Principles and Practice of Social Marketing...Deﬁ ning social marketing 4 Social marketing’s beginnings 8 Social marketing and social change tools 12 Concluding comments 19 Questions

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing

This fully updated edition combines the latest research with real life examples of social

marketing campaigns the world over to help you learn how to apply the principles and

methods of marketing to a broad range of social issues. The international case stud-

ies and applications show how social marketing campaigns are being used across the

world to infl uence changes in behaviour, and reveal how those campaigns may differ

according to their cultural context and subject matter. Every chapter is fully illustrated

with real life examples, including campaigns that deal with racism, the environment

and mental health. The book also shows how social marketing infl uences governments,

corporations and NGOs, as well as individual behaviour. The author team combine

research and teaching knowledge with hands-on experience of developing and imple-

menting public health, social welfare and injury prevention campaigns to give you the

theory and practice of social marketing.

ROB D ONOVA N is Professor of Behavioural Research at the Centre for Behavioural

Research in Cancer Control in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Adjunct Professor of

Social Marketing and co-director of the Social Marketing Research Unit at Curtin

Business School, Curtin University, Western Australia.

NA DI N E H E N L E Y is Professor of Social Marketing, director of the Centre for Applied

Social Marketing Research and Associate Dean of Research and Higher Degrees for the

Faculty of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing

An International Perspective

Rob Donovan and Nadine Henley

C A M BR I D GE U N I V E R S I T Y PR E S S

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,

São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Mexico City

Cambridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521167376

© Rob Donovan and Nadine Henley 2010

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,

no reproduction of any part may take place without the written

permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2010

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-521-19450-1 Hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-16737-6 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to

in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such

websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

v

List of tables page xi

List of fi gures xii

Preface xv

Acknowledgements xvii

Chapter 1 Social marketing and social change 1

Introduction 1

Marketing and business 2

What is marketing? 3

Defi ning social marketing 4

Social marketing’s beginnings 8

Social marketing and social change tools 12

Concluding comments 19

Questions 21

Further reading 21

Chapter 2 Principles of marketing 23

Introduction 23

Marketing basics 25

Principles and practices of marketing 27

The use of market research 37

Differences between commercial and social marketing 40


Questions 43

Further reading 43

Chapter 3 Social marketing and the environment 44

Introduction 44

Environmental monitoring 46

Food for thought: a monitoring example 49

Environmental determinants of health and wellbeing 52

Social class and self-effi cacy 57

CONTENTS

CONTENTS ● ● ● ● ● ●vi

Importance of early childhood 59

Social capital 64

Social ecology 65


Questions 68

Further reading 68

Chapter 4 Advocacy and environmental change 70

Introduction 70

Media advocacy: targeting socio-political change 74

Advocacy – a global phenomenon? 76

Advocacy for environmental change 77

Environmental cases from Central and Eastern Europe 82

Planning for advocacy 85


Questions 87

Further reading 87

Chapter 5 Principles of communication and persuasion 88

Introduction 88

Communication principles for successful campaigns 89

The communication process: Rossiter’s and Percy’s six-step model 90

Planning a communication strategy 93

Principles of exposure and attention 94

Cognitive processing models for persuasion: elaboration-likelihood model 102

Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion 105

Fear arousal and threat appeals 110

Incentive appeals 118

Framing effects 119


Questions 124

Further reading 124

Chapter 6 Models of attitude and behaviour change 125

Introduction 125

The health belief model 126

Protection motivation theory 128

Social learning theory 130

The theory of reasoned action 131

The theory of trying 134

CONTENTS ● ● ● ● ● ● vii

Cognitive dissonance 135

Theory of interpersonal behaviour 136

The Rossiter–Percy motivational model 138

Morality and legitimacy 142

Diffusion theory 146

Behaviour modifi cation and applied behavioural analysis 150

Synthesising the models 153


Questions 156

Further reading 157

Chapter 7 Research and evaluation 158

Introduction 158

Qualitative versus quantitative research 158

Qualitative research 161

Research and evaluation framework 169

Formative research: ‘what is likely to work best?’ 170

Effi cacy testing: ‘can it work and can it be improved?’ 176

Process research: ‘is the campaign being delivered as proposed?’ 176

Outcome research: ‘did it work?’ 177

Do intentions predict behaviour? 180

Research concepts in public health 182

Research in ethnic and Indigenous communities 189

Most signifi cant change technique: an alternative or additional

methodology for community research 190


Questions 194

Further reading 194

Chapter 8 Ethical issues in social marketing 195

Introduction 195

What do we mean by ‘ethics’? 196

Ethical principles 200

Codes of behaviour 203

Criticisms of social marketing 204

Criticism of power imbalances in social marketing 209

Criticism of unintended consequences 211


Questions 215

Further reading 216

CONTENTS ● ● ● ● ● ●viii

Chapter 9 The competition 217

Introduction 217

Competition and the principle of differential advantage 217

Defi ning the competition in social marketing 218

Monitoring the competition 221

Countering the competition 232

Kids are kids right? Wrong. Kids R Cu$tomer$! 242

Internal competition 247


Questions 251

Further reading 251

Chapter 10 Segmentation and targeting 252

Introduction 252

Psychographics 255

Motives and benefi ts segmentation 260

Sheth’s and Frazier’s attitude–behaviour segmentation 260

A stage approach to segmentation 263

Selecting target audiences 268

Cross-cultural targeting 273

Cultural tailoring 274

Individual tailoring 277


Questions 280

Further reading 280

Chapter 11 The marketing mix 282

Introduction 282

The social marketing mix 283

Policy 285

Product 286

Place 297

Price 306

Promotion 311

People 314

Partnerships 315


Questions 318

Further reading 319

CONTENTS ● ● ● ● ● ● ix

Chapter 12 Using media in social marketing 320

Introduction 320

The importance of media in social marketing 321

Effectiveness of mass media in promoting health and socially desirable causes 324

A practical model for media use in social marketing programmes 327

Advertising 327

Publicity 333

Edutainment 335

Civic (or public) journalism 344

Word-of-mouth and viral marketing 348

New media 350

Choosing media and methods 355

Roles of the media in social marketing campaigns 357


Questions 363

Further reading 363

Chapter 13 Using sponsorship to achieve changes in people, places and policies 364

