Social Marketing

The term marketing is associated strongly with the commercial world of buying and selling and advertising and probably for the scientist. In recent years, there has been a growing realization across the world that the various techniques of marketing could be usefully applies to social development issues. The concept of social marketing was born from this realization. Definition: Social Marketing is the Practice of Utilizing the Philosophy, Tools, and Practices of Commercial Marketing for Health and/or Social Programs. Social development involves the marketing of a product or a practice that people have to be persuaded to accept or use; they may or may not have felt the need for this product/service or the change in the behavior that is being suggested; there would be competition; often not from other products or services but from past practices. The government of India has taken the initiative in using both market research and advertising to examine current knowledge, attitude and practices regarding various social development issues and creating advertising that responds to the needs brought out by such studies. In the 1950s, India started family planning campaigns. In 1985, the government of India had set up a National Diarrhea management Program (NDMP) to deal with a public health problem that is responsible for over million childhood deaths every year. In addition, a close association between diarrhea and malnutrition has been noted through several studies. Diarrhea attack rates vary from 2 to 6 per child per year. So before the age of 5, the average child would have had some 15 attacks of diarrhea. It was recognized that since oral rehydration and correct diarrhea management lay at the root of the issue of controlling diarrhea-related amorbility and mortality, the first intervention would have to come from mother. It was therefore recognized that communication with and education of the mother can help to reduce/eradicate the problem of diarrhea in children.

Process of Social Marketing Campaign

The process of developing a social marketing program involves research at every stage, with constant reevaluation to assess whether the program is on track. This process consists of five general stages, each of which involves several different types of activities: 1) Planning; 2) Message and materials development; 3) Pretesting; 4) Implementation; and 5) Evaluation and feedback. The figure below visually depicts the process as a pyramid of sequential steps; in practice, social marketing is not necessarily a clear series of linear steps but rather a process of feedback and adjustment that might require revisiting past stages to make changes based on new information. The planning phase forms the foundation on which the rest of the process is built. To create an effective social marketing program, you must understand the problem you are addressing, the audiences you are targeting, and the environment in which the program will operate. Research is used to analyze these factors and to develop a workable strategy for effecting behavior change. The message and materials development phase (Step 2) uses the information learned in the planning phase to design the messages to be conveyed as well as the materials that will carry the messages to the target audience. The pretesting phase (Step 3) involves using various methods to test messages, materials and proposed tactics with the target audience members to determine what works best to accomplish the program's objectives. It is not uncommon to go back and forth several times between development and pretesting as you make necessary changes in the messages, materials or overall strategy and explore whether the new approach works. In the implementation phase (Step 4) the program is introduced to the target audience. Preparation is essential for success and implementation must be monitored to ensure that every element proceeds as planned. Finally, the evaluation and feedback phase (Step 5) assesses the effects of the program as a whole as well as the individual elements of the strategy. Evaluation occurs throughout the process of program development, not just at the end, and feedback is used at each stage to improve the program.

Addition Reading Read the Topic Social Marketing in Chapter 22 (Managing Holistic Marketing Organization) in the Marketing Management by Kotler, Keller, Koshy and Jha.