Social Marketing Theory
by Hendrika MeischkeSocial marketing theory is a combination of theoretical perspectives and a set of marketingtechniques. Social marketing has been defined as: "the design, implementation, and control ofprograms seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea or practice in a target group.
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Itutilizes concepts of market segmentation, consumer research, idea configuration,communication, facilitation, incentives, and exchange theory to maximize target groupresponse.
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In social marketing the intervention is developed from a solid base of communicationand social-psychological theories: marketing techniques are used to supplement messagedevelopment and program implementation.
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Social Marketing theory is based on the "
marketing philosophy
" that people will adopt newbehaviors, or ideas if they feel that something of value is exchanged between him/her and the"social marketer".
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Thus, one of the goals of a social marketer should be to meet consumer needsand wants The "something" can be a tangible product (i.e., oral contraceptive) or an idea (i.e.,notion of family planning) or both. Another assumption is that well-honed and demonstrablyeffective techniques from the commercial business sector can successfully and efficiently beapplied to advance social causes.
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These techniques include
the five "P's"- product, price,place, promotion and positioning.
In brief, the
product
refers to the behavior (i.e., eating lowfat foods) or idea (i.e., eat five fruits and vegetables a day for better health) that the audienceneeds to accept. A product line refers to the variety in which the product can be promoted (i.e.drink fruit juice instead of eating a banana) to attain the goal of adoption of the product. The
price
of the product refers to the monetary as well as the non-monetary cost of a product. Thesenon-monetary costs include psychological, social, or convenience costs. For instance, promotionof a low fat diet may not only require buying higher priced low fat products but also increasedifficulty in obtaining such products, preparing them and making them part of a new lifestyle.Reducing these costs greatly increase the chances that a new idea/product will be adopted. The
place
refers to the distribution sites of the product. The greater the number of distribution sitesand the more convenient and appropriate the places where the product can be found the betterchance that awareness and use of the product is facilitated.
Promotion
of a product refers to theways in which the audience is made aware of the product, such as use of advertisements, directmarketing and other avenues. In the promotion of a product social marketing campaigns rely onthe
interaction between mass media and interpersonal channels
for increasing awareness andfacilitating change.
Positioning
refers to the psychological "image" of the product. For instance,the promotion of a low fat diet can be "positioned" as a healthy way to a "slimmer" body, or, away to reduce the chances of getting health disease or certain types of cancer.Social-psychological theories, complemented with empirical evidence, are important inestablishing the variables of importance for adoption of the "product". Careful definition of theproblem and clear objective setting are important to any campaign. However, the mostsignificant contribution of social marketing has been the strong focus on consumer needs.
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Tomaximize the five P's in a social marketing campaign, identification of needs and wants of"consumer" is key to successful marketing of ideas and behaviors. To find out more about theneeds and wants of the audience is to conduct intensive
audience analysis
, includingpreproduction and production research
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, and to design campaign elements for differentsubgroups (
audience segmentation
). Audience segmentation refers to the process of breakingdown the mass audience into smaller subgroups that are internally as homogeneous as possiblewhile being as different as possible from other groups. However, the "audience" in a social
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