Success in Social Marketing

Book excerpt: Social marketing, a field first introduced by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in a pioneering article in the Journal of Marketing in 1971, uses marketing concepts to influence the behaviors of individuals and communities for the greater social good. Now, as the discipline celebrates its 50th anniversary, Success in Social Marketing provides an accessible and comprehensive guide to the field, introducing stories from around the world including public health, injury prevention, environmental protection, community engagement, financial well-being, and education. The 100 case examples contained in this book, each about two pages in length, follow an outline that includes key components of a campaign: Wicked Problem, Purpose & Focus, Priority Audience, Desired Behavior, Audience Insights, Marketing Intervention Mix, and Results. This common structure provides the reader with a clear sense of how success in social marketing may best be achieved in a wide variety of disciplinary and national contexts. Success in Social Marketing is intended to fill a gap in the market as well as inform and inspire students and practitioners through 100 easily digestible case studies. Issues addressed include public health (opioid use, mental health, COVID-19) , injury prevention (gun violence, youth suicide, texting while driving), environmental protection (wildfires, bicycle transportation in urban areas, food waste), community engagement (homelessness, racially motivated violence, voting) financial wellbeing (microfinance, savings, employment), and educational achievement (early childhood education, college applications, female participation in STEM programs), to name but a few. This book is recommended reading for students enrolled in public administration, public health, environmental studies, as well as policymakers interested in ways social marketing may help influence their constituent behaviors for individual, as well as social, good.