About Marketing

What is Social Marketing?

Although "social marketing" is sometimes seen only as using standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals, this is an oversimplification. The primary aim of social marketing is "social good", while in "commercial marketing" the aim is primarily "financial". This does not mean that commercial marketers can not contribute to achievement of social good.





Craig Lefebvre and June Flora introduced social marketing to the public health community in 1988, where it has been most widely used and explored. They noted that there was a need for "large scale, broad-based, behavior change focused programs" to improve public health (the community wide prevention of cardiovascular diseases in their respective projects) and outlined eight essential components of social marketing that still hold today:




A consumer orientation to realize organizational (social) goals

• An emphasis on the voluntary exchanges of goods and services between providers and consumers 

• Research in audience analysis and segmentation strategies 
• The use of formative research in product and message design and the pretesting of these materials 
• An analysis of distribution (or communication) channels 
• Use of the marketing mix—using and blending product, price, place and promotion characteristics in intervention planning and implementation 
• A process tracking system with both integrative and control functions 
• A management process that involves problem analysis, planning, implementation and feedback functions