Introduction 364

The growth of sponsorship 364

Objectives of sponsorship 367

How sponsorship works 368

Evaluation of sponsorship 369

Measures of effectiveness 370

Health promotion foundations: the case of Healthway 375

Engaging the sponsored organisation 378

Evaluating health sponsorship: does it work? 379

Using sponsorship to achieve individual change 380

Using sponsorship to achieve structural change 388


Questions 393

Further reading 393

Chapter 14 Planning and developing social marketing campaigns and

programmes 394

Introduction 394

Campaign versus programme 394

Overall programme planning models 397

Lawrence Green’s PRECEDE–PROCEED model 399

CONTENTS ● ● ● ● ● ●x


Questions 406

Further reading 406

Chapter 15 Case study: the Act–Belong–Commit campaign promoting

positive mental health 407

Introduction 407

Background: mental illness and the need for mental health promotion 407

Background: origins of the campaign 409

Overall goals of the pilot campaign 410

Campaign goals 410

Overall strategy and planning 411

The marketing mix 418

Pilot campaign evaluation 422

The statewide campaign 2008–10 424

Why has the campaign been successful? 426


Questions 427

Further reading 428

References 429

Index 485

xi

TABLES

6.1 Rossiter’s and Percy’s positive and negative motivations page 140

6.2 Rossiter’s and Percy’s hypothesised relationships linking emotions to

motivations: some examples 142

6.3 Behaviour modifi cation strategies 150

7.1(a) Using projective techniques to measure attitudes 165

7.1(b) Using projective techniques to measure attitudes 165

7.2 Personality measures for marijuana use versus non-use 188

10.1 Common bases for market segmentation 253

10.2 A typology of strategy mix for planned social change 261

10.3 Extended Sheth–Frazier segmentation model 262

10.4 Campaign objectives and relative infl uence of mass media by stages of change 265

10.5 Exercise attitude – behaviour segmentation 271

10.6 TARPARE model for choice of target group for physical activity campaign 272

12.1 Summary of media channels and their characteristics 322

12.2 Examples of social media sites in 2009 355

13.1 Cognitive impact measures as a proportion of each preceding level 381

13.2 Results of observational studies 390

13.3 Smoke-free policies in place in the majority of venues used by sports, arts and

racing organisations sponsored by Healthway, 1992–7 390

13.4 Smoke-free area policies present in the main sports or racing club or arts

organisation in which community members involved in 1992, 1994 and 1998 391

14.1 The SOPIE model for health promotion interventions 398

xii

FIGURES

2.1 Basic principles of marketing page 27

3.1 Importance of early life experiences and social support on adult health 62

4.1 A three-step – why, what and how – model of advocacy 71

4.2 Greenpeace energy evolution 77

4.3 Environmental behaviours by attitude segmentation 79

4.4 ‘If you live uptown, breathe at your own risk’ poster 81

5.1 Relative impact of communication versus environmental factors at various

stages in the hierarchy of effects 90

5.2 The Rossiter–Percy six-step communication process 91

5.3 Campaign planning sequence 93

5.4 Is your body due for a check up and service? 97

5.5 Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN): social norms

poster campaign 108

5.6 Purchase intention and fat/lean ratings by fat/fat-free framing 122

6.1 The health belief model 126

6.2 Roger’s protection motivation theory 129

6.3 Fishbein’s and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned action 131

6.4 Theory of trying 135

6.5 Theory of interpersonal behaviour 137

6.6 Rossiter’s and Percy’s message strategy model 139

6.7 Diffusion of innovations 147

7.1 Ad impact on behavioural intentions as a driver 175

7.2 Where violent men can go for help: % spontaneously nominating

a telephone helpline 177

7.3 Types of study designs in epidemiology 183

7.4(a) Pictorial representations in questionnaires to aid understanding – food types 191

7.4(b) Pictorial representations in questionnaires to aid understanding – overall health 192

7.5 Heartline Bali FM logo 193

9.1 Dove ‘Real Women’ ad 225

9.2 Sylvester Stallone’s product placement agreement 228

9.3 Heart Plus milk 234

9.4 Adbusters – fi ghting back! 244

LIST OF FIGURES ● ● ● ● ● ● xiii

9.5 School report card from a Seminole County public school, United States 247

10.1 Proportion of the US adult population in global warming’s Six Americas 258

10.2 How worried about global warming are people in each of the Six Americas 259

10.3 How certain about global warming happening are people in each of the

Six Americas 259

10.4 Impact of Quit ads on likelihood of quitting or cutting down by smokers’

stage of change 266

10.5 Relative importance of culture in developing interventions for ethnic groups 275

10.6 Relative importance of culture in tailoring alcohol interventions for

Indigenous youth 277

11.1 Tangible augmented product 287

11.2 Promoting incidental physical activity 290

11.3 Branding a physical activity campaign 296

11.4 Roadside posters facilitating uptake of the physical activity message 298

11.5 Making place attractive 309

12.1 Calls to a Quitline by media weight 326

12.2 A framework for using media in social marketing: methods by objectives 328

12.3 A framework for using media in social marketing: methods by channels 328

12.4 Pre–post proportions of Aborigines believed to be in paid employment 333

12.5 Pre–post proportions of employed Aborigines believed to remain in a job

for more than a year 333

12.6 Soul City logo 338

12.7 Scene from Project Nothland’s Slick Tracy comic 342

12.8 Streetwize comics target street teens 343

12.9 The Runaway Game: an early interactive story on the web 351

12.10 Vietnam helmet campaign 359

13.1 Steps in a hierarchical communication model 370

13.2 Michael Schumacher and Marlboro in the news 371

13.3 Healthway’s logo 376

13.4 Healthway’s sponsorship model 377

13.5 Cognitive impact measures as a proportion of the total sample 1992/3

and 1996/7 382

13.6 Cognitive impact measures as a proportion of the total sample 2004/5 to 2008/9 384

13.7 Pre–post awareness for sponsored brands and health message 386

13.8 Pre–post preferences for sponsored brands and health message 387

13.9 Billboard announcing baseball fi eld being smoke-free 389

14.1 Green’s basic steps in programme planning and implementation 397

14.2 AED’s basic steps in programme planning and implementation 398

14.3 The PRECEDE–PROCEED model for health promotion planning and evaluation 400

14.4 Application of PRECEDE–PROCEED to a mental health intervention 401

14.5 Enabling bus usage in Costa Rica 403

LIST OF FIGURES ● ● ● ● ● ●xiv

15.1 Community organisations and community members prior to

Act–Belong–Commit : unconnected or weakly connected 413

15.2 Community organisations and community members after

Act–Belong–Commit : more connections, more strongly connected 414

15.3 Act–Belong–Commit brand/logo 418

15.4 Launch ads to appear on right-hand side of four consecutive pages 420

15.5 Scenes from television ad 421

15.6 Partnership with the Department of Sport and Recreation 425

15.7 Five Ways to Wellbeing 427

xv

PREFACE

In the fi rst edition of this book, we adopted the original defi nition of social marketing

as the application of marketing principles and tools to the achievement of socially desir-

able ends. In our view, while there are clear differences between commercial marketing

and social marketing (as there are between marketing fast moving consumer goods to

domestic consumers and marketing industrial products to manufacturers), social mar-

keting is simply an area of application of marketing techniques. Hence, this edition

remains fi rmly based on the basic principles of marketing. This grounding reminds

public health and other social change agents who have enthusiastically adopted com-

mercial marketing techniques, that marketing – when applied correctly – is more than

just a bag of advertising and promotional tools; it is both a philosophy and a set of

principles about how to achieve mutually satisfying exchanges between marketers and

consumers. Marketing, and therefore social marketing, relies on a comprehensive and

fully integrated approach to achieving a campaign or programme’s objectives.

At the same time, the fi rst edition broadened the defi nition and domain of social

marketing by addressing two issues: fi rst, to pre-empt debate about ‘who decides what

is socially desirable’, the fi rst edition proposed the UN Charter on Human Rights as

the authoritative source for defi ning what constitutes a socially desirable goal; second,

and following the UN Charter, the social in our social marketing emphasises the social

determinants of individual and population health and wellbeing. Social marketing

not only targets individual behaviour change, but also attempts to ‘go upstream’ and

target individuals and groups in legislative bodies, government departments, corpora-

tions and non-profi t organisations, who have the power to make policy, regulatory and

legislative changes that protect and enhance people’s health, wellbeing and quality of

life. From this perspective, social marketing attempts to bring about changes in prod-

ucts to reduce harm and enhance wellbeing; changes in places to facilitate adoption of

desirable behaviours and inhibit undesirable behaviours; and changes in the political

allocation of resources to bring about changes in the social and structural factors that

impinge on an individual’s opportunities, capacities and the right to have a healthy

and fulfi lling life.

The 2003 edition illustrated the principles of social marketing with numerous examples

of practical application from the fi eld. In this edition we do likewise. However, while

the fi rst edition emphasised much of our own work and Australian-based examples,

xvi PREFACE ● ● ● ● ● ●

this international edition contains not only updated material, but also provides numer-

ous examples from around the globe. In particular, we have added a chapter on advo-

cacy with a special emphasis on environmental issues; the marketing mix chapter is

expanded to include reference also to policy and partnerships; the two previous case

chapters have been replaced by a case on promoting positive mental health and well-

being (a major emerging area in public health). What remains the same is the book’s use

of examples from a broad range of topics, not just the usual lifestyle risk behaviours, and

the synthesis of both previously published and unpublished on-going research projects

and interventions.

