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Module 2
Marketing
What
is Social Marketing?
By
Nedra Kline Weinreich
Social
marketing was "born" as a discipline in the 1970s,
when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realised that
the same marketing principles that were being used
to sell products to consumers could be used to sell
ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler and Andreasen
define social marketing as, "A marketing strategy
that differs from other areas of marketing only
with respect to the objectives of the marketer and
his or her organisation. Social marketing seeks
to influence social behaviours not to benefit the
marketer, but to benefit the target audience and
the general society." This technique has been used
extensively in international health programs, especially
for contraceptives and Oral rehydration therapy
(ORT), and is being used with more frequency in
the United States for such diverse topics as drug
abuse, heart disease and organ donation.
Like
commercial marketing, the primary focus is on the
consumer--on learning what people want and need
rather than trying to persuade them to buy what
we happen to be producing. Marketing talks to the
consumer, not about the product. The planning process
makes the consumer focus into account by addressing
the elements of the "marketing mix." This refers
to decisions about:
1)
The conception of a
Product
2)
Price
3)
Distribution (Place)
4)
Promotion
These
are often called the "Four Ps" of marketing. Social
marketing also adds a few
more "P's."
Each
element of the marketing mix should be taken into
consideration as the program is developed, for they
are the cores of the marketing effort. Research
is used to elucidate and shape the final product,
price, place, promotion and related decisions.
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