Social Marketing Defined

Starbird Creative recognizes marketing for social or individual behavior change as part of a repertoire of social change initiatives that also includes policy advocacy and legislation, community mobilization, and movement activism.

The Social Marketing Institute defines social marketing as the planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change using concepts from commercial marketing.  The following bullets are borrowed from their website:

Among the important marketing concepts are:

• The ultimate objective of marketing is to influence action;
• Action is undertaken whenever target audiences believe that the benefits they receive will be greater than the costs they incur;
• Programs to influence action will be more effective if they are based on an understanding of the target audience's own perceptions of the proposed exchange;
• Target audiences are seldom uniform in their perceptions and/or likely responses to marketing efforts and so should be partitioned into segments;
• Marketing efforts must incorporate all of the "4 Ps," i.e.:
  • Create an enticing "Product" (i.e., the package of benefits associated with the desired action);
  • Minimize the "Price" the target audience believes it must pay in the exchange;
  • Make the exchange and its opportunities available in "Places" that reach the audience and fit its lifestyles;
  • Promote the exchange opportunity with creativity and through channels and tactics that maximize desired responses;
• Recommended behaviors always have competition which must be understood and addressed;
• The marketplace is constantly changing and so program effects must be regularly monitored and management must be prepared to rapidly alter strategies and tactics.

 Want to learn more about social marketing?  Click to open the slide show.