The book is a blend of the authors’ practical commercial marketing know-how,

hands-on experience in developing and implementing social marketing campaigns

and extensive involvement in formative and evaluative research across a broad var-

iety of health and social policy areas. This book is intended to be useful for anyone

involved in social marketing or health promotion, public health interventions, injury

prevention or public welfare in general, whether as teachers, students, practitioners or

researchers.

Students in particular will benefi t from the book’s sequencing of earlier chapters

dealing with overall principles and the later chapters dealing with specifi c compo-

nents of the marketing plan. They will also benefi t from the book’s evidence-based

approach; the continual referral to concrete examples to illustrate concepts, principles

and approaches; the use of boxes to elaborate issues or provide succinct examples that

might be a little out of the ordinary; the questions and recommended readings at the

end of each chapter; and the companion website.

xvii

Geoffrey Jalleh, Associate Director of the Centre for Behavioural Research at Curtin

University, contributed signifi cantly to Chapters 7 (Research) and 13 (Sponsorship), as

well as assisting considerably in other ways for which we are very grateful. Chapter 13

draws on the work of Professor Billie Giles-Corti and other colleagues at the University

of Western Australia, and Chapter 15 draws on the work of colleagues at Mentally

Healthy WA, particularly Ray James. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers

of the proposal and completed text for their insightful comments. We also acknow-

ledge the support of the Cancer Council Western Australia and Healthway, the Western

Australian Health Promotion Foundation. We are grateful to Dr Anne Aly at Edith

Cowan University for developing the website materials, Lynda Fielder who assisted

with referencing and numerous other administrative details, research assistants Lynn

Smith and Jeremy D’Gama, Sandra Voesenek for assistance in seeking permissions, Paul

Watson for proofi ng the initial drafts, and Judy McDonald for her meticulous indexing.

We also thank our colleagues who contributed to the fi rst edition, and the ongoing con-

tributions of Ross Spark and Garry Egger.

Finally, a personal thank you to Cobie and Peter for all their patience and support,

and to our publisher, Paula Parish, for her faith in the book and her gentle nudging

from the early concept to the fi nished product.

The authors would also like to thank the following institutions and individuals for

permission to reproduce copyright material:

Chapter 4:

Sage Publications and Mr Trevor Shilton (Figure 4.1); Greenpeace (Figure 4.2); Professor

Edward Maibach, Dr Connie Roser-Renouf and Dr Anthony Leiserowitz (Figure 4.3);

WE ACT (Figure 4.4); Sage Publications (Box ‘Shilton’s ten-point plan for physical-

activity advocacy’).

Chapter 5:

Professor John R. Rossiter and Dr Larry Percy (Figure 5.2); Cancer Council (Figure 5.4);

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (Figure 5.5); Australian Government Department

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

xviii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ● ● ● ● ● ●

of Health and Ageing, Canberra and Department of Pathology, the University of New

South Wales, Sydney (Box on health warnings on cigarette packs: ‘Smoking causes

blindness’, Smoking causes lung cancer’, ‘Smoking doubles your risk of a stroke’, and

‘Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer’).

Chapter 6:

Professor Paschal Sheeran, Dr Paul Norman, Professor Marc Connor, Professor Charles

Abraham and Open University Press (Figure 6.1); University of Chicago Press (Figure

6.4); Professor John R. Rossiter and Dr Larry Percy (Figure 6.6, Tables 6.1, and 6.2); Road

Safety Operations Branch (No Seatbelt No Excuse logo).

Chapter 7:

Elsevier (Figure 7.1); Taylor & Francis (Figure 7.2.); Professor Ross Spark (Figures 7.4(a),

and 7.4(b)); Heartline Bali 92.2 FM (Figure 7.5.); Australian Market and Social Research

Society (Tables 7.1(a), and 7.1(b)).

Chapter 8:

American Marketing Association (AMA’s Statement of Ethics); United Nations Offi ce of

the High Commissioner for Human Rights (excerpts from UN Universal Declaration of

Human Rights in Box, ‘Who determines what is the social good?’).

Chapter 9:

Unilever Australasia (Figure 9.1); Fonterra (Figure 9.3); Adbusters (Figure 9.4); Campaign

for a Commercial-Free Childhood (Figure 9.5); The National Heart Foundation of

Australia (Box on Heart Foundation’s Tick Programme).

Chapter 10:

Professor Edward Maibach, Dr Connie Roser-Renouf and Dr Anthony Leiserowitz

(Figures 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3); American Marketing Association (Table 10.2); Taylor &

Francis (Figure 10.4); Sage Publications (Figure 10.5); Professor Rod K. Dishman (Table

10.5); Oxford University Press (Box ‘Targeting opinion leaders’); Texas Department of

Transportation (Box ‘Targeting heavy litterers’); Wiley-Blackwell (Box ‘Targeting by

risk factor profi le’, ‘Skin cancer – have you been checked?’).

xixACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ● ● ● ● ● ●

Chapter 11:

Queensland Health (Figures 11.2, 11.3 and 11.4); Professor Anne Peterson (Box

‘Cookin’ chitlins for littluns – putting it all together’); Proteines – EPODE International

Coordination Unit (Images Box ‘EPODE Campaign: Product’, Box ‘EPODE Campaign:

Place’ and Box ‘EPODE intermediaries and partners’).

Chapter 12:

Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra (Figure 12.1);

McGraw-Hill Australia (Table 12.1); Soul City (Figure 12.6); Oxford University Press

(Figure 12.7); Commonwealth of Australia (Figure 12.8); Kevin Casey (Figure 12.9); Asia

Injury Prevention Foundation, Ogilvy & Mather (Vietnam) and Mr Dusit Pongkrapan

(Figure 12.10).

Chapter 13:

Australian Associated Press (Figure 13.2); Taylor & Francis (Figure 13.3); Healthway

(Figures 13.4, 13.5, 13.6 and 13.9); Taylor & Francis (Figure 13.7).

Chapter 14:

Annual Reviews (Figure 14.1); Academy for Educational Development (Figure 14.2);

McGraw-Hill Companies (Figure 14.3); BioMed Central Ltd (Figure 14.4.); Figure 14.5

with permission of John Wood (http://www.costaricabybus.com/); McGraw-Hill

Australia (Table 14.1).

Chapter 15:

Mentally Healthy WA (Figures 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4 and 15.5); Department of Sport and

Recreation (Figure 15.6); Centre for Well-being/New Economics Foundation (Figure

15.7); Public Health Institute of Iceland (Box ‘10 commandments of mental health’).

1

1 Social marketing and social change

Social marketing is just one ‘branch’ of marketing, where the branches refl ect the area of

application: for example, sports marketing; business to business or industrial marketing;

not-for-profi t marketing; religious marketing; political marketing and so on. However, social

marketing is more than just the application of marketing to social issues : the key point of

difference to all other branches of marketing, is that the social marketer’s goals relate to

the wellbeing of the community , whereas for all others, the marketer’s goals relate to the

wellbeing of the marketer (sales and profi ts, members and donations, political representation,

etc.). If the wellbeing of the community is not the goal, then it isn’t social marketing .

Social marketing is concerned with helping to achieve and maintain desirable social

change. Sometimes social change occurs unplanned, and with generally benign or

even positive effects, such as in the introduction of the printing press, the telephone, or

the worldwide web. In other cases, change can be violent as in the French and Russian

revolutions of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, respectively, or have devastating

health effects as in the industrial revolution’s underground mining and unsafe factor-

ies. More recently, social and economic changes in countries previously constituting

the Soviet Union have led to a marked increase in heart disease in these countries,

especially among the unemployed and underemployed, with alcohol abuse being the

major proximal contributor to deaths (Zaridze et al . 2009a , 2009b ). Hence, social mar-

keters and other social change practitioners are called on to use their skills not only to

achieve socially desirable change, but also to counter undesirable social change.

