Social marketing: An approach to planned social change

Abstract

Twenty-five years after publishing one of the pioneering articles on social marketing in the Journal of Marketing, Philip Kotler shares with SMQ these thoughts; When we published "Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change" in the July 1971 issue of The Journal of Marketing, we recognized that there would be some opposition to the ideas, not only from established social change groups, but also from the marketing profession itself. Most social change groups espoused either economic or political activity as the underpinning of their efforts. Social marketing included this, but added the importance of deeply researching the target market's attitudes and behavior, as well as developing strong communications aligned with the target market's mind set. Even those in the marketing profession wondered if we carried the marketing idea too far. In the intervening years, we were gratified to see the growing interest in and use of social marketing concepts, tools and practices. First, we noted a number of able researchers and practitioners joining our voice about the promise of social marketing, people like Alan Andreasen, James Mintz, Bill Novelli and William Smith. In the 1980s, organizations such as the World Bank and the Centers for Disease Control, to name two, started to use the term and promote interest in social marketing. In the 1990s, we began to see academic programs appear in social marketing, such as The Center for Social Marketing at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and in the Department of Community and Family Health at the University of South Florida. Finally, it has been gratifying to see progress made in some of the major social cause areas. Cigarette smoking has diminished through a combination of strategies, including social marketing. People are more conscious than ever about the importance of eating proper foods. Unfortunately, there has been less progress in such areas as drug abuse and children borne to teenagers. Here we need to do more research to understand the dynamics of the problem and to prepare more effective social marketing campaigns I have little doubt that social marketing has established itself in the last 30 years as a valid and useful perspective and tool for ameliorating social problems. Philip Kotier, PhD., S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.