ALL YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL MARKETING

Philip Kotler- the Marketing Guru.

This year July will mark the 40th anniversary of the conceptualisation of 'Social Marketing' by Philip Kotler known as 'the world's foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing' and Gerald Zaltman.

In the recent years, the attention of public sector agencies, non-government organisations and the private sector is increasingly drawn to the potential of social marketing. In an age of climate change, environmental destruction, natural resource shortages, fast population growth, hunger and poverty, as well as insufficient social services, what contributions might marketing make? Will its application help encourage wider socially and environmentally beneficial behavioural changes, increase use of community services - the behaviour, that is, not just of individual citizens but also of public sector agencies, non-government organisations and the private sector.

Since 1971, social marketing has been used, literally, around the world to remediate a variety of health, environmental and societal concerns. Talking about the concept of social marketing, marketing guru Kotler says : " The societal marketing concept holds that the organisation's task is to determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's and the society's well-being". A small group of users who have stressed on this concept of social marketing include:

1. WHO
2. Red Cross
3. US Department of Agriculture
4. RARE Conservation
5. Bill and Melinda gates Foundation and many more

In its highest form, marketing is now considered a social process, composed of human behaviour patterns concerned with exchange of resources or values. It is no longer a mere function used to increase business profits. It is important here to mention that the concept of social marketing calls upon marketers calls upon marketers to balance three considerations in formulating the marketing policies viz, company profits, customer satisfaction and public interest. Traditionally, the companies concentrated on profit maximisation but then they recognise the long-run importance of satisfying consumer which paved avenues for the marketing concept. The concept of social marketing, thus, calls for balancing all three considerations. In plain simple vanilla, social marketing focusses on application of marketing principles keeping in view the public or social interests. The main philosophy behind the theory is to protect the social interests.

The process of Social Marketing

Social marketing is constantly evolving from 'influencing ideas' as presented by Kotler & Zaltman (1971) to large-scale broad based behaviour change focused on programs offered by Lefebvre & Flore (1988). But one of the simplest ways of understanding different influences on social marketing is to refer to it as having 'two parents' [NSM Centre 2006] :

• a) a social parent = social sciences / social policy / social reform and campaigning
• b) a marketing parent = commercial and public sector marketing

UNAIDS Social Marketing Initiative

One organisation which has been promoting and supporting social marketing since its establishment in 1996 is UNAIDS, which has been involved in the social marketing of condoms, as a key strategy in the fight against the psread of HIV / AIDS and STDs. In the mid 1980's, condom social marketing (CSM) emerged as an effective tool in combating the spread of HIV / AIDS. Social marketing, in case of condoms, has acted as a 'normalizer' of the product reducing the stigmas popularly attached to it. Today, in countries across the world, condoms are widely available from a variety of outlets, are openly discussed in public and in the media unlike before when public access to condoms was difficult as the product was often available only in pharmacies and health clinics. This is all because of social marketing.

The Indian Perspective: Community based social marketing

India was also not left behind in its own initiative of Contraceptive and AIDS social marketing. A couple of projects, one on each, involved marketing condoms and oral contraceptive pills with the aim of increasing contraceptive prevalence through the use of temporary methods. These social marketing initiatives were taken by NGOs like Parivar Seva Sanstha (PSS), an associate of Marie Stopes International (MSI) and Indian Institute of Community Health(IICH) respectively.

The case studies can be accessed by clicking on the following links :

• Condom Social Marketing case study
• Contraceptive Social Marketing

And...Social Marketing is not Social Media Marketing

When Kotler was asked abouy current practices of calling social media 'social marketing' , he said:

"We wish that those who talk about social media use that term [i.e. social media]. They can call it social media marketing but it should not be abbreviated to social marketing".

So there is a brief history of social marketing from one of its fathers. And the next time we hear someone say 'social marketing' when they are talking about social media, we should resist the impulse to whip out the quote from Dr.Philip Kotler.