Social marketing is best viewed within a broad context of social change

We would argue that the value of social marketing is that it is the one discipline to embody,

within the one framework, most of the principles, concepts and tools necessary for the

development and implementation of effective social change campaigns .

While ideological and religious causes are still catalysts for social change in many

parts of the globe, most social change is occurring as a result of changes in technology –

with implications not only for the developed countries where these changes originated,

but also for developing countries where they are often applied.

We would argue that the value of social marketing is that it is the one discipline to embody,

within the one framework, most of the principles, concepts and tools necessary for the

development and implementation of effective social change campaigns .

Social marketing is best viewed within a broad context of social change

SOCIAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL CHANGE ● ● ● ● ● ●2

Changes in communication technology lead to cultural intrusions, usually US-based,

and to names like McDonald’s, Paris Hilton and Nike being known in even the most

remote parts of the globe, and particularly among the young. Changes in industrial

technology lead to unemployment or redeployment, with subsequent social upheaval.

Technological changes have consequences for health, such as the marked decline in

physical activity as a result of labour-saving devices in the home and workplace, and

the advent of computer-driven home entertainment systems. As our colleague Garry

Egger has said, ‘It’s not just Ronald McDonald who’s causing the current obesity epi-

demic in developed countries, it’s also Bill Gates!’

Social change practitioners are involved in a wide variety of areas, from changing

practices and cultures within corporations, government bureaucracies and institu-

tions, to achieving change within local communities and broader state and national

groupings. For example, environmentalists such as Greenpeace are seeking to change

the way people treat the environment; public health professionals are attempting to

change the way politicians view preventive health versus medical ‘cures’; progressive

educationists are attempting to change the way teachers view learning and conduct

their classes; and organisational psychologists are attempting to change the way work-

ers react to changing technology and work practices. In this book we will argue that

social marketing has much to contribute to all these areas, and that social change prac-

titioners in these areas can assist social marketers in developing comprehensive social

marketing campaigns .

According to Ross and Mico ( 1980 ), social change can be brought about through any

or all of several different methods. These vary from passive to active acceptance by the

community, for example:

the diffusion of ideas, products and services throughout society, often led by opinion •

leaders and mass media;

consensus organising by interested parties; •

planned or political action – such as lobbying, legislation and election campaigns; •

confrontational methods via threats of reactive action if agreement is not reached; •

non-violent disruptive protests (e.g., boycotts, strikes); and •

violent disruption through riots and revolution. •

Social marketing has a major contribution in understanding and facilitating social

change in all the non-confrontational methods noted above, but particularly in facili-

tating diffusion and adoption .

Marketing and business

Just as business in general relies on marketing tools to attract (and satisfy) customers,

so too does the business of social change. While no business relies solely on market-

ing (i.e., fi nance, production, transport and warehousing, etc., are essential), without

WHAT IS MARKETING? ● ● ● ● ● ● 3

marketing of some sort the company could not survive. No matter how good a product

is, if consumers are not made aware of how it could meet their needs, and if it is not

readily available and affordable, the company will fail. In short, marketing is a neces-

sary, but not suffi cient, factor for success.

All other things being equal (e.g., costs of production and distribution, etc.), the most

successful businesses are those with the best marketing. By ‘best marketing’, we don’t

just mean the best ads or high incentive promotions, but the best use of techniques

to: identify consumer needs; develop products and services tailored to deliver benefi ts

that satisfy the needs of different market segments; reach and attract the attention of

the target audience and make access to the products and services easy, at prices that

customers consider equitable.

Like any other business, the business of social change relies on the use of marketing

tools to achieve its goals of attracting and satisfying its target groups. No matter how

intrinsically good is our product, say energy conservation, we still need to do the fol-

lowing effectively to get people to ‘buy’ and act on our message:

inform people as to • why energy conservation is necessary;

show them • how they can buy products or adopt behaviours that conserve energy

without undue cost or effort;

• demonstrate how energy conserving behaviours meet individual and community

needs ; and

in a way that • attracts and holds their interest .

Similarly, we need to do the same for legislators and corporations if we want to achieve

regulatory, policy and product changes that provide support for individual behaviour

change .

What is marketing?

Marketing has been variously defi ned. The American Marketing Association’s (AMA)

current defi nition (October 2007) is very broad: ‘Marketing is the activity, set of insti-

tutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offer-

ings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.’ The AMA’s

previous defi nition is more concrete: ‘Marketing is the process of planning and execut-

ing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services

to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational goals.’ It is noteworthy

that ‘ideas’ was included in 1985.

For many people, ‘marketing’ is simply the tactics used by companies to sell their

products and services; that is, the fi rst half of the AMA’s previous defi nition – ‘the

process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distri-

bution of ideas, goods and services’. However, the second half of this defi nition – ‘to

create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational goals’ – is the essence of


marketing and the basis for what has been called the ‘ marketing concept’ or ‘market-

ing philosophy’ approach to doing business. The key words here refer to ‘satisfying

exchanges’ – for both the buyer (the benefi ts derived from the product or service

meet the customer’s needs) and the seller (at a price that meets costs and returns a

profi t).

The marketing concept proposes that company profi ts are gained via the identifi ca-

tion and satisfaction of consumer needs. This emphasis, known as a ‘ consumer orien-

tation’, is on maximising consumer satisfaction, with resultant repeat purchasing

and favourable word-of-mouth contributing to the company’s ongoing success. The

orientation is long term and aims to establish an ongoing relationship with the cus-

tomer . In this sense, marketing is distinguished from the ‘selling orientation’, where

the emphasis is on the short-term goal of making the sale, regardless of whether the

item is best suited to meet the customer’s needs. The quote attributed to Henry Ford is

often cited as demonstrating the selling orientation (‘They can have any colour they

want so long as it’s black’), as are the tactics of time-share and door-to-door encyclo-

paedia salespeople. Other orientations contrasted with marketing’s customer orienta-

tion are the ‘product’ and ‘ production’ orientations. The former focuses on developing

the best possible product – with little attention paid to whether customers want or

can afford such a product ; the latter focuses on obtaining the most cost-effi cient pro-

duction, packaging and distribution processes – with scant regard for how this might

affect the consumer . Obviously, excluding monopoly or cartel situations, commercial

organisations that do not place suffi cient emphasis on a consumer orientation will fail

in the long run . We will have more to say on a consumer orientation in Chapter 2 .

Defi ning social marketing

Social marketing was originally named – as were other sub-branches of marketing

such as business-to-business or industrial marketing – to refer to a specifi c sub-area

of marketing. In practice, what occurred was that modern marketing techniques

developed for consumer products began to be applied by other areas of business

as they saw the apparent success of these techniques. These sub-disciplines were

demarcated because, although the principles and tools of marketing could be applied

in the different areas, the ‘marketplaces’ were very different for each. Marketers in

these areas required an understanding of these marketplaces in addition to their

understanding of marketing per se . Hence, we now have texts and courses entitled

industrial or business-to-business marketing, services marketing, fi nancial services

marketing, government or public sector marketing, events marketing, sports market-

ing, and even religious marketing. Social marketing came about as marketers and

social change practitioners began to apply marketing techniques to achieve socially

desirable goals.

DEFINING SOCIAL MARKETING ● ● ● ● ● ● 5

Religious marketing?

While there may be some argument as to whether the Church of Scientology (COS)

constitutes a genuine religion, the Church recently commenced a television advertising

campaign promoting Scientology as the answer to those seeking the ‘truth’. Interestingly,

given the Church’s strident opposition to medication, the execution of the ad has been

described as very similar to a much prescribed anti-depressant drug (with the implication

that it offers the same benefi ts) (Edwards 2009 a).

Free beer at church?

Taking a different approach, concerns over the lack of men attending services year-round

has led Church of England clergy in the UK to offer a range of incentives for fathers

attending church on Father’s Day, including free beer, bacon rolls and chocolate bars. Men

at St Stephen’s church in Barbourne, Worcester, for example, will be handed bottles of beer

by children during the service – although we are reassured that a prayer will be said for the

fathers before the beer is distributed. (No doubt the singing will benefi t.)

