful selection of the target audience as audiences are rarely consistent in their perceptions or likely responses to marketing efforts and thus should be separated. And sixthly there is to be constant monitoring and modification of program tactics as the market is constantly changing and the management should be ready to rapidly adjust and alter its strategies. (Social Marketing Institute, n.d) Social marketing relies on the commercial marketing's conceptual frame work to guide program development and implementation. This frame work places the consumer at the heart of the exchange process where they try to maximize their wants and needs and minimize their costs of doing so. There fore social marketing identifies consumer wants and needs and tries to develop ways to satisfy them. In other words social marketing focuses on the consumer and tries to learn what the consumer wants and thus attempts to provide for the his or her needs. The planning process takes this consumer focus into account by concentrating on the elements of the marketing mix. This refers to the Ps of social marketing which incorporate the four Ps of marketing which are price, product, place and promotion as well as a few others. (Meischke, n.d) The first "P" is the social marketing product which might not always be in physical form. Products can be tangible such as condoms, ideas such as environment protection, habits or practices such as healthy eating and even services such as regular medical check ups or exams. For the product to be effective the consumers have to identify the fact that they have a problem and that the product offers a good solution to that problem. Here research can be used to determine the consumer's perception of their problem and how willing they are to solve that problem. (Weinreich, 2006) The second "P" is price which refers to what the consumers have to give in exchange for the social marketing product. The price may be measured in terms of monetary units or intangibles like time and effort or the danger of embarrassment and disapproval. Thus in other words price refers to the monetary as well as non monetary cost of the product where non monetary costs include social psychological or convenience costs. As mentioned before consumers look to maximize benefit and minimize costs thus is the benefits of the product out weigh the costs it is much more likely to be adopted. Setting the price is not that easy many issues have to be dealt with before an appropriate price is set for the product. For example is the price is too low consumers might question the quality of the product and thus may perceive it as being of low in quality. On the other hand if the price of the product is too high it might be too expensive for most of the consumers to adopt or purchase. Therefore the marketers should keep these perceptions and benefits in mind and thus set a nominal fee that does not out weigh cost or jeopardize the perceptions of the quality of the product. Information regarding the consumer's perceptions of costs and benefits could be obtained through effective research. (Hendrika Meischke, n.d) The third "P" is place which refers to the path through which the product reaches the consumers. For tangible products the place is much simpler to explain as it refers to the distribution system which includes ware houses, trucks, and retail outlets where it is sold or where it is given out free of charge. But for intangibles like training or information the path the product takes to reach the consumer is less obvious. The place for such intangible product includes shopping malls, clinics, public announcements or in house demonstrations. Before the place can be set up the lifestyles and activities as well as the satisfaction and experience of the consumers with the present delivery system have to be determined. And also while establishing the distribution sites it should be kept in mind that if the product is found at appropriate and accessible places there would be a greater chance of its awareness and use. Again research can be used as an important tool to deal with such issues and thus it may provide answers that may help in setting up an ideal distribution system. (Carol A. Bryant; James H. Lindenberger, 2008) The finally the fourth "P" is promotion which is a very important aspect of social marketing. Promotion refers to the ways in which the consumers are made aware of the product and its benefits. It consists of the integrated use of advertising, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing and other such avenues. Successful promotional strategies may also consist of a number of communication elements such as objectives for each target audience, guiding principles for making effective messages, designation of suitable communication channels and trustworthy spokespersons. The focus of promotional tactics is to create and maintain demand for the product. There are many ways of achieving these objectives like ads, public service announcements, editorials or even media events. Research is again very vital and can be use to design effective promotional plans and research can on its own become a means of gaining publicity via news stories and articles. The above were the four Ps of marketing but as mentioned earlier there are other additional social marketing Ps as well. The first of which is publics it refers to both internal and external groups which make up the wide range of audiences that social marketers have to deal with. External audiences includes target audiences, policy makers etc where as internals consist of those who are in some way directly involved with either the approval or implementation of the program. Another is partnership, organizations and communities have to team up in order to be more effective as social issues are complex and can not be dealt with by only one firm. Another is policy, social programs can bring about change but some times