1. SOCIAL ISSUES IN MARKETING
MEANING
Social Marketing, also sometimes called Health Marketing or Behavior Change Communication,
came about from applying general marketing theories or concepts to health and social issues.
Instead of marketing products or services, the campaign markets health and social
behavior/lifestyle etc.
DEFINATION
Alan Andresen, one of the leading thinkers on Social Issues Marketing, defines the practice this
way in his book Marketing Social Change: “Changing Behavior to Promote Health, Social
Development and the Environment”.
FEATURES
1. The ultimate objective of social marketing is to benefit target individuals or society and
not the marketer. This distinguishes it from commercial marketing but makes it similar to
nonprofit marketing. It differs from the latter, however, in that it is precisely focused on directly
improving welfare. Thus, when we are talking about social marketing, we are not talking about
fundraising, lobbying (except removing restrictions on social marketing), or the election of
political candidates.
2. The basic means of achieving improved welfare is through influencing behavior, in most
cases bringing about a change in behavior. Social marketers are in the behavior business....
Influencing behavior is the bottom line in socal settings just as much as it is in private settings.
HUL will measure its marketing success in India on the basis of sales and market share, both
behavioral measures. While often very long in coming, behavioral change is central. All other
measures of success are only interim measures that offer encouragement on the path toward the
ultimate bottom line.
3. The target audience has the primary role in the social marketing process. First-rate
social marketing is always totally centered on the target customer. And 'customer' is the best
word to use; although 'client' and 'target audience member' can be used more or less
interchangeably with it, they are not as effective in calling attention to the active role the target
person plays in the process. After all, there is no behavioral influence until the person to be
influenced takes an action, and in social marketing this involves something just as concrete as
buying an airplane ticket or a soft drink. The best social marketers realize instinctively that the
'customer' holds the key to success. It is the customer who must ultimately undertake the action
the marketer is promoting. And so everything a good social marketer does starts with the
customer's perspective. As we shall see, this makes all the difference between programs that
ought to work and programs that really do."

2. ELEMENTS
The primary focus is on the consumer--on learning what people want and need rather than trying
to persuade them to buy what we happen to be producing. Marketing talks to the consumer, not
about the product. The planning process takes this consumer focus into account by addressing
the elements of the "marketing mix." This refers to decisions about:-
1) The conception of a Product
2) Price
3) Distribution (Place)
4) Promotion.
These are often called the "Four Ps" of marketing. Social marketing also adds a few more "P's."
At the end is an example of the marketing mix.
Product
The social marketing "product" is not necessarily a physical offering. A continuum of products
exists, ranging from tangible, physical products (e.g., condoms), to services (e.g., medical
exams), practices (e.g., breastfeeding, ORT or eating a heart-healthy diet) and finally, more
intangible ideas (e.g., environmental protection). In order to have a viable product, people must
first perceive that they have a genuine problem, and that the product offering is a good solution
for that problem. The role of research here is to discover the consumers' perceptions of the
problem and the product, and to determine how important they feel it is to take action against the
problem.
Price
"Price" refers to what the consumer must do in order to obtain the social marketing product. This
cost may be monetary, or it may instead require the consumer to give up intangibles, such as
time or effort, or to risk embarrassment and disapproval. If the costs outweigh the benefits for an
individual, the perceived value of the offering will be low and it will be unlikely to be adopted.
However, if the benefits are perceived as greater than their costs, chances of trial and adoption of
the product is much greater.
In setting the price, particularly for a physical product, such as contraceptives, there are many
issues to consider. If the product is priced too low, or provided free of charge, the consumer may
perceive it as being low in quality. On the other hand, if the price is too high, some will not be
able to afford it. Social marketers must balance these considerations, and often end up charging
at least a nominal fee to increase perceptions of quality and to confer a sense of "dignity" to the
transaction. These perceptions of costs and benefits can be determined through research, and
used in positioning the product.