Not unexpectedly, the plan to distribute beer has upset groups working against alcohol

abuse, but the Bishop of Worcester said that it could help churches to attract more men,

arguing that the free beer was intended to be symbolic of “the generosity of God ” (Wynne-

Jones 2009 ).

What distinguished early social marketing efforts from other areas, was that they

were not for commercial profi t, nor were they promoting a particular organisation (the

domain of not-for-profi t marketing). Rather, social marketing campaigns appeared to

be conducted for the common good .

Incidentally, just as many original applications of consumer goods marketing to

other business areas failed (see Baker 1996 ), so too have many attempts to apply mar-

keting to social causes. However, this is not because the principles and tools of market-

ing are inappropriate in these areas, but because marketing concepts and techniques

have been misinterpreted or poorly applied. Too many early (and recent) social market-

ing campaigns were conducted by health and social policy professionals who lacked

marketing expertise, or were led by marketing or advertising professionals who lacked

an understanding of the health or social policy area in question. Given that the most

visible aspect of consumer goods marketing was advertising, many ‘uses’ of marketing

simply involved the addition of advertising to the organisation’s promotional strategy.

A classic example was that of the early adoption of ‘marketing’ by universities to com-

pete for students. This generally involved the appointment of a ‘marketing manager’,

the creation of a slogan and the advertising of their various courses – with too little

regard for factors such as teacher quality, timetabling, job opportunities, relevance of

course content , etc.

While there may be some argument as to whether the Church of Scientology (COS)

constitutes a genuine religion, the Church recently commenced a television advertising

campaign promoting Scientology as the answer to those seeking the ‘truth’. Interestingly,

given the Church’s strident opposition to medication, the execution of the ad has been

described as very similar to a much prescribed anti-depressant drug (with the implication

that it offers the same benefi ts) (Edwards 2009 a).

Religious marketing?

Taking a different approach, concerns over the lack of men attending services year-round

has led Church of England clergy in the UK to offer a range of incentives for fathers

attending church on Father’s Day, including free beer, bacon rolls and chocolate bars. Men

at St Stephen’s church in Barbourne, Worcester, for example, will be handed bottles of beer

by children during the service – although we are reassured that a prayer will be said for the

fathers before the beer is distributed. (No doubt the singing will benefi t.)

Not unexpectedly, the plan to distribute beer has upset groups working against alcohol

abuse, but the Bishop of Worcester said that it could help churches to attract more men,

arguing that the free beer was intended to be symbolic of “the generosity of God ” (Wynne-

Jones 2009 ).

Free beer at church?


Social marketing was fi rst defi ned by Kotler and Zaltman ( 1971 ) as ‘the design, imple-

mentation and control of programmes calculated to infl uence the acceptability of social

ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communications and

market research’. They referred to social marketing as simply the application of the

principles and tools of marketing to achieve socially desirable goals, that is, benefi ts for

society as a whole, rather than for profi t or other organisational goals

An often cited defi nition in the past decade has been Andreasen’s ( 1995 ): ‘Social

marketing is the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis,

planning, execution, and evaluation of programmes designed to infl uence the volun-

tary behaviour of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that

of their society.’ We have previously preferred Kotler and Zaltman’s defi nition because

of its simplicity and wide generalisability. For example, in this view, a health pro-

moter’s use of sponsorship (a marketing tool) to ensure that entertainment venues are

smoke free or that healthy food choices are available, is an example of ‘social market-

ing’. Kotler and Zaltman’s defi nition also avoids unnecessary and generally unhelpful

defi nitional debates.

We consider Andreasen’s defi nition unduly constrictive in its apparent emphasis on

voluntary behaviour change of individuals in the general population and their own

welfare. For example, a social marketing campaign with an end goal of individuals con-

suming less saturated fat, might also target biscuit manufacturers to persuade them to

replace saturated fats in their products with polyunsaturated fats. While this requires a

voluntary behaviour change among the food company executives, the end consumers’

change in saturated fats intake is involuntary. Furthermore, from our point of view,

if the social marketers lobbied legislators to enforce such substitutions (i.e., individ-

ual voluntary behaviour by legislators, involuntary by food manufacturers and their

consumers), this would still be social marketing.


The social marketing listserv has a burst of activity every so often with respect to ‘defi ning

social marketing’. Much of this is semantic, with various contributors taking perhaps

perverse intellectual delight in trying to think of exceptions to whatever defi nition is

proposed by someone else. We think that the vast majority of social marketing practitioners

have been doing quite well without a precise defi nition of each and every word, and

pedantic posturing serves little useful purpose.

This ‘voluntary’ restriction is somewhat inconsistent with the practice of market-

ing anyway. For example, commercial sponsors of events often negotiate exclusive

merchandising arrangements, such that the customer has little or no choice but

to consume the sponsor’s product at the sponsored event. For example, commer-

cial sponsors in US schools have exclusive merchandising contracts, and for the

2000 Olympics, the only credit card accepted by the ticketing agency was Visa (an

The social marketing listserv has a burst of activity every so often with respect to ‘defi ning

social marketing’. Much of this is semantic, with various contributors taking perhaps

perverse intellectual delight in trying to think of exceptions to whatever defi nition is

proposed by someone else. We think that the vast majority of social marketing practitioners

have been doing quite well without a precise defi nition of each and every word, and

pedantic posturing serves little useful purpose.


DEFINING SOCIAL MARKETING ● ● ● ● ● ● 7

Olympic sponsor). Similarly, health promoters use sponsorship agreements to ensure

that healthy food choices are available in entertainment venues, that the venues are

smoke free and that access is available to people with disabilities (see Chapter 13 ).

That is, individuals who are in a position to make policy or regulatory decisions are

important target audiences, in addition to individuals changing their own risky

behaviours .

Hence, we would modify Andreasen’s defi nition by adding ‘ involuntary’ and

expanding it to include those who make decisions that affect the welfare of others,

thus de-emphasising the targeting of individuals to change their personal risk

behaviours in keeping with Andreasen’s ( 2006 ) emphasis: ‘Social marketing is the

application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execu-

tion, and evaluation of programmes designed to infl uence the voluntary or invol-

untary behaviour of target audiences in order to improve the welfare of individuals

and society .’

We further extend this defi nition to accommodate two key points underlying this

book’s approach to social marketing, especially as we wish the fi eld to develop:

First, much of the debate about defi ning social marketing and the common good •

centres on how to establish this so-called ‘common good’ in pluralistic societies (i.e.,

‘who decides what is “good”?’). While we believe that this is rarely an issue in prac-

tice, we propose the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (www.unhchr.ch) as

our baseline with respect to the common good .

Second, most social marketing to date, particularly in the public health and injury •

prevention areas, has focused on achieving individual behaviour change, largely

independent of the individual’s social and economic circumstances. There is now

overwhelming evidence that various social determinants infl uence health over

and above individual behavioural risk factors and physical environment risk fac-

tors (Wilkinson and Marmot 1998 ). These social determinants result from the social

structure of society in (interrelated) areas such as the workplace, education, literacy

and community cohesion. Hence, we see a primary future goal of social marketing

as achieving changes in these social determinants of health and wellbeing (Donovan

2000b ; Mechanic 1999 ).

That is, our view is that the domain of social marketing is not just the targeting of

individual voluntary behaviour change and changes to the environment that facili-

tate such changes, but the targeting of changes in social structures that will facili-

tate individuals reaching their potential. This means ensuring individuals’ access

to health services, housing, education, transport and other basic human rights that

clearly impact on health status (Gruskin, Plafker and Smith-Estelle 2001 ). This will

require the targeting of individuals in communities who have the power to make

institutional policy and legislative change (Andreasen 2006 ; Hastings, MacFadyen

and Anderson 2000 ).


Social marketing’s beginnings

Social marketing has its roots in public education campaigns aimed at social change.

