Page 27 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

20 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

views of the marketing field. For example, the American Marketing
Association definition of marketing in 1985 stated, “Marketing is the proc-
ess of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and dis-
tribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational objectives” (Meinert, Vitell, & Reich, 1994).
Kotler sought to broaden the definition in his first attempt at a textbook
for the field with the assistance of his co-author, Eduardo Roberto. They pro-
posed that the field be conceived as carrying out social change campaigns—
“an organizational effort by one group (the change agent) which intends to
persuade others (the target adopters) to accept, modify, or abandon certain
ideas, attitudes, practices and behaviors” (Kotler & Roberto, 1989, p. 6). This
definition remained basically consistent with the original Kotler/Levy defini-
tion, which was (unintentionally) the source of the problem.
While various authors continued to emphasize the role of exchange, it
became clear that the end result of the “marketing” of ideas could be
merely acceptance of those ideas. This concept presented three problems.
First, this was what “health communicators/health educators” were doing.
Second, it was difficult to define what was being exchanged when an idea
was accepted. Third, if the ideas did not lead to action, one could reason-
ably argue that neither the individual nor society was better off.
This was the issue squarely addressed in a 1994 article in the Journal of
Public Policy and Marketing entitled “Social Marketing: Its Definition and
Domain” (Andreasen, 1994). Here, the goal was to set forth the basic tenet
that for social outcomes to be achieved through social marketing at the
individual, group, national, or world level, behavior has to be influenced.
This means that there must be a definite exchange. The proposed defini-
tion was “Social Marketing is the application of commercial marketing
concepts and tools to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences
to improve their lives or the society of which they are a part” (p. 110).
The definition is careful not to state that behavior has to actually change.
This distinction was important because a number of social marketing cam-
paigns were being designed or planned to keep target audiences from act-
ing. These included campaigns about smoking, littering, physical abuse,
and various discriminatory actions, among others.
This definition emerged from careful rethinking of what constituted a
“marketing approach” in the private sector (from which social marketers
borrowed). What marked success and what was failure? A moment’s
thought revealed that the sine qua non of commercial marketing is creating
transactions—making sales, building customer loyalty, and so forth.
Failure occurs when marketers do not—in Sergio Zyman’s terms—“move
the needle” (Zyman, 2000). Successful advertising campaigns that do not