3. Place
"Place" describes the way that the product reaches the consumer. For a tangible product, this
refers to the distribution system--including the warehouse, trucks, sales force, retail outlets where
it is sold, or places where it is given out for free. For an intangible product, place is less clear-
cut, but refers to decisions about the channels through which consumers are reached with
information or training. This may include doctors' offices, shopping malls, mass media vehicles
or in-home demonstrations. Another element of place is deciding how to ensure accessibility of
the offering and quality of the service delivery. By determining the activities and habits of the
target audience, as well as their experience and satisfaction with the existing delivery system,
researchers can pinpoint the most ideal means of distribution for the offering.
Promotion
Finally, the last "P" is promotion. Because of its visibility, this element is often mistakenly
thought of as comprising the whole of social marketing. However, as can be seen by the previous
discussion, it is only one piece. Promotion consists of the integrated use of advertising, public
relations, promotions, media advocacy, personal selling and entertainment vehicles. The focus is
on creating and sustaining demand for the product. Public service announcements or paid ads are
one way, but there are other methods such as coupons, media events, editorials, "Tupperware"-
style parties or in-store displays. Research is crucial to determine the most effective and efficient
vehicles to reach the target audience and increase demand. The primary research findings
themselves can also be used to gain publicity for the program at media events and in news
stories.
Additional Social Marketing "P's"
Publics--Social marketers often have many different audiences that their program has to address
in order to be successful. "Publics" refers to both the external and internal groups involved in the
program. External publics include the target audience, secondary audiences, policymakers, and
gatekeepers, while the internal publics are those who are involved in some way with either
approval or implementation of the program.
Partnership--Social and health issues are often so complex that one agency can't make a dent by
itself. You need to team up with other organizations in the community to really be effective. You
need to figure out which organizations have similar goals to yours--not necessarily the same
goals--and identify ways you can work together.
Policy--Social marketing programs can do well in motivating individual behavior change, but
that is difficult to sustain unless the environment they're in supports that change for the long run.
Often, policy change is needed, and media advocacy programs can be an effective complement
to a social marketing program.

4. Purse Strings--Most organizations that develop social marketing programs operate through
funds provided by sources such as foundations, governmental grants or donations. This adds
another dimension to the strategy development-namely, where will you get the money to create
your program? How will you do it? Etc.
SOCIAL ISSUES IN MARKETING
1) Exploiting Social Paradigms: In the hopes of making a fast buck, marketers often resort
to exploiting social paradigms typical to certain areas. In India, for example, a large
multinational corporation ran an ad campaign that depicted a young woman who because
of her dark facial complexion was unable to find jobs. But as the ad showed, as soon as
the woman started using the facial whiteness cream manufactured by the corporation, she
got the job of her choice.
2) Surrogate Advertisements: In India alcohol and cigarette advertisements were banned
outright some years back. However, alcohol and cigarette companies alike are using the
avenue of surrogate advertisements to press forward their case. For the viewer though,
the 'subtle' pointer towards the real deal is enough as the surrogate advertisements leave
no ambiguity in their minds. For eg : KingFisher mineral water bottles.
3) Predatory Pricing: In developing nations where the bulk of the populace is still
employed in small and medium enterprises, the use of predatory pricing by large
multinational corporations in order to wipe out competition In India, a related issue is the
entry of western discount stores that might eventually threaten the existence of millions
of people employed in traditional mom-and-pop stores.
4) False and Misleading Advertisements: Advertisements that issue false and downright
disingenuous advertisements. While in itself this is an important social issue . Nowadays,
newspaper columns are rife with advertisements which blatantly compare features of
brands with those of their competitors. Citing the opinion of 'experts', these
advertisements claim their brands to be quantitatively and qualitatively better than those
of their rivals. In India a leading car manufacturer had to recall its ad campaign when it
incorrectly stated that one of its car models was superior to that of its competitor's.
5) Post Purchase Dissonance: What you see is not often what you get Since very often
what companies claim their products or services deliver is not what the consumers
actually get, the issue of post purchase dissonance arises. There are two more non-
contrasting viewpoints on this issue. One states the typical examples of Tele-Shopping
Networks (TSN) and the internet. Since there is no element of tangibility, the consumer
would typically end up getting an end product which he/she didn't literally ask for.The
other viewpoint states that such establishments would be punished by market forces since
in today's world the consumer is undoubtedly the king. But in associating such concerns
to the game play of market forces, the larger ethical issue is unfortunately trivialized.
Women and children unfortunately end up being cast as stereotypes in ad campaigns
the world over. Often, the role of women in business or professional life is depicted as a
masculine caricature, a denial of the specific gifts of feminine insight, compassion, and
understanding. In India, which has traditionally been a patriarchal society, tremendous
cultural changes have been brought in with the advent of cable television and the
exposure to western content. Urban women are enjoying more freedom than they've had
before. Yet, promotional campaigns of certain firms still show the Indian woman of yore-

