Social marketing is generally considered to be what takes place in the domain where human interests override commercial ones.The Promise of Social Marketing examines the potential for social marketing to address local and global issues associated with the human plight, clarifies the philosophies that underpin good practice in social marketing and highlights its pervasive relevance to all human activities.
There is an on-going debate about the nature of marketing and whether it is able to fulfil or adapt to both commercial and humanitarian or social objectives. The unifying view is that marketing is a tool that can be used for individual, organisational or social benefit. Marketing can be used by private, public, or third sector organisations, either to sell cigarettes or unhealthy food with damning results on the one hand, or to promote products and behaviours that encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles on the other. There is, nonetheless, also a view that social marketing approaches are different from those adopted by commercial marketers, or from what is called generic marketing.
In this book the author asks, if marketing is a tool, when does the purpose of the tool make it another tool? With specific examples as diverse as the marketing associated with HIV/AIDS prevention and the promotion of social enterprise, this volume explains the precursors and development to date of social marketing, the philosophies associated with it; the tools deployed in its practice, and the direction it might take in the future. This book is of interest to those who study marketing management, business ethics and public policy.
