Mediaboss Marketing

The embrace of social marketing around the world as a way to address wicked problems is certainly welcomed. However, there is a pressing need to establish competency standards for the field. For example, in the US there is the call for schools of public health to offer courses and workforce development activities in social marketing, as well as for more State health departments to apply social marketing in their health promotion and disease prevention programs (Healthy People 2020).

If we are to meet the demand for more people to address wicked problems and create innovations for social change, we might be well served to understand what a social marketer actually looks, sounds and acts like. The current system (if I can call it that) for education includes a growing number of colleges and universities that may offer a course in social marketing, an array of one-off social marketing workshops and training programs and a growing number of global, national and local conferences. PSI and Rare, international NGOs, have established their own training programs to educate staff in social marketing concepts and methods.

There is the desire by many social marketers to generate a set of social marketing competencies that can guide academics in designing appropriate education and training experiences in social marketing; help prospective students and professionals identify opportunities that will provide them with the information and skills they want; and assure prospective employers and funding agencies whether the people or agencies they are considering for hire possess the skills and knowledge competencies they are searching for.

Fourali (2009) described the process of developing best practice standards for social marketing in the United Kingdom by the Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Board (MSSSB). The process for developing the standards included four steps:

The best practices were organized into five key functions with subcompetencies (from the MSSSB Social Marketing Functional Map, 2008; click on image to enlarge).

Carry out social marketing research

1. Plan, manage, and evaluate social marketing research programs

2. Collect data on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of priority groups

3. Develop understanding of theories and evidence about what might influence the behavior of priority groups

4. Analyze, interpret, and synthesize data and research findings to inform social marketing strategy

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On Social Marketing and Social Change