The Significance of Social Marketing - Essay Example

The Significance of Social Marketing Introduction The significance of social marketing remains in its capacity to enhance social changes especially through influencing definite behavioural patterns of a defined population segment. The concept came to its original constitution in 1971 with Kotler and Zaltman publishing their article "Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change" where the preliminary thoughts of expanding and widening the possibilities of marketing was initially discussed and shared. It was primarily consolidated that social marketing could be understood as part of an effort to broaden the domain of marketing beyond the traditional frameworks in order to establish what could be called generic marketing (Kotler & Levy, 1969; Kotler & Zaltman, 1971; also see Andreasen 2000). While marketing can be defined as “a universal business philosophy [claiming] that customers become the pivotal point around which the entire operations of business revolve” (Neelamegham 1994, p.21), the term “social marketing” denotes the marketing of commodities enjoying social priority” (p 836). Social marketing could be differentiated from commercial marketing on the ground that social marketing is the application of commercial marketing concepts and tools to programs designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences where the primary objective is to improve the welfare of the target audiences and/or the society of which they are a part (Andreasen 1994. p 110). According to Pilkington (2007) an important difference between commercial and social marketing lies in the determinants of success. “[W]hereas commercial marketing depends on the effective identification of a selling opportunity successfully seized and exploited, social marketing requires the involvement of the whole society” (328). He adds that “failure in social marketing is never on part of the consumer but of society” (342). Kotler and Lee (2009) observes the purpose of social marketing as developing “constructive approaches to support desired behavior changes” (48). For them the basic principle in this context is to increase the audience’s perception that the benefits of the new behavior outweigh the costs of adopting it. The new behavior must be seen as having higher value than the current behavior. Hence the authors depict the behavioural transformation envisaged by the programme and the value of such changes through the market oriented cost-benefit analysis. The basic motivational factors in social marketing moves much beyond the traditional goals of customer satisfaction and profit set by the commercial marketing enterprises to human welfare at large although it uses similar themes of commercial marketing in terms of planning, pricing, communication and analysis. The fundamental concepts of 4ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place and Promotion – have a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of the social marketing efforts also. This paper is a brief attempt towards understanding what impact the Ps concept of marketing have on the social marketing efforts. It discusses these differing impacts in the context of instances drawn from the, albeit short, history of social marketing. This paper consists of four sections including this introduction. In the next section I shall provide an introduction to the Ps concept and its differing connotations within both commercial and social marketing spheres. In the third section a discussion is initiated regarding how the Ps of marketing might apply campaigns to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society. The fourth section concludes the paper. The 4 ‘P’s of marketing In a micro sense the difference between commercial and social marketing emerge from the differences in ways the concept of 4 Ps – Product, Price, Place and Promotion – function in these two, albeit oriented towards different goals and purposes, marketing enterprises. In a rather simpler sense product in commercial marketing imply such elements as the design of packaging, brand, trademark, life cycle of the product and the development of new products whereas in social marketing product implies the basic programme charted with the basic motivation of initiating changes in the particular behaviour patterns of the target audience. In commercial marketing price means setting profitable and justifiable costs or values, while in social marketing, it is about what a consumer must give up in order to receive the programme’s benefits. The costs here may be in the tangible forms of money, time or travel or in intangible forms of changes in beliefs or habits. In commercial marketing place covers the physical distribution of goods, while in social marketing it means the channels the programme uses to reach the target audience, such as mass media or community. In commercial marketing promotion includes selling, advertising and sales promotion, while in social marketing it is about how the exchange is communicated, and appeals used for doing that.  Additional conceptual Ps are introduced in marketing in different contexts which broadly include, 1) Politics – the handling of complex and controversial issues involved and the effects of political interference in the development and execution of the programme, 2) Policies – the extent to which the environmental and social conditions shall sustain the programme’s implications, 3) Partnerships – the identification of other similar organisations with whom a tie up is possible, 4) Public – including the target audience as also the wider public who needs to be involved within the larger range of the programme. The list does not end here and many more conceptual categories are added in different contexts depending upon their use and applicability. For the purposes of this paper I stick on to the fundamental 4 Ps of product, price, place and promotion in order to understand its diverging uses and effects in the context of social marketing. 4 Ps in successful Social Marketing campaigns According to Kotler and Lee (2009) the 4 Ps concept improve the attractiveness of the [prescribed] behaviour and sometimes offer goods or services to support the behaviour (product). They alter the price or cost of one behaviour versus another (price). They make it easier to move into the new behaviour (place). They promote the short-term and long-term benefits of the new behaviour (promotion)” (48-49). While thinking about the basic issue at hand before us, that is how the Ps of marketing in social marketing might apply not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society, the foremost issue one needs to have in mind is the very purpose of social marketing itself. That social marketing, different from the motives of commercial marketing, is oriented towards larger social goals and in bringing desirable changes in behavioural patterns of the target population. There are fundamental differences between social and commercial marketing in terms of objectives, priorities and resources. Those who initiate social marketing plan its implementation in order to benefit the target population rather than benefitting themselves. In this sense social marketing functions contra to the commercial marketing enterprises. The use of Ps concept in social marketing not only enables to adopt a systematic approach in devising the strategies to be adopted but also enhances the possibilities of making an effort a fruitful one to the extent of attaining its objectives. Nevertheless as I already mentioned the function of Ps in social marketing is primarily intended towards benefitting the target population