science

Social marketing

Social marketing is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Social marketing rather than just read about it. In short: Social marketing is a marketing approach which focuses on influencing behavior with the primary goal of achieving the common good. It utilizes the elements of commercial marketing and applies them to social issues.

Key takeaways

Social marketing belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Social marketing to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Social marketing from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Social marketing is a marketing approach which focuses on influencing behavior with the primary goal of achieving the common good. It utilizes the elements of commercial marketing and applies them to social issues. However, to see social marketing as only the use of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals is an oversimplified view. Social marketing has existed for some time but has only started becoming a common term in recent decades. It was originally done using newspapers and billboards and has adapted to the modern world in many of the same ways commercial marketing has. The most common use of social marketing in today's society is through social media.

Aims and origin Traditional commercial marketing aims are primarily financial, though they can have positive social effects as well. In the context of public health, social marketing would promote general health, raise awareness and induce changes in behavior. Social marketing is described as having "two parents". The "social parent" uses social science and social policy approaches. The "marketing parent" uses commercial and public sector marketing approaches. Social marketing has started to encompass a broader range of focus in recent years and now goes beyond influencing individual behavior. It promotes socio-cultural and structural change relevant to social issues. Consequently, social marketing scholars are beginning to advocate for a broader definition of social marketing: "Social marketing is the application of marketing principles to enable individual and collective ideas and actions in the pursuit of effective, efficient, equitable, fair and sustained social transformation". The new emphasis gives equal weight to the effects (efficiency and effectiveness) and the process (equity, fairness and sustainability) of social marketing programs. Together with a new social marketing definition that focuses on social transformation, there is also an argument that "a systems approach is needed if social marketing is to address the increasingly complex and dynamic social issues facing contemporary societies"

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Social marketing

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Social marketing claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Social marketing before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Social marketing ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Social marketing

In research: Social marketing appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Social marketing in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Social marketing is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Applied psychology, Health promotion, Types of marketing, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Social marketing outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Social marketing in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Social marketing means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Social marketing out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Social marketing in simple terms?

Why does Social marketing matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Social marketing?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Social marketing.