Social Marketing - Soch Badalna, Samaj Badalna

Faculty Article

Social Marketing – Soch Badalna, Samaj Badalna

Shahana Qutab Phd Scholar, IILM University

‘Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the people.’ - Benjamin Disraeli World today is a free territory for the forces of technology and marketing to run their influence and rule. There is no escape from the clutches of these two forces on the systems of our life on this planet. If we just look around ourselves, we will not miss even one glimpse of technology and marketing in our surrounding. The ‘infestation’ is very deep rooted. Demands from the new ‘world order’ make it important to be technologically introduced, updated and simultaneously, continuously market ourselves to survive in the competitive wildfire. No doubt, life in many ways has become easy and comfortable, the drawbacks abound. Focus has shifted from real issues knocking hard at us e.g. drug abuse, poverty, malnutrition, hunger, depression, suicides etc. and these issues need urgent address. This is where ‘Social Marketing’ comes to the scene. Social marketing can be of tremendous help in aiding natural transformation towards adoption of positive social behaviours by the masses. In contrast to commercial marketing with its focus on profits and commercial benefits, social marketing aims at achieving social good and social benefits. In the 1960s and 70’s the unethical practices of many companies became public. The concept of Social Marketing surfaced in 1972; a more socially responsible, moral and ethical model of marketing, countering consumerism. Philip Kotler introduced the concept of social marketing and societal marketing. The societal marketing concept evolved from older concepts of CSR and sustainable development and implemented by several companies to improve their public image through activities of the customer and social welfare. In 1971, Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman published the first paper on social marketing as an official discipline in the Journal of Marketing. The title of the article was “Social Marketing, an approach to planned social change”. If one looks at it closely, social marketing has been prevalent from historical times. Ancient Romans and Greeks had launched campaigns against slavery. During Industrial Revolution many campaigns advocating women’s voting rights or abolition of child labour were launched. Social marketing in simple words intends to change human ‘behaviour’. It triggers a new thought process, even where beliefs are set in stone. It strives to achieve social benefit, not commercial profit which remains the focus of commercial marketing as we know. Social marketing is like a steering wheel that manoeuvres human social behaviours of its target market the way it intends to. Exclusive and in-depth analysis of mind-sets, belief systems, practices prevalent in target strata of society, is starting point of social marketing wherein nothing is left to generalisation. The term is fast picking up traction among intellectuals, academia, students and policy makers and significant research and projects are taken in the sphere, world over. The applications of social marketing are majorly found in public health and environmental issues but are not restricted to these two areas only. The relevance of social marketing is not only for the poor and underprivileged but applies to all strata of population wherever a behavioural transformation has possibility to result in social good. Three considerations in marketing strategies are balanced in Social Marketing: company profits, the consumer wants, and society’s interests. • Society (Human Welfare): Companies must make sure the products, services, actions, investment innovations servers society first. • Consumers (Satisfaction): Products and services should be satisfying the consumer’s needs. • Company (Profits): Building long-term customer relationships, being socially responsible, and providing satisfactory products are important

for profit-making and wealth maximization. Social marketing is an exercise for upliftment and progress in social domain. It includes initiatives taken by government, NGOs, corporates, individuals, to manoeuvre social behaviours of target audience towards social good. In developing and populous countries like India, social marketing benefits millions at grass root levels. It serves a means to an end. If the welfare interventions are not propagated strategically among the intended audience, they will lose their appeal due to lack of awareness, clarity or understanding. For nations, provision of social benefits and empathy builds a sense of trust and self-respect in the masses and deepens their sense of nationality. To aid and actualise proper propagation of social welfare initiatives, social marketing is a wonderful way for ‘dreams to come true’, for a community, for a nation. At the helm of the social marketing effort can be a group, organisation and even an individual. Some noteworthy examples of social marketing campaigns worldwide are: 1. GYT (Give Yourself Test run by Centres for Disease Prevention and Control -CDC, USA and sponsored prominently by MTV, Planned Parenthood, The Kaiser Foundation aims at informing young people about sexually transmitted diseases, encourages them to get tested and connects them to testing centres). 2. ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge campaign by ALS Association to bring awareness in the public towards the disease. 3. Kimberly-Clark works extensively in the field of social marketing with its flagship programs like Toilet Change Lives, No Baby UnHugged Program and a program for promotion of Roy, Father of Indian Renaissance, formed Brahma Samaj, which was a socio-religious reform movement. Brahma Samaj played a major role in influencing the society against harmful practices like child marriage, Sati (burning of woman on the funeral pyre of her dead husband) and changed the society in accepting equal rights for women and modernising Indian education. Today, when technology has become all invasive in our lives one way or another, technological interventions can greatly enhance the reach and success of social marketing campaigns. The social marketing strategy, though arduous from the very planning and implementation stage, is immensely fruitful if done right. Mountains can be moved. Long standing social problems can be corrected once astute insights on mass audience psyche are obtained and analysed and messages to be marketed are then accordingly crafted with creative appeal. Next, audience orientations regarding the messages to be marketed must be delivered by well-trained personnel in an intelligent and empathetic way. The results thus achieved will be long term and sustainable because social marketing campaigns attempt to change behaviours from within and build good social practices that translate into healthy lifestyles in the long term. To conclude, it is important to emphasise that opportunities for a society or community to be better than before will always be there and social marketing will always be relevant in today’s world of rampant social injustice. Therefore, it will be better for reformers , marketers and policy makers to adopt the mantra of social marketing - Positive thinking will initiate positive beliefs, which in turn guarantee a progressive existence. Soch badalna, samaj badalna! menstrual hygiene in collaboration with Kotex. 4. Selfie with Daughter Campaign to strengthen Beti Padhao Beti Bachao scheme of Government of India. 5. USAID sponsored experimental Social Marketing Project, 1983, and in 1990-93 in selected Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) projects in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Project Director for this experiment was Dr. S.Y. Quraishi, Ex. Election Commissioner of India and current Chancellor, IILM University. 6. If we look in history, in early 19 th century and important social reformer of India, Raja Ram Mohan