5. a fallback to a time when women did not enjoy the freedoms they have today. The Über
kid In India, objections have been raised against advertisements that showed mothers
benchmarking their children to the so called 'super-kid'- one who excels in studies and
sports alike simply because he consumes a particular health drink.
6) Intrusive Promotions: A number of companies offer a plethora of freebies in terms of
services and add-ons, however all these come with the proverbial strings attached. These
are particularly true for telecom and internet services related companies. Mobile network
providers in India for example are notorious for literally bombarding the users with
promotional text messages. Many a times these companies share customer data with other
companies without the explicit permission of the customers themselves. The issue at hand
is such measures compromise the confidentiality of company-client relationships and
trivialize the privacy concerns of the customers.
7) Copyright, trademark violations: Copyright and trademark violations are ubiquitous
throughout the developing world. One of the major grouses of multinational corporations
in countries like China and India is the lack of a robust legal framework that harshly
penalizes violators. Data piracy is a major concern in South East nations and millions of
illegal compact discs are made in such countries which cost software, music and movie
companies billions of dollars.
8) The Ethical issue of Political marketing: Political advertising can support and assist the
working of the democratic process, but it also can obstruct it. This happens when, for
example, the costs of advertising limit political competition to wealthy candidates or
groups, or require that office-seekers compromise their integrity and independence by
over-dependence on special interests for funds. Such obstruction of the democratic
process also happens when, instead of being a vehicle for honest expositions of
candidates' views and records, political advertising seeks to distort the views and records
of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when advertising appeals
more to people's emotions and base instincts-to selfishness, bias and hostility toward
others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like- rather than to a reasoned sense of
justice and the good of all
INTERNET RELATED MARKETING ISSUES
websites that automatically track and retain customer contact and information), quality of
the goods delivered, disclosure and reliability of information, sources of goods, Internet
economics vs. traditional economics, impacts of global Internet business, employment
through the net (local and global telecommuting), web advertising, competition on the
Internet (hacking into data, falsification of data), public information and financial
disclosure (investor relations on the Internet), and others.
1) The Small Print: The major ethical issues facing business over the internet are the ones
regarding the small print These issues include:
A) Usage of obfuscating and vague language
B) The policy may be hard to find or difficult to read and understand.
C) It may not contain all the disclosures
D) May fail to provide a contact address or procedures for dealing with complaints,
corrections, or conflict resolution

6. E) It may not have clear access requirements or procedures for verifying a valid
requester before granting access
F) May not be linked to or displayed on every page where information is collected.
2) World Wide Web versus the Wild Wild Web: To many, the utopian concept the
internet is that of a valueless zone-a free network that is outside the purview of human
control and restrain. But we feel that line of reasoning is flawed. The internet is the
progeny of civil society. This means that the World Wide Web is not the wild wild Web,
but instead a place where values in the broadest sense should take a part in shaping
content and services. This is recognition that the Internet is not something apart from
civil society, but increasingly a fundamental component of it.
3) Ownership and Responsibility: The internet is largely a boundary less network. The
involvement in content of companies hosting information is highly debatable. There are
two sides to the proverbial coin: The Internet as a medium supports all kind of contents.
By espousing the principle of allowing anyone to post any material on the net as a means
of furthering information exchange is extended by many as the reason of absolving the
hosts of complicity of posting the material. In India, a major debate between the erudite
arose when the CEO of the) of ebay.com was arrested over charges of allowing the
exchange of video clips showing explicit scenes. The sympathizers of the site owners
cited the fact that the websites are merely enabling people to exchange data over a
common platform. What information is exchanged does not fall under the purview of the
responsibilities of the website managers. The opposing view was the hosts cannot turn a
blind eye to the activities being carried out through the medium of their site. We feel
that although, given the nature of the Internet, they cannot possibly be expected to pre-
check content, once they receive a notification or a complaint about something they are
carrying or hosting, they have to take a view. Thus if one is attempting to bring a social
&ethical sense to the Internet in any particular instance, it is essential to know who has
the control and the responsibility.