Social Marketing

Social marketing is a process that applies marketing principles and techniques to create, communicate, and deliver value in order to influence target audience behaviors that benefit society (public health, safety, the environment and communities) as well as the target audience. Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee and Michael Rothschild (2006). In short, it isa methodology for creating behavior change.

The Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote society's well being as a whole. For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow speed limits. But in social marketing the main objective is not all the time a product, but also promoting a new thought process, may be some time backed by some physical product issues. But obviously it has to be for any greater good of the society.

8 points of social marketing

Ø Clear focus on behavior and achieving specific behavioral goals

Ø Centered on understanding the customer using a variety of customer and market research

Ø Is theory-based and informed

Ø Is 'insight' driven

Ø Uses 'exchange' concept and analysis

Ø Uses 'competition' concept and analysis

Ø Has a more developed 'segmentation' approach (going beyond basic targeting)

Ø Utilizes an 'intervention mix' or 'marketing mix' (rather than relying on single methods)