by Sudeepa Nair

Created on: February 08, 2009

Marketing, as a social welfare tool? I can see several raised eyebrows, especially, my we-hate-marketers' brigade of friends and relatives who often look down upon me when I say I want to pursue a career in marketing; so you are going to be one amongst them? They, who coax, cajole and brainwash vulnerable consumers into spending their hard earned money on things that they hardly know whether they need or not. Well what if I say it's not all about money honey!

Ever heard about societal marketing or that rare but growing breed of societal marketers? They are the ones who are trying to the change the world, quite literally. A passing glance on the definition of social (societal) marketing as given by Philip Kotler will be enough to support my words. He says:

"Social marketing is the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups or society as a whole. " (Social marketing - Improving the quality of life - Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto, Nancy Lee)

He even goes further to christen the social (societal) marketers as change agents. So what do these social (societal) marketers sell? They sell a desired behavior. Behavior that is desirable for the good of the individual and the society at large. For instance, asking someone to abandon an old behavior of smoking or accept a new behavior of exercising five times a week.

Societal and Commercial Marketing: Differences

Okay, you may say, that indeed is work done for the welfare of the society but how is this in anyway related to the marketing principles learnt and spouted by most "B"- school graduates? How do the concepts of segmenting, targeting, and positioning, the 4 P's and the all important customer orientation help societal marketing? These concepts are the building blocks for any societal marketing plan although it does differ from commercial marketing in some respects.

Firstly, societal marketing aims for individual or societal gain rather than financial gain. In commercial marketing often the segmentation is done on the basis of the most profitable segment. In societal marketing too, the return on investment of sources is important but in terms of the degree of change brought about. Hence, criteria like extent of societal problem, readiness to change and approachability become important.

In commercial marketing, competition is viewed as firms, which sell similar products or satisfy similar needs. In

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>