Page 31 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

24 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

An additional proposition emphasized in this article is that it should be
transparently clear that the ultimate objective of any kind of marketing is
behavior. One implication of this proposition is that researchers in both
commercial and social fields ought to study types of behavior and what
propels and inhibits them—independent of the subject matter and objec-
tive of such behavior. For example, one can study

• starting a behavior, such as taking up golf or adopting a poor African family;
• switching a behavior, such as buying a new car brand or becoming a vegetar-
ian; or
• stopping a behavior, such as not buying store brands or giving up smoking.

Outer Limits

A final definitional challenge remains unresolved in the many attempts to
define the discipline: What constitutes the outer limit of social marketing’s
realm of application and its tools? For example, should it be independent
of one’s evaluation of the social desirability of a sought-after social out-
come? Consider these questions:

• Is invading a country a social marketing campaign?
• Is recruiting soldiers for Al Qaeda social marketing?
• Is getting someone to join a church, synagogue, or mosque social marketing?
• Is psychoanalysis a social marketing tool if the goal is to cure anorexic behavior?
• Are “advice givers” of various kinds (e.g., therapists, psychics, marriage counselors)
social marketers if their clients want to stop or change an undesirable behavior?
• Is lying an acceptable social marketing tool? How about coercion or threats if
they are effective and the behavior in question is not good for the individual
and/or society?
Clearly, despite its long history, the field of social marketing still has
many unresolved—but important—definitional issues before it. Pursuing
such issues is not simply an intellectual exercise but one that can sharpen
its image and improve its outcomes.

References

Alderson, W. (1959). Marketing behavior and executive action. Homewood, IL:
Richard D. Irwin.
Andreasen A. R. (1993). Presidential address: A social marketing research agenda
for consumer behavior researchers. In M. Rothschild & L. McAlister (Eds.),
Advances in consumer research: Vol. 20 (pp. 1–5). Duluth, MN: Association for
Consumer Research.