Social Marktng for Global Good

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

Social marketing involves the application of marketing approaches developed in the commercial sector to solve societal problems. Recognized as a distinct marketing discipline since the early 1970s, social marketing has been employed to influence behaviors designed to improve individual health, prevent injuries, protect the environment, and promote other socially beneficial actions. For instance, successful social marketing campaigns have helped reduce and prevent smoking, decrease infant mortality, stop the spread of HIV/AIDs, decrease littering, increase recycling, and drive myriad other societal shifts in the U.S. and across the globe (Andreasen). While the fundamental principles at the core of social marketing are similar to the main tenets of commercial marketing, important distinctions exist in the application of marketing approaches to solving social and environmental problems. Commercial marketing primarily revolves around selling goods and services, with market share and profit being drivers of strategy, while social marketing is used to sell a desired behavior. Social marketing techniques are used to influence target audience behaviors that will benefit society as well as the targeted individuals, but without any financial profit accruing to the marketer. (Kotler and Lee). Social marketing is also different than other marketing disciplines, such as nonprofit marketing (i.e. marketing one NGO); cause marketing (i.e. linking a commercial product’s promotion with a cause to boost sales and burnish corporate reputation); and social media marketing (i.e. using social media channels to market a product or cause). This course will equip you with an understanding of how to apply social marketing techniques to solve social and environmental challenges. We will discuss how to integrate actions across a diverse set of actors, and combine individual behavioral change strategies with more systemic approaches, such as policy advocacy and grassroots coalition building, to create lasting social change at scale.