Kotler and Roberto ( 1989 ) report campaigns in ancient Greece and Rome to free the

slaves, and history records many attempts by governments in particular to mobilise

public opinion or educate the public with respect to health or edicts of the govern-

ment of the day. These efforts perhaps reached a peak of sinister sophistication with

the expertise of Goebbels in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and similar attempts by the

Allies to rally their own populations to the war efforts in the 1940s (see Chapter 12 ).

The propaganda expertise developed in the 1940s was then applied, initially mainly in

the United States, to a series of topic areas such as forest fi re safety, crime prevention,

cardiovascular disease, and so on; and is perhaps most evident in the anti-smoking and

HIV/AIDS campaigns of the 1990s that continue today.

Although some would argue that many of these early public education campaigns

were primarily media campaigns rather than comprehensive ‘social marketing’ cam-

paigns (Fox and Kotler 1980 ), they appeared to promote socially desirable products

(e.g., war bonds) and attitudes (e.g., towards women working) in ways indistinguishable

from commercial marketing. In any case, social marketing was being applied far more

comprehensively in developing countries than in developed countries in the 1970s

(Manoff 1985 ), in areas such as family planning, rat control and other hygiene/sanita-

tion areas, agriculture and attitudes towards women (Rice and Atkin 1989 ).

The 1980s saw rapid growth, especially in Canada and Australia, in the application

of marketing concepts to public education campaigns across a broad range of activities,

including injury prevention, drink-driving, seat belt usage, illicit drugs, smoking, exer-

cise, immunisation, nutrition and heart disease prevention (Egger, Donovan and Spark

1993 ; Fine 1990 ; Kotler and Roberto 1989 ; Manoff 1985 ; Walsh et al . 1993 ).

Egger and colleagues ( 1993 ) point to a number of factors infl uencing this:

the realisation by behavioural scientists and health professionals that, while they •

were expert in assessing what people should do, they were not necessarily expert in

communicating these messages, nor in motivating or facilitating behavioural change;

the observed apparent success of marketing techniques in the commercial area, and •

the observation that the discipline of marketing provided a systematic, research-based

approach for the planning and implementation of mass intervention programmes;

epidemiological research fi ndings about the relationships between habitual behav-•

iours and long-term health outcomes led public health experts to implement cam-

paigns aimed at preventing behaviours that resulted in the so-called ‘lifestyle’ dis-

eases such as heart disease and cancer; and

a focus on lifestyle diseases initially led to an emphasis on individual responsibility •

and individual behaviour change (Egger and colleagues imply that this was an undue

emphasis), a view consistent with the capitalist philosophy of individualism and

rational free choice, which many saw as synonymous with commercial marketing .

SOCIAL MARKETING’S BEGINNINGS ● ● ● ● ● ● 9

Some critics of social marketing (and health promotion) campaigns have claimed

that this individual focus philosophy largely ignores the social, economic and envir-

onmental factors that infl uence individual health behaviours. While some social

marketing campaigns deserve this criticism, this is not an inherent characteristic of

marketing. One of the fundamental aspects of marketing – and, hence, social market-

ing – is an awareness of the total environment in which the organisation operates, and

how this environment infl uences, or can itself be infl uenced, to enhance the market-

ing activities of the company or health agency (see Andreasen 2006 ; Buchanan, Reddy

and Hossain 1994 ; Hastings and Haywood 1994 ). Our defi nition of social marketing

explicitly acknowledges the infl uence of the social and physical environments on indi-

vidual behaviour.

Social marketing: what it is – and what it is not

Although some argue about what is and is not social marketing, we take an eclec-

tic, pragmatic and parsimonious view that what distinguishes social marketing from

other areas of marketing is the primary end goal of the campaigners. If the Hungarian

National Heart Foundation (HNHF), as part of the European Heart Health Charter

were to undertake a campaign to reduce cardiovascular disease in the population by

reducing the amount of trans-fats in people’s diets, using advertising and promotions

aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and via lobbying manufacturers

and fast-food outlets to reduce their use of saturated fats, this would be social market-

ing. The intended goal is increased health and wellbeing in the population at large.

If the HNHF formed a partnership with various fruit and vegetable marketers in the

above campaign, these commercial partners would not be engaging in social market-

ing. While the impact of increased fruit and vegetable consumption would have a

desirable population health outcome, this is not the commercial partners’ goal: their

goal is increased profi t via the partnership .

Not-for-profi t marketing: This refers to not-for-profi t organisations using marketing

to achieve organisational goals. If Cancer UK were to undertake a fundraising and

volunteer recruiting drive using direct mail and mass media advertising, this is not-

for-profi t marketing. While Cancer UK’s overall aims are for the common good, rais-

ing funds in competition with other charitable organisations is an organisational goal

rather than a ‘common good’ aim. Similarly, if a library used marketing techniques to

build its customer base and attract funds to achieve its goals of growth and its position-

ing of having an up-to-date library of music videos and DVDs, this would be not-for-

profi t marketing. However, if the library undertook to increase the literacy of people in

the community it served, and this was the primary aim of the programme, it would be

engaging in social marketing. Such a programme might, of course, result in increased

use of the library, but this would be a means to the primary goal .


Cause-related marketing: This refers to a commercial entity forming a partnership

with a pro-social organisation or cause, such that sales of the commercial organisa-

tion’s products benefi t the pro-social cause (Webb and Mohr 1998 ). In some ways this

is similar to sponsorship (or pro-social marketing; see below), where the pro-social

organisation allows the commercial entity to promote its association with the pro-

social organisation in order to improve people’s attitudes towards the company and its

products. The difference is that in cause-related marketing, the return to the pro-social

organisation is directly related to product sales. Again this is not social marketing as

the commercial organisation’s main aim is to achieve increased sales or some other

marketing objective; it is simply using the social goal as a means to this end.

Cause-related marketing has become relatively popular in the United States ever

since 1983 when American Express offered to donate one US cent to the restoration

of the Statue of Liberty for every use of its card, and US$1 for every new card. The

company gave US$1.7 million to the restoration as consumer card usage increased by

27 per cent and new applications by 45 per cent. Recent examples are Dove’s successful

and much-lauded ‘real women, real beauty’ campaign that funds a self-esteem foun-

dation for women, and P&G’s ‘One Pack = One Vaccine’ campaign – where Pampers

makes a donation to UNICEF equivalent to the cost of one tetanus vaccine for each

pack of specially marked Pampers sold (Cone 2008 ). That initiative began in 2006 in

the United Kingdom, and has since expanded to other countries in Western Europe,

North America and Japan.

The 2008 Pampers campaign in North America, which featured actress and new

mother Salma Hayek as spokesperson, reportedly generated funding for over 45 million

vaccines. The initiative has expanded across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and

North America, with approximately 100 countries participating in the 2008–9 cam-

paign ( www.unicefusa.org/hidden/pampers-usfund.html; accessed 16 June 2009).

Pink cans double soup sales

While projects like the Pampers UNICEF campaign have obvious benefi ts to the recipients

of the vaccination, these campaigns can be very profi table to the marketers. Campbell’s

soup sales to the Kroger supermarket chain doubled during the pink labelled Breast Cancer

Awareness Month in 2006. After deducting 3.5 cents per can, this presumably leaves

Campbell with a hefty profi t from the promotion (Thompson 2006 ).

Pro-social marketing: This refers to a commercial organisation promoting a pro-social

cause related in some way to its target audience. For example, Kellogg in Australia fea-

tured messages on its cereal products about bullying, targeting young children, and a

message about folate from the Northcott Society for Crippled Children on its Guardian

pack. It is also a major sponsor of the Surf Life Saving Association (Kellogg’s ‘Surf

Safe Summer’). Pro-social marketing is similar to sponsorship in that the commercial

While projects like the Pampers UNICEF campaign have obvious benefi ts to the recipients

of the vaccination, these campaigns can be very profi table to the marketers. Campbell’s

soup sales to the Kroger supermarket chain doubled during the pink labelled Breast Cancer

Awareness Month in 2006. After deducting 3.5 cents per can, this presumably leaves

Campbell with a hefty profi t from the promotion (Thompson 2006 ).

