The concept of “social marketing” has gained widespread recognition in the field of marketing since its inception by Kotler and Zaltman (1971) decades ago. Further discussion was made by Lazer and Kelley (1973) and Sheth and Wright (1974) bout it’s concepts. Then came the ethics of social marketing by Laczniak, Lusch, and Murphy (1979) to application of social sciences to social marketing concepts by Swinyard and Ray (1977). Blakely, Schutz, and Harvey (1977 and Gutman (1978) reported several case studies pertaining to social marketing. However, there are few case studies that can’t go forward the development of general knowledge regarding social marketing, including problems and issues (Bloom, P., & Novelli, W., 1981).
This blog focuses on one of the steps in developing Social Marketing strategies which is Product, Price, Place and Promotion (Bloom, P., & Novelli, W., 1981), Types of Mobilization as discussed in my Activity 1 and general concepts on the integration of traditional to social marketing.
Challenges in 4Ps
Issues on Market Analysis
A basic understanding of marketing pertains to the creation of strategies based on research gathered on several Focus Discussion Groups and Key Informant Interviews on wants, needs, perceptions, attitudes, habits and satisfaction. Social marketers then would have to use the information gathered to build upon effective plans and programs for implementation. But there are issues faced on this process such as
-less good secondary data available about the audiences and this is due to little research and preparation done.
-have more difficulty in obtaining valid and reliable measures of salient variables, stating issues on marketing academics who has given less time in studying audience participation and reaction on strategies being implemented.
-difficulty in sorting out relative influence of identified determinants of consumer behavior
-difficulty in getting funds used in research
Issues on Market Segmentation
Perhaps one of the factors needed to take into consideration in the successful implementation of social marketing strategies would be market segmentation. This is where social marketers divide or categorize the market into homogenous segments and then develop unique marketing programs, but there are challenges determined too in segmentation such as;
-problem with segmentation, as grouping audiences doesn’t really address individual issues or bespokes
-not enough behavioral data to properly segment audiences
-often than not, segmentation targets the most negatively predisposed to the offerings
Issues on Product Strategy problems
Some of the issues identified in the process of creating a plan/material includes the following;
-less flexibility in shaping the plan/product
-difficulty in planning the product concept
-difficulty in implementing long term strategies
Issues with Pricing Strategies
-on the contrary, pricing strategy in social marketing doesn’t always involve monetary or currency but of results of the implementation, and often times determining it seems complex
-difficulty in measuring the price
Issues with Channel Strategies
Implementing strategies sees difficulties when partner organizations or LGUs are involved and most often than not their considerations are our considerations too.
-difficulty utilizing and controlling desired intermediaries
Issues with Communication Strategies
-deals pressure not to use certain types of appeals
-communicate relatively large amount of information
-difficulty conducting meaningful pretests of messages
Types of Mobilization
On the other hand, based on my Activity 1 report, the Global Classroom STEAM Challenge focuses on the goal to promote local and global impacts of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Education to come up with innovative ideas to help aid some of the social issues (relevant to Sustainable Development Goals) and foster intercultural relationship.
Among the materials created to address issues includes creation of website and an NGO to collect and distribute food, co-develop devices to reuse recyclables and plastic to cool and filter the air and conserve water, propose educational programs to fight bias in the community and workplace and co-develop websites and a mobile app with the intent of reducing or better managing waste garbage in their communities and these are examples of social marketing that focuses on behavioral change, advocacy, resource mobilization and influence public opinion.
Integration
*Side note on the integration of Traditional to Social Marketing. The relationship between these two maybe compared to dancing, contemporary and folk. Both of these arts are similar in nature as it requires extensive training and body movement mastery. But each kind has its own set of rules, constraints and required skills. A contemporary dancer may not be as good as he/she can be in terms of folk dancing and vice versa.
Social Marketing is considered as the design, implementation and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communications, distribution and marketing research – Kotler and Zaltman, 1971 (Laczniak, G., Lusch, R., & Murphy, P., 1979). The use of social marketing has expanded in the past few years and has taken many forms in the society. Such in the case of integration of traditional to social marketing strategies, platforms being used to disseminate social marketing materials and mobilization and ever-changing segmentation of audiences and many more.
References
Bloom, P., & Novelli, W. (1981). Problems and Challenges in Social Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 45(2), 79-88. doi:10.2307/1251667
Laczniak, G., Lusch, R., & Murphy, P. (1979). Social Marketing: Its Ethical Dimensions. Journal of Marketing, 43(2), 29-36. doi:10.2307/1250739