rather than the marketer itself. For instance the “Mass Media and Health Practices Project” in Honduras in the early 80s, the first major test of social marketing applied to reduction in infant mortality in developing countries. The project soon assumed the form of a full-fledged social marketing programme encompassing a wide range of life situations as data poured in from grassroot level consumer research efforts. The programme was conducted successfully from 1980 to 83 and was organised to reduce infant mortality caused by diarrhoeal dehydration in developing countries. The main objective of the programme was to enable the mothers to administer a new product – an oral dehydration solution – to their children. The mothers were supported in assessing the requirement of the new product for the child, identifying its ingredients and preparing it (especially in Africa where mothers were taught about how to mix the solution at home with water, salt and sugar) and administering it safely to their child. The intended audience of the programme was rural mothers and grandmothers of children under the age of five, and primary health care workers, aimed to: The Researches conducted at grassroot levels pointed out the need for new products, lower complexity costs and massive teaching of new skills. The product was then differentiated in the two test sites, home-mix sugar, salt and water in Africa and pre-package salts in Latin America. In Africa a mass mobilization strategy was taken, driven by the use of a radio course that involved thousands of women learning and then practicing to mix the home-mix safely. In Latin America the program evolved from a package salts to a broader childcare during diarrhea product. In Latin America infant mortality due to diarrheal dehydration dropped from 47.5% to 25% in the first year. Both programs became models for a decade of child survival programs that successfully attacked infant mortality in a dozen countries around the world (Kendall, Foote and Martorell 1983; also see Mass Media and Health Practices Project in Honduras a & b). Another major instance relevant in this context is the “Stop Aids” programme organised in Switzerland in the late 1980s. According to social-marketing.org it remains as one of the longest running and most carefully evaluated social marketing programs for AIDS prevention in the world. Its initial audience was gay men, but as the epidemic began to expand it reached out to a truly national audience. It’s most important difference was to constantly measure not only condom use, but changing attitudes toward the epidemic. Condom use among men between the ages of 17-30 yrs old, for example increased from 8% to almost 50% between '87 and '90. Thus although the programme as such involved multiple products including condom, anti-discrimination and later needle change on a larger account it basically involved changes in people’s attitudes and practices towards safe sex and towards the disease as such. The Swiss were convinced that as long as AIDS was feared, risky sex would remain underground. The price of prevention was lower than the price of high-risk behaviour, because the price of prevention no longer included the fear of discovery. In addition to condom promotion and needle exchange being promoted on radio and TV, community groups were organized, a special Hot rubber brand created for gay men, and new distribution points opened throughout the country for condoms and for counselling and testing (Stop Aids). These are clear instances for the effective use of social marketing where the 4 Ps are clearly defined and all of which, and their effective combination, contribute to the success of programmes to the extent of benefitting the target audience in a long term level rather than the marketer itself. In the case of Mass Media and Health Practices Project in Honduras the combination of the product (the solution), the price (the economic and cultural/religious barriers for using the solution), the place (a carefully chosen site accessible for the whole or a representative population with the field worker directly conversing with them demonstrating the practical aspects of preparing and serving the mix) and promotion (In the process of the training programme a media campaign was implemented to reinforce the health care instruction effort s part of which print materials and radio advertisements were developed to spread basic messages in this context) was successfully combined to produce the desired effects on the behaviour patterns of the targeted audience which included mothers and grandmothers of children aged below five years. In the instance of Stop Aids the combination of 4 Ps as we discussed earlier and their use in that specific context still remain as a model for other similar programmes in other contexts as well. Conclusion Kotler and Lee (2009) suggests to consider the upstream as well instead of social marketing programmes restricting itself to downstream only. For them the downstream symbolises the individual behavioural change whereas the upstream stands for those groups of individuals and other external factors which can influence and facilitate changes at the individual level of behaviour. Social marketing is definitely much more complicated than commercial marketing and it requires sufficient attention paid to the numerous nuances involved and that are specific to the respective social, cultural and economic contexts. The combination of 4 Ps enhances the possibilities of addressing these nuances so that the programme as such can benefit the target audience as a whole. The success of social marketing relies on the extent to which the programme addresses target audience’s needs, wants, perceptions, preferences, values, and barriers and turning this understanding into an effective plan to achieve the desired behavior outcomes, upstream as well as downstream. Simple suggestions for behavioural change is not sufficient enough. References Andreasen A. 1994. Social Marketing: Its Definition and Domain, Journal of Marketing and Public Policy. 13(1): 108-114. Andreasen, A. R. (2000) ‘Intersector transfer of marketing knowledge’, in Bloom, P. N. and Gundlach, G. T. (eds.), Handbook of Marketing and Society, Sage Publications: London – New Delhi. Also available at: http://www.social-marketing.org/papers/intersectortransfer.html. Kendall, Carl, Dennis Foote and Reynaldo Martorell, 1983. “Anthropology, Communications, and Health: The Mass Media and Health Practices Program in Honduras.” Human Organisation 42 (4): 353-360. Kotler P. & Levy S.J. (1969), ‘Broadening the concept of marketing.’ Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33, No 3, January, pp. 10-15. Kotler P. & G Zaltman 1971, ‘Social marketing, an approach to planned social change.’ Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35, No. 3, July, pp. 3-12. Kotler, P and Nancy R. Lee, 2009. Up and Out of Poverty: The Social Marketing Solution. New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing. Mass Media and Health Practices Project in Honduras a.http://comminit.com/en/node/120275/303 visited on May 30, 2010. Mass Media and Health Practices Project in Honduras b. http://www.social-marketing.org/success/cs-massmedia.html. visited on May 30, 2010. Neelanegham S., 1994, Marketing in India, New Dehli: Vikas Publishing House Pilkington, Marc, 2007. “The Concept of Social Marketing: From Local Development Initiatives to Global Integration - The Example of Health Care in Rural India.” International Review of Business Research Papers 3 (5): 328-34. Stop Aids. http://www.social-marketing.org/success/cs-stopaids.html. visited on May 30, 2010. Read More