(source: Appendix B: Selected Planning Frameworks, Social Science Theories, and Models of Change*
* From Theory at a Glance: A Guide for Health Promotion Practice (NIH Publication No. 97-3896), by the National Cancer Institute, 1995. Bethesda, MD. In the public domain.)

Social marketing has been defined as "the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society" (Andreasen, 1995). This definition encompasses several key aspects of the social marketing approach; it is seen as:

1. A focus on behavior, not awareness or attitude change
2. Results in a benefit to individuals and/or society; is not focused on profit and organizational benefits as commercial marketing practices are
3. An approach centered on the target audience’s having a primary role in the process, and more and more audience's having an interactive, not one way, role in the program.
4. One that considers the competitive landscape and plans for ways to manage the competition
5. One that considers how each element of the marketing mix could be applied to the situation and selects the best elements to address based on goals and resources.
6. Divides large audience groups into smaller segments for the purpose of finding and addessing common benefits and barriers.

Social marketing practices are based on commercial marketing practices that make the consumer the central focus for planning and conducting a program. The program's components address:

• Price—what the consumer must give up in order to receive the program’s benefits (these costs may be intangible [e.g., changes in beliefs or habits] or tangible [e.g., money, time, or travel])
• Product—what the program is trying to change within the intended audience and what the audience stands to gain
• Promotion—how the exchange is communicated (e.g., appeals used)
• Place—what channels the program uses to reach the intended audience (e.g., mass media, community, or interpersonal)

The formulation of price, product, promotion, and place evolves from research with the consumers to determine what benefits and costs they would consider acceptable and how they might be reached. Lessons learned from social marketing stress the importance of understanding the intended audiences and designing strategies based on their wants and needs rather than what good health practice directs that they should do.

For Further Reading

Andreasen, A. (1995). Marketing social change: Changing behavior to promote health, social development, and the environment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kotler, P., & Roberto, E. L. (1989). Social marketing: Strategies for changing public behavior. New York: Free Press.
Lefebvre, R. C., & Rochlin, L. (1997). Social marketing. In K. Glanz, F. M. Lewis, & B. K. Rimer (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.