Pink cans double soup sales

SOCIAL MARKETING’S BEGINNINGS ● ● ● ● ● ● 11

organisation hopes to achieve an increase in positive attitudes to itself and its products

through an association with the pro-social organisation or issue.

In many cases, an apparent concern for a social issue is directly related to the com-

mercial organisation’s interests: for example, a condom manufacturer providing infor-

mation on HIV transmission; insurance companies promoting screening; and cereal

manufacturers providing information on fi bre and colorectal cancer. A variation on

this is where the commercial organisation joins with its critics to minimise the harm

done by its products: for example, alcohol marketers mounting or supporting respon-

sible drinking campaigns; packaging companies supporting and promoting recyc-

ling and ‘clean up’ campaigns; and Phillip Morris funding domestic violence shelters

and related projects. For example, Philip Morris International (PMI) supports the

‘Violence: que faire’ website run by the Swiss organisation, Vivre sans Violence, claimed

by PMI to be the fi rst website to offer information and advice for victims of domes-

tic violence in French-speaking Switzerland. In many cases, we suspect the primary

motive is to avert criticism or regulation rather than achieving a socially desirable goal

(www. philipmorrisinternational.com/PMINTL/pages/eng/stories/f012_CHViolence.

asp; accessed 16 June 2009).

Societal marketing : This is sometimes confused with social marketing. Kotler et al .

( 1998 ) use this term to refer to companies that act in socially responsible ways in the

achievement of their profi t goals (e.g., companies that voluntarily use biodegradable

products in production processes, recyclable packaging, etc.). This was considered an

extension of the original marketing concept from profi t through identifi cation and

satisfaction of consumer needs, to profi t through identifi cation and satisfaction of con-

sumer needs ‘in a way that preserves or improves the consumer’s and the society’s

wellbeing’ (Kotler et al . 1998 ).

Today there is much talk of corporate social responsibility (CSR), originally associ-

ated with companies such as the Body Shop and Ben & Jerry’s, but now claimed by

companies such as Nike and McDonald’s (Doane 2005 ). In some cases this seems like

corporate philanthropy, such as GlaxoSmithKline’s donation of anti-retroviral medi-

cations to Africa and Hewlett-Packard’s corporate volunteering programmes. Others

seem to be based on values, such as Starbucks’ purchases of fair-trade coffee. Doane

( 2005 ) seems rather sceptical of CSR motives – and we would agree .

Corporate philanthropy: Corporate philanthropy, such as Body Shop’s secondment

of staff to Romanian orphanages and McDonald’s Ronald McDonald houses, is viewed

as altruistic, with no direct link to increased sales or other commercial goals. However,

corporate philanthropy has direct and indirect benefi ts to the company’s profi tability

via positive effects on employees, external stakeholders and the community (Collins

1993 ), and, along with social responsibility and an interest in social causes, appears to

be on the increase (Drumwright 1996 ; Osterhus 1997 ). Qantas raised almost AUD$5


million from 1991 to 2000 for UNICEF; its staff are raising money for aid projects

in Zimbabwe and Thailand, and it raised AUD$410,000 for the Starlight Children’s

Foundation in 1998 through sales of a Christmas carols CD (McCoy 2000 ).

Social marketing and social change tools

Social marketing as proposed by many social marketers (mainly by academics, less

so by practitioners), has been restricted to the classical marketing techniques and

originally excluded areas such as lobbying, legislative and policy action and struc-

tural change. However, marketers use a number of tools to achieve sales and profi t

goals. Business lobbies government for policies and legislation that facilitate business

operations, such as restricting competition – especially from imports, tax breaks for

research and development of new products, plant and retail location incentives, fuel

subsidies and so on, all of which have a bearing on the company’s marketing efforts.

For example, Australian margarine manufacturers lobbied long and hard for legisla-

tion to allow margarine to be coloured like butter to increase its acceptance by con-

sumers – a move vigorously opposed by the dairy industry. Similarly, anti-tobacco

campaigners have lobbied government to ban tobacco advertising, to increase tax

on tobacco and to restrict smoking in public places. Is lobbying for the social good

‘social marketing’? From our point of view, if the lobbyist considers the interaction an

exchange and is concerned with the needs of the lobbied (i.e., the politician or legis-

lator), then it is social marketing . Hopefully Andreasen’s ( 2006 ) book on infl uencing

policymakers and legislators will increase the acceptance of these areas as within a

marketing approach.

Such lobbying is, of course, consistent with commercial marketing anyway – as

noted above – since actions like lobbying are included in the promotion ‘P’ of the

marketing mix in terms of infl uencing the environment in which exchanges take

place (Kotler et al . 1998 ) . Furthermore, if the key core concept of marketing is the

exchange process , whereby one party exchanges something of value with another

party to the perceived benefi t of each, then much of human activity – not just that

of commercial organisations – could be termed ‘marketing’. In this sense we agree

with Piercy ( 2008 ) and Baker ( 1996 ) that virtually all organisations engage in some

form of marketing (i.e., attempting to achieve satisfying exchanges with stakehold-

ers), although many would not label it as such, and some would make more efforts

with some stakeholders than others. For example, many government department

CEOs expend far more effort in keeping their minister happy than they do in keeping

their clients satisfi ed .

Education, motivation and regulation

There are three major campaign strategies to facilitate desired behaviour changes:

SOCIAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL CHANGE TOOLS ● ● ● ● ● ● 13

to educate (information and skills); •

to motivate (persuasion); and •

to advocate (socio-political action). •

Education and persuasion are aimed at individual behaviour change, while advocacy

is aimed at achieving structural change – at the social, physical and legislative envir-

onmental levels. We distinguish education/information and motivation/persuasion in

much the same way that health education is distinguished from health promotion.

Health education involves the provision of information in a more or less dispassion-

ate, objective scientifi c manner, where the target audience is left to make an ‘informed

choice’. Education can be effective in achieving behaviour change when ignorance is

the major barrier .

However, information per se is often insuffi cient to bring about behaviour change.

Persuasion involves the provision of information, products and services so as to dir-

ectly infl uence the target audience to adopt the source’s recommendations. In health

education we would dispassionately inform the target audience of the constituents of

inhaled tobacco smoke, how the lung cells metabolise this smoke and how tobacco

is related to a number of illnesses. In health promotion, we would dramatise the ill-

health effects and attempt to increase the target audience’s perception of the severity of

the illness and the likelihood of personally being affl icted, stress that quitting smoking

would vastly reduce if not eliminate the possibility of suffering a smoking-related ill-

ness and offer nicotine replacement therapy products . We could also lobby to restrict

tobacco advertising and institute non-smoking areas in public places. That is, health

promotion is also concerned with the infl uence of social and physical environment

factors .

Rothschild ( 1999 ) proposed three overall methods for achieving desirable social

change: education, motivation and legislation. Rothschild’s framework appears similar

to ours, although he views ‘motivation’ as the domain of social marketing and dif-

ferentiates it from education and legislation. He sees all three as complementary, and,

where relevant, co-operating means of achieving desirable social change . However,

in our view, education/information is part of marketing, as are attempts to achieve a

legislative context that facilitates the marketing effort. Hence, while different profes-

sionals might be necessary to help implement these three methods, they are all part of

what we would call a comprehensive social marketing campaign. In the case of tobacco

noted above, legal restrictions on advertising and promotion, mandatory packaging

requirements and no-smoking areas would constitute the legislative component of a

comprehensive approach.

