Social marketing is a concept that is used to change the behavioral pattern of people so that they can develop a healthier lifestyle and enhance the society they live in or better still the world as a whole. It uses commercial marketing strategies to promote optimistic social behaviors and health benefits. Unlike commercial marketing that basically concerns the profits of the marketer, social marketing is designed to benefit a particular niche or the society as a whole.
Since the term was coined in the 70’s by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman, who discovered that the principles of commercial marketing could be used to improve social behaviors, social marketing has come a long way and carved a fine niche for itself. It is today, considered as one of the best ways to promote awareness, broaden one’s thinking and bring about a marked improvement in our society. Social marketing has shown a definite upward trend and the health arena has been its best-achieved target.
Although the process is the same, in social marketing the marketer is not concerned about selling a product to the customer, but instead analyzes the needs of the audience and focuses on this issue by addressing it with the four P’s of marketing. The four elements of marketing are Product, Price, Place and Promotion, all of which are used to convince individuals to adopt values that motivate them to bring about beneficial change in society.
Social marketing has brought in a tremendous transformation and the health industry is one of the most important sectors that have extensively used social marketing for the promotion of public health awareness programs. Topics such as drug abuse, contraceptives, organ donation, ORT, HIV, human trafficking are some of the successful health programs that have been accomplished through social marketing. Thanks to social marketing, people today are more aware of social issues than they were a few decades ago.
People have also come closer to each other with the rise in social networks, blogs, social network sharing sites and similar communication facilities that have enhanced public interaction and harnessed a power for progressive change. Social marketing has not only changed the way people think but has also given a revolutionary boost to online businesses that are using social media marketing to target their niche audience.
An active sociable approach is the ideal way to communicate with your audience whether it is consumers or other businesses that you are addressing yourself to. Although social marketing still needs to be worked on with greater scrutiny, it has great potential for future development and for bringing about a remarkable change in society as well as increasing sales for online businesses.
