What is social marketing?
A previous post on this topic worried that social marketing was stealing PR's shoes.
But I perhaps didn't spend enough time explaining what social marketing is perceived to be.
Here's a website explaining how it is seen in the UK, and especially in health, where it has been applied most.
It's marketing 'alongside other concepts and techniques' to achieve specific social goals for a social good.'
It all sounds very like PR to me, so I guess where PR goes wrong is that its definition is always about communication 'between an organisation and its publics' - with the emphasis on the 'organisation'. When you use all the same tools and techniques but to get people to do something that's just good for themselves or society, and isn't about reputation of the organisation, it's not PR any more.
4 comments:
I'm concerned about this notion of "social marketing" having some inherent virtue.
It is still persuasion on the basis that someone (politicians, charities, whoever) has decided that their viewpoint is best and others must adhere to that.
It may well be that the aims could be universally agreed as beneficial - such as preventing cot death, but in other cases, the "social good" is more questionable.
Although not seeking to manage reputation as per most definitions of public relations, the same concepts and techniques are bing used for social engineering purposes. As such they are as one-sided as any form of commercial marketing.
This is interesting in the case of climate control issues. There are campaigns targeting children on the issue which are as one sided as anything that McDonalds has ever produced. But because those in power deem the topic to be socially acceptable, then such propaganda is directed at the same children who are said to be too young to make informed commercial decisions.
Social marketing sounds like a way of dressing up good old fashioned public information campaigns, except today the propaganda is underpinned by persuasive techniques, not simply presenting factual information.
Thank you Heather for this really thoughtful post, which puts into words some of the fluff floating in the back of my head. I've seen some other work on social marketing which is much more open with its subjects about the benefits to social marketers of achieving their targets, and I think that's a more honest reflection of the win:win nature of what happens when people follow the advice of things such as health campaigns. The leaflet featured on the page I linked to is clearly written for health professionals reluctant to get involved in murky marketing.
It is too easy to assume that social marketing is a 'social good' and therefore its actions are not to be questioned. Which could weaken its effectiveness. Maybe social marketing needs a bit more PR thinking???
I'm a PR person, who finds social marketing techniques compatible with some of my communication goals. I don't think the social marketing approach works in every type of situation, but it is effective when promoting a positive behavior change and in turn it does enhance the image of my employer. It shows that we are proactive in the community and instead of telling people what they should do; we are helping them be green by giving them tools and resources to do it.
Information campaigns have their place, but using persuasion and social marketing take it to the next level. When you ask people about an environmental issue, they are all for it, but they don’t practice it in his/her own lives.
I don’t find an ethical problem with promoting something that is good for me, good for my customers, and good for the environment. I think when it is all said and done, every type of communication is persuasive and the social marketing approach is just more open about it.
Check out this site that focuses on social marketing for environmental issues: www.cbsm.com
Thank you. Get a whole load of PR people in a room (might be the same for social marketing) and they won't necessarily agree where the job boundaries are. Is it too simplistic to read from this that you think PR is largely seen as information and social marketing a bit more persuasive?
I completely agree that there are plenty of times a PR person can hold their head up high and be proud of what they do. Talking up good green PR was one of the reasons this blog started.
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