that's not enough in many cases policies need to be altered so that the change can be sustained. And lastly pure strings which have to be maintained as these are the sources through which funds for social marketing programs are collected. (Weinreich, 2006) Other than the conceptual frame work it relies on five other principles that were briefly stated earlier. The first of which is consumer orientation, as it has been made stressed upon time and time again through out this paper that consumer wants and needs are given utmost priority. Consumers current beliefs, attitudes and behaviors patterns are taken in to account as well as social, cultural and environmental factor that effect these behaviors and then keeping all the above in mind products are created to influence and bring about change in those patterns for a social good. Also consumer research which is necessary as consumer orientation requires detailed analysis of consumer perceptions about product benefits and cost as well as other factors such as competitions costs and benefits. Drawing on a theoretical frame work research has to identify the mix of internal and external factors that effect consumer's behavior the most. (Kreps, 1996) It was mentioned earlier that social marketing brings together a lot of theories from marketing, social psychology, sociology, cognitive psychology etc. Theories are very important as they can help identify the combination of factors that act as the foundations for many behaviors and thus need to be taken in to consideration when preparing for an intervention. There are many different models and theories that can make up the theoretical frame work for social marketing such as the health belief model, the social cognitive theory, the theory of reasoned action etc. Most of these models and theories originate from behavioral and social sciences which elaborate on the relationship between human behaviors and various individual, social and environmental factors. (Dahl, 2008) Theories are incorporated in social marketing as they prove to be useful in many ways. Firstly they arrange the concepts in sequences and thus make it easier for marketers to map out the reasons behind the problems. They also serve as a check list to ensure that important matters have not been overlooked while carrying out the research for example marketing of any sort draws from the exchange theory from economics which covers factors such as cost, benefits etc. After research has verified the applicability of certain concepts they can be used to segment the target audience. Theories can also help in choosing channels through which the change may be brought about for example the diffusion theory states that when most of the target audience is already performing the task others can be influenced through observation and friendly advice. And finally theoretical related determinates can add to the credibility of evaluations and even help explain why the end result came out in a certain way, they can even act as determinants when the behavior its self takes long time to develop or is unobservable in the short run. (CDCynergy, n.d) Other than that the remaining principles include audience segmentation which is a distinctive factor of social marketing as it divides the target audience into separate groups. This divide is possible and necessary as different people have different perspectives regarding and thus respond to change in different ways. Groups might differ in terms of their wants and needs, in terms of the prices they are willing to pay, the benefits they want to avail and also some might be influenced more easily with lesser resources. And the last principle that is continuous monitoring and revision is also necessary as the market in terms of people want and desires keep on changing. And marketers have to keep up with these changes in order to bring about reflective changes in behavior. Also revision is important as some activities may prove to be ineffective in the long run and thus may have to be altered in order to sustain the change in behaviors. (Bryant; Lindenberger, 2008) Today social marketing has become a well known discipline in many countries and thus it plays a vital role in health, environment and other imperative issues in these countries. Recently many health and environmental campaigns have been launched for examples anti smoking, drug abuse, drinking and driving; HIV/AIDS, nutrition, heart disease, mental health, breast cancer, birth control, clean water, energy conservation and forest preservation campaigns have been launched. Other economical and educational campaigns have also been launched such as literacy and job availability as well as campaigns on issues such as domestic violence; human right violation, racism etc have also been launched. And thus social marketing is set out to achieve its original goal of influencing change for a social good. (Health Canada, 2005) Works Cited 1. Social Marketing Institute, "Social Marketing", http://www.social-marketing.org/sm.html 2. Health Canada, "What is Social Marketing", http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/activit/marketsoc/whatis-qui_e.html, 2005 3. Kotler, Phillip and Eduardo L. Roberto. "Social Marketing" New York: The Free Press. 1989 4. Nedra Kline Weinreich, "What is Social Marketing", http://www.social-marketing.com/Whatis.html, 2006 5. Marvin E. Goldberg, Martin Fishbein, Susan E. Middlestadt, "Social Marketing Theoretical and Practical Perspectives", Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1997 6. Stephan Dahl, "Theories in Health and Social Marketing-The Health Belief Model", http://stephan.dahl.at/teaching-material/social-health-marketing/theories-in-health-social-marketing-the-health-belief-model/, 2008 7. Gary L. 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Center for Advanced Studies in Nutrition and Social Marketing, University of California, Davis, CA, 2000. Read More