21So
Column 17 · Stakeholders and Sustainability · Era 2, Planning (1970s)
Social Marketing
Implementation, content · Landmark · Cluster VI, Context
Description
Kotler and Zaltman defined social marketing as the design, implementation, and control of programs that influence the acceptability of social ideas through product, price, place, promotion, and marketing research.
Managerial Implications
Marketing tools can change behavior for social goals, from health to sustainability, and the same tools shape behavior change inside firms. Treat a desired behavior like a product: understand the competing behaviors, lower the costs of adopting, and make the benefits immediate and visible. Purpose-driven initiatives that ignore this discipline become communication campaigns without behavior change.