This more comprehensive view of social marketing refl ects our background in

the public health area, where advocacy for legislative and policy change has played

a major role in areas such as tobacco and gun control and environmental protec-

tion. Furthermore, the law has long been used to assist in public health areas, from


mandatory notifi cation of various infectious diseases and indicators of child abuse,

to restrictions on the sexual behaviour of HIV positive persons, requirements for food

handling and food processing, mandatory seat belt use and so on. Similarly, racial vili-

fi cation and anti-discriminatory laws are used to infl uence social norms in tolerance

campaigns. Although some social commentators question the use of so-called ‘educa-

tive laws’ to achieve changes in cultural mores or morality, in our opinion, such laws

can be a positive force for change, especially if accompanied by education as to why

the laws are there .

Social marketing campaigns in many areas exploit existing laws or can be used to

create or simply result in favourable public opinion supporting further enforcement

strategies (e.g., road safety, illicit drug use, underage alcohol and cigarette purchases,

etc.). This is particularly so in road safety campaigns in the United Kingdom, Northern

Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, where shockingly graphic advertising and accom-

panying publicity have been used to create public support – or at least neutralise oppos-

ition – to regulatory measures such as increased fi nes, hidden cameras and compulsory

random breath testing .

Today, social marketing techniques are being used to achieve policy and legislative

change at local, state, national and international levels of government. In 2000, the

European Union Parliament adopted policies on tobacco packaging to apply to all

member countries (Smith 2000 ). Furthermore, public health lobbyists are attempting

to achieve international agreements on a broad range of issues that impact social wel-

fare and public health, from tobacco to human traffi cking .

Social marketing and health promotion

As noted above, attempts to achieve social change have been around for a long time.

While these may not have been called ‘social marketing’, they share many of the same

techniques and principles. Consider the case of ‘health promotion’. Health promotion

has been defi ned as a more proactive stance than ‘ health education’, in that whereas

health education attempted to inform people – and then left them to make a so-called

‘ informed choice’ – health promotion attempts not only to inform, but also to per-

suade people to cease unhealthy behaviours and to adopt healthy behaviours. Health

education focused on biomedical information, risk factors and diseases in a fairly dis-

passionate format . Health promotion, on the other hand, uses highly graphic, emotion

arousing appeals to dissuade people from unhealthy habits such as smoking. It also

uses positive appeals to wellness, self-esteem and mental alertness to persuade people

to adopt healthy behaviours.

Health promotion also places considerable emphasis on environments in which

health promotion takes place (e.g., health promoting schools, health promoting work-

places, health promoting cities, etc.). The Ottawa Charter (see below) explicitly states

that health promotion should not only target individual undesirable behaviours, but


also act to create social, political, health service and legislative environments that sup-

port communities and individuals to make desirable changes.

Health promotion: The Ottawa Charter

Build Healthy Public Policy •

Create Supportive Environments •

Strengthen Community Actions •

Develop Personal Skills •

Re-orient Health Services •

Adopted at an international conference on health promotion, 17–21 November 1986,

Ottawa, Canada .

A perusal of health promotion campaigns and health promotion texts might give a

marketing savvy reader the sense that ‘only the name has been changed’. Interestingly,

some of these texts include a section or chapter on ‘social marketing’ as just one way of

approaching a health promotion campaign (including ones co-authored by the fi rst author

of this book: see Egger, Donovan and Spark 1993 ; Egger, Spark and Donovan 2005 ).

Social marketing, the public health approach and social medicine

A common call today by health and social policy professionals is for ‘a public health

approach’ to almost every health and social ill, from the obesity problem, violence,

adolescent substance use and increasing physical activity to reducing medical mal-

practice errors (just Google Scholar ‘public health approach’ and you will see what

we mean). Much of this has arisen from the success of the public health approach in

controlling infectious diseases (and environmental hazards) and applying the same

principles and methods to the lifestyle behaviour of tobacco use.

Public health is concerned with preserving, promoting and improving health,

with an emphasis on prevention: primary prevention refers to preventing problems

occurring in the fi rst place (universal interventions); secondary prevention refers

to interventions targeting at-risk groups before the problem is established (selective

interventions); and tertiary prevention refers to interventions that attempt to prevent

the problem re-occurring (indicated interventions). Hence, relationship programmes

for young males about respecting women are an example of primary prevention;

interventions aimed at young males whose father or male carer was abusive represent

secondary prevention; behaviour change programmes for men who have physically

abused their partner represent tertiary intervention (Donovan and Vlais 2006 ).

The steps in a public health approach can be described as follows:

(1) Determine what is the problem via systematic data collection (‘surveillance’) (e.g.,

extent and nature of violence against women, prevalence of substance use among

Build Healthy Public Policy•

Create Supportive Environments•

Strengthen Community Actions•

Develop Personal Skills •

Re-orient Health Services•

Adopted at an international conference on health promotion, 17–21 November 1986,

Ottawa, Canada .

Health promotion: The Ottawa Charter


’tweens and teens). This is particularly important for setting relevant goals, includ-

ing behavioural objectives.

(2) Identify risk and protective factors via epidemiological analyses and attempt to

identify causes (by experimental and other methods) and the health and other

effects in various groups. Such analyses are particularly important for target audi-

ence identifi cation.

(3) Develop and implement interventions to see what works, why and for which

groups.

(4) Apply the effi cacious interventions population wide, assess their impact and their

cost-effectiveness.

(5) Continue surveillance, data analyses and modifi cation of interventions.

A public health approach incorporates an acknowledgement of all environmental infl u-

ences on health and welfare, and, from its beginnings as ‘ social medicine’ in Europe,

social inequalities in particular. This is epitomised in Virchow’s famous statement that

social conditions infl uence health, and hence political action is necessary to restruc-

ture society and remove these social conditions (see Chapter 3 ). Virchow stated 160

years ago that ‘medicine is a social science, and politics nothing more than medicine

on a grand scale’. He meant that a society’s health is very much dependent on the way

that society structures itself. Factors affecting the health of populations may be dif-

ferent to those affecting the health of individuals. While the health care system deals

with the proximate ‘causes’ of illness, broader social change is necessary to deal with

population cause (Mackenbach 2009 ).

Social medicine is most associated in the twentieth century with South America,

and with names like Salvador Allende (the military–CIA deposed Chilean leader) and

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (Waitzkin et al . 2001 ) (see the movie ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ for

Guevara’s ‘discovery’ of the relationship between poverty and ill-health ).

Social marketing and social mobilisation

Based on social change programmes in developing countries, McKee ( 1992 ) defi nes

social mobilisation as ‘the process of bringing together all feasible and practical inter-

sectoral social allies to raise people’s awareness of and demand for a particular develop-

ment programme, to assist in the delivery of resources and services and to strengthen

community participation for sustainability and self-reliance’. He lists legislators, com-

munity leaders (religious, social and political), corporations and the target audience

themselves (the ‘benefi ciaries’) as targets via lobbying, mass media, training, partici-

pation in planning, sponsorship, study tours and so on, to bring about the ‘mobilisa-

tion’ of all these groups to ensure a programme’s success. In this sense, McKee sees

social mobilisation as incorporating and supporting a social marketing campaign

with specifi c objectives. In our view, we see the terms as synonymous, with his list


of mobilisation targets simply being the list of necessary stakeholders to engage for

maximal impact.

McKee’s framework is particularly relevant in developing countries where inter-

sectoral alliances and government support for programmes are relatively weak, or

where there may even be hostility towards the programme. In developed countries,

government departments, NGOs, corporations and community organisations are more

likely to be positive towards the programme – although moving these positive attitudes

into co-operative action still requires considerable effort.

McKee’s framework is useful because it highlights all the target groups for any cam-

paign, although their relevance will vary by issue, resources and campaign objectives.

For example, a bullying campaign implemented in a Western Australian town was ini-

tiated by the then member of the state Legislative Assembly; it had a board consisting

of representatives of several state government departments and the Commonwealth

Government (e.g., education, family and children’s services), and community organisa-

Principles and Practice of Social Marketing...Deﬁ ning social marketing 4 Social marketing’s beginnings 8 Social marketing and social change tools 12 Concluding